Node.js Hacker News API

A Node.js library for seamless integration with Algolia's kickass Hacker News API.

Installation

npm install hacker-news-api

Examples

Almost all methods are chainable, with flexible ordering. Methods are executed (as in HTTP requests are made) once a callback function is passed (not all methods accept a callback). Thus, this will always be the last method in the chain.

var hn = require('hacker-news-api');

// Get recent ask_hn posts, polls, and comments
hn.ask_hn().poll().comment().recent(function (error, data) {
  if (error) throw error;
  console.log(data);
});

// Get pg's top story and show_hn posts
hn.author('pg').story().show_hn().top(function (error, data) {
  if (error) throw error;
  console.log(data);
});

// Search for comments and storys containing 'js' before the past week
hn.comment().story().search('js').before('past_week', function (error, data) {
  if (error) throw error;
  console.log(data);
});

Chainable Methods

Tags (OR'ed)

These tags are logically OR'ed when chained.

• ask_hn()
• comment()
• poll()
• pollopt()
• show_hn()
• story()

Tags (AND'ed)

These tags are logically AND'ed when chained.

• author(username)
• story(id)

Filters

These methods take an optional callback function.

• recent(cb)
• top(cb)

Time

These methods take an optional callback function.

• before(marker, cb)
• since(marker, cb)

The following are valid inputs for the marker parameter:

• 'past_24h'
• 'past_week'
• 'past_month'
• 'forever'

Search

This method takes an optional callback function.

• search(query, cb)

Settings

• hitsPerPage(n)
  • n must be an integer and 1 <= n <= 1000
  • Default is 1000
  • This setting is persistant from one request another
• page(n)
  • n must be an integer and 0 <= n

Non-chainable

By definition these methods are not chainable.

• item(id, cb)
  • Get specific item
• user(username, cb)
  • Get user profile

API Notes

Keep in mind that Algolia has a rate limit of 10,000 requests per hour from a single IP. Also, requests have a max of a 1000 hits (results). By default, hitsPerPage is to this max (it is configurable however). So for example, author().comment().since() called with past_month will return the first 1000 posts within the last month from the author (user) in question, but there could easily be more than that. You can check this via nbHits in the returned JSON, the total number of hits for the query.