GuardianClient.NET

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A modern, comprehensive .NET client library for The Guardian's Content API. Provides strongly-typed models, flexible search options, and simple methods for searching Guardian articles with full API feature support.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Complete Content Search - Full Guardian Content API search with all parameters
• 🏷️ Strongly Typed - Type-safe enums for fields, tags, elements, and references
• 🎯 Comprehensive Filtering - Search by section, tags, date ranges, production office, and more
• 📑 Rich Content Options - Include fields, tags, media elements, blocks, and references
• 🔧 Interface-Based Design - Easy mocking and dependency injection with IGuardianApiClient
• 📦 HttpClientFactory Ready - Proper HttpClient lifecycle management
• ⚡ Modern Async - Full async/await patterns with cancellation support
• 🎨 Clean API - Organized option classes for maintainable code

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

dotnet add package GuardianClient.NET

Setup with Dependency Injection (Recommended)

// Program.cs or Startup.cs
builder.Services.AddGuardianApiClient("your-api-key");

Basic Usage

public class NewsService
{
    private readonly IGuardianApiClient _client;

    public NewsService(IGuardianApiClient client)
    {
        _client = client;
    }

    public async Task<ContentSearchResponse?> GetLatestTechNews()
    {
        return await _client.SearchAsync(new GuardianApiContentSearchOptions
        {
            Query = "artificial intelligence",
            FilterOptions = new GuardianApiContentFilterOptions
            {
                Section = "technology"
            },
            PageOptions = new GuardianApiContentPageOptions 
            { 
                PageSize = 10 
            }
        });
    }
}

🔧 Advanced Usage

Comprehensive Search with All Options

var results = await client.SearchAsync(new GuardianApiContentSearchOptions
{
    // Search terms with boolean operators
    Query = "climate change AND (policy OR legislation)",
    QueryFields = ["body", "headline"],
    
    // Filtering options
    FilterOptions = new GuardianApiContentFilterOptions
    {
        Section = "environment",
        Tag = "climate-change",
        Language = "en"
    },
    
    // Date filtering  
    DateOptions = new GuardianApiContentDateOptions
    {
        FromDate = new DateOnly(2023, 1, 1),
        UseDate = "published"
    },
    
    // Pagination
    PageOptions = new GuardianApiContentPageOptions
    {
        Page = 1,
        PageSize = 20
    },
    
    // Ordering
    OrderOptions = new GuardianApiContentOrderOptions
    {
        OrderBy = GuardianApiContentOrderBy.Relevance,
        OrderDate = GuardianApiContentOrderDate.Published
    },
    
    // Additional content
    AdditionalInformationOptions = new GuardianApiContentAdditionalInformationOptions
    {
        ShowFields = [
            GuardianApiContentShowFieldsOption.Headline,
            GuardianApiContentShowFieldsOption.Body,
            GuardianApiContentShowFieldsOption.Thumbnail
        ],
        ShowTags = [
            GuardianApiContentShowTagsOption.Keyword,
            GuardianApiContentShowTagsOption.Tone
        ],
        ShowElements = [GuardianApiContentShowElementsOption.Image]
    }
});

Getting Individual Articles

// Get a specific article by ID
var article = await client.GetItemAsync("world/2023/oct/15/climate-summit-agreement",
    new GuardianApiContentAdditionalInformationOptions
    {
        ShowFields = [
            GuardianApiContentShowFieldsOption.Body,
            GuardianApiContentShowFieldsOption.Byline
        ],
        ShowTags = [GuardianApiContentShowTagsOption.All]
    });

// Access the rich content
Console.WriteLine(article.Content.WebTitle);
Console.WriteLine(article.Content.Fields.Body); // Full HTML content
Console.WriteLine($"Author: {article.Content.Fields.Byline}");

Manual Setup (without DI)

using var client = new GuardianApiClient("your-api-key");
var results = await client.SearchAsync(new GuardianApiContentSearchOptions 
{
    Query = "sports",
    PageOptions = new GuardianApiContentPageOptions { PageSize = 5 }
});

foreach (var article in results.Results)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{article.WebTitle} - {article.WebPublicationDate}");
}

🔑 Getting an API Key

1. Visit The Guardian Open Platform
2. Sign up for a free developer account
3. Generate your API key
4. Store it securely (use User Secrets for development)

🏗️ Available Options

Filter Options

• Section: Filter by Guardian sections (e.g., "politics", "sport", "culture")
• Tags: Filter by content tags with boolean operators
• Date Range: Filter by publication date with flexible date types
• Language: Filter by content language (ISO codes)
• Production Office: Filter by Guardian production offices
• Star Rating: Filter by review ratings (1-5)

Additional Content Options

• ShowFields: Include extra fields like body content, thumbnails, bylines
• ShowTags: Include metadata tags (keywords, contributors, tone)
• ShowElements: Include media elements (images, videos, audio)
• ShowReferences: Include reference data (ISBNs, IMDB IDs, etc.)
• ShowBlocks: Include content blocks (useful for live blogs)

Ordering Options

• OrderBy: Sort by newest, oldest, or relevance
• OrderDate: Choose which date to use for sorting

📊 Current Status

✅ Fully Implemented:

• Complete Content API search with all parameters
• Individual article retrieval
• Strongly-typed models and enums for all options
• Advanced filtering, pagination, and sorting
• Rich content enhancement options
• Interface-based design for easy testing
• Comprehensive documentation and examples

🎯 Feature Complete: This library now supports the full Guardian Content API specification.

🧪 Testing

The library includes comprehensive test coverage:

# Run all tests
dotnet test

# Run with detailed output
dotnet test --logger "console;verbosity=detailed"

Tests require a Guardian API key stored in user secrets:

dotnet user-secrets set "GuardianApiKey" "your-api-key-here"

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

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This is an unofficial library and is not affiliated with The Guardian.