In this article we are going to talk about
how to use the MOZ API known as the Mozscape API using code in C #
. To use Mozscape API of MOZ as always we will need some
basic knowledge of the HTTP protocol
if we want to understand the code in CSharp (C #).
The purpose of this code example in C # is to
obtain the parameters DA (Domain Athority) and PA (Page Authority)
. If you don't know what these two terms mean, you can read the following article where I describe
what is Domain Authority and Page Authority
.
The first thing we will need is to register for free on the
MOZ
website and get the API data
"Access ID"
and
"Secret Key"
. The
"Secret Key"
must be generated and takes a few minutes to be valid, so we will have to wait a while before using it.
With these two values "‹"‹we get access to the MOZ API (Mozscape) for free, but the functionality is reduced to obtaining a few parameters, but it is enough to get the DA and PA values. We can see a complete list of what values "‹"‹we can obtain with the free API and which with the payment API in the link
http://apiwiki.moz.com/url-metrics#cols
The previous link will also help us to obtain the
"Bit flags"
which is nothing more than a number with which a metric is identified, for example the flag bit of the DA metric is
68719476736
and the flag bit of the PA metric is
34359738368
.
Use MOZscape API of MOZ with C #
Once we have all the necessary data we have talked about before we move on to the programming section in C #.
The HTTP protocol with the GET method is used to make the request to the Mozscape API
.
An example of the request URL would be:
http://lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape/url-metrics/www.vozidea.com?Cols=68719476736&AccessID=member-ace8g6ka76&Expires=1389795965&Signature=AJzro%2YUw%2Fc6J8xOP35cVRmJVxMc%3D
We will analyze all the elements of the URL one by one and then we will talk one by one about those who need some kind of explanation:
-
Host name and resource
:
http://lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape
/
-
Metric set definition
:
url-metrics
-
URL under study
:
www.vozidea.com
-
Metric / s we want to obtain
:
Cols= 68719476736
-
Time and exact date at which our API request expires
:
Expires=1389795965
-
Authentication signature
:
Signature=AJzro%2YUw%2Fc6J8xOP35cVRmJVxMc%3D
Host Name and Resource
As for the host name, only to say that we can use both the HTTP version and the HTTPS version, I will use the HTTP version in the code.
Metric set definition
As for the set of metrics we will use
"url-metrics"
, but there is more and you can find them in the following link:
http://apiwiki.moz.com/categories/api-reference
URL under study
It is the URL we want to analyze, in the example it is the domain
www.vozidea.com
.
Metric / s we want to get
In this parameter we are going to stop a little more since it is important. This is the
Cols
parameter in the example and whose value is a number, which consists of a flag bit (in this case it is the flag bit of the DA).
The point is that I also want to obtain the PA so that the API returns the DA and the PA I have to give the parameter
Cols
the value of the sum of the bit flags of DA (whose flag bit is 68719476736) and PA (whose bit flag is 34359738368) which would be:
Cols=103079215104
If I needed to obtain more metrics I would add their flag bit values
and give the value of the sum to the
Cols
parameter.
Time and exact date at which our API request expires
This is the
Expires
parameter, whose value is: total seconds elapsed from the UNIX origin date (January 1, 1970) to the present time + 300 seconds.
This value indicates a future date and time, specifically 300 seconds (5 minutes) from the future. In other words,
every request we make to the API will expire after 5 minutes
.
I have set the value of 5 minutes because I recommended it in the API documentation but if you need a higher value you can modify it in the code. To create the
Expires
parameter in the code in C #, the
CreateExpiryTimestamp()
function is
CreateExpiryTimestamp()
.
Authentication signature
It is the most complex parameter to obtain and consists of a signature of authenticity.
This confirms to the Mozscape API that we are authorized to use the API
.
To sign the request we use the
Signature
parameter that consists of encoding a message with the
HMAC-SHA1
algorithm. This message consists of the
Access ID
, line break (represented by the
\n
character pair) and the
Expires
parameter. We encode this message with the
HMAC-SHA1
algorithm and use the
Secret Key
as the coding
Secret Key
.
Make the HTTP request to the Mozscape API
Recall that all the data that are part of the URL of the request
if there are special characters in the value of any parameter must be encoded with URLEncode
, so the
Uri.EscapeDataString()
function is
Uri.EscapeDataString()
in the code in C #.
Finally we make the HTTP request to the URL that we have formed with the previous parameters and the API will return a response in JSON format that can be for example:
{"pda":14.931787896224872,"upa":25.93463975359981}
In this answer
"pda"
and
"upa"
are the values "‹"‹of the DA and PA of www.vozidea.com.
And we have everything ready to
download the project in C #
and start experimenting.
If you liked the article on
how to use Mozscape API of MOZ with C #
or if you have doubts do not hesitate to comment.
