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I'm trying to build a web application that uses data off of google trends and/or google insight, but I've run into a bit of a road block. Google Trends only lets you download the csv file if you are logged in on a valid google account. Thus, I can't have my web application download and parse them.

Which lead me to start looking into OAuth http://code.google.com/apis/accounts/docs/OAuth.html, but I'm a bit overwhelmed.

Trying to use google trends url with http://googlecodesamples.com/oauth_playground/ generates an invalid scope error for the google trends url.

Can I not use Oauth to access these services? I've done a bunch of searching, but haven't found any really solid examples(at least ones that I can understand) of how to properly use this. Is there a better way to do this?

Anyone help me out on this?

Joe Doyle
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user603682
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2 Answers2

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As of 4/30/2013 this works. Note that you hit their quota pretty fast doing this method.

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using (var client = new WebClient())
        {
            var terms = new List<string>() {"debt", "profit", "euro", "dollar", "financial", "economy", "federal reserve", "earnings", "fed", "consumer spending" , "employment", "unemployment", "jobs" };
            var username = "your username";
            var password = "password";

            var response = client.DownloadString(string.Format("https://www.google.com/accounts/ClientLogin?accountType=GOOGLE&Email={0}&Passwd={1}&service=trendspro&source=test-test-v1", username, password));

            // The SID is the first line in the response
            // The Auth line
            var auth = response.Split('\n')[2];
            client.Headers.Add("Authorization", "GoogleLogin " + auth);

            int i = 1;
            while (terms.Count > 0)
            {
                // google limits 5 sets of terms per request
                var arr = terms.Take(5).ToArray();
                terms = terms.Skip(5).ToList();

                var joined = string.Join("%2C%20", arr);
                byte[] csv = client.DownloadData(string.Format("http://www.google.com/trends/trendsReport?hl=en-US&q={0}&cmpt=q&content=1&export=1", joined));

                // TODO: do something with the downloaded csv file:
                Console.WriteLine(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(csv));
                File.WriteAllBytes(string.Format("report{0}.csv", i), csv);
                i++;
            }

        }
    }
user1883833
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I'm trying to achieve the same task in a different coding language.

In the line: client.Headers.Add("Authorization", "GoogleLogin " + auth); does the "+" sign simply concatenate the two strings "GoogleLogin " and "Auth=*****" ?

Looks like the authorisation method has changed again in the last couple of months if my implementation is correct :(

adamchapman
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