# Overview

## Table of Contents

- [CLI Microlink API example](#cli-microlink-api-example)
- [cURL Microlink API example](#curl-microlink-api-example)
- [JavaScript Microlink API example](#javascript-microlink-api-example)
- [Python Microlink API example](#python-microlink-api-example)
- [Ruby Microlink API example](#ruby-microlink-api-example)
- [PHP Microlink API example](#php-microlink-api-example)
- [Golang Microlink API example](#golang-microlink-api-example)

---

Microlink API provides a powerful API for automating any browser action. The [Microlink API overview](https://microlink.io/api) shows every product it covers, with plans and pricing.

The following examples show how to use the Microlink API with CLI, cURL, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP & Golang, targeting 'https://github.com/microlinkhq' URL:

### CLI Microlink API example

```bash
microlink https://github.com/microlinkhq
```

### cURL Microlink API example

```bash
curl -G "https://api.microlink.io" \
  -d "url=https://github.com/microlinkhq"
```

### JavaScript Microlink API example

```javascript
import createClient from 'microlink.io'

const microlink = createClient()

const data = await microlink.metadata('https://github.com/microlinkhq')
```

### Python Microlink API example

```python
import requests

url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

querystring = {
    "url": "https://github.com/microlinkhq"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=querystring)

print(response.json())
```

### Ruby Microlink API example

```ruby
require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

base_url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

params = {
  url: "https://github.com/microlinkhq"
}

uri = URI(base_url)
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(params)

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
response = http.request(request)

puts response.body
```

### PHP Microlink API example

```php
<?php

$baseUrl = "https://api.microlink.io/";

$params = [
    "url" => "https://github.com/microlinkhq"
];

$query = http_build_query($params);
$url = $baseUrl . '?' . $query;

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => $url,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET"
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
    echo "cURL Error #: " . $err;
} else {
    echo $response;
}
```

### Golang Microlink API example

```
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "net/url"
    "io"
)

func main() {
    baseURL := "https://api.microlink.io"

    u, err := url.Parse(baseURL)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    q := u.Query()
    q.Set("url", "https://github.com/microlinkhq")
    u.RawQuery = q.Encode()

    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", u.String(), nil)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(string(body))
}
```

```javascript
importcreateClientfrom'microlink.io'

constmicrolink=createClient()

constdata=awaitmicrolink.metadata('https://github.com/microlinkhq')
```

You can hit the API directly from your browser or any environment that allows you to perform a simple HTTP GET request. From JavaScript, the [Microlink SDK](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/getting-started/overview) wraps the same API into one method per product.

The [Microlink CLI](https://microlink.io/docs/api/getting-started/cli) is helpful to explore the API under local development.

Giving a [url](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/url) as input, you get structured data as output.

```json
{

"status":"success",

"data":{

"title":"microlink.io",

"description":"Turn websites into data. microlink.io has 34 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.",

"lang":"en",

"author":null,

"publisher":"GitHub",

"image":{

"url":"https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/29799436?s=280&v=4",

"type":"png",

"size":4118,

"height":280,

"width":280,

"size_pretty":"4.12 kB"

},

"date":"2020-09-22T09:33:36.000Z",

"url":"https://github.com/microlinkhq",

"logo":{

"url":"https://logo.clearbit.com/github.com",

"type":"png",

"size":6313,

"height":128,

"width":128,

"size_pretty":"6.31 kB"

}

}

}
```

There are some of the most common workflow you can do with Microlink API:

- Retrieve [meta](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/meta) data from any link.
- Take a [screenshot](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/screenshot) or generate a [pdf](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/pdf) of the target website.
- Get a predominant color [palette](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/palette) per each image detected.
- Make easy [embed](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/embed) content directly in your HTML markup.
- Identify [technologies](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/insights/technologies) behind a target URL.
- [prerender](https://microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/prerender) mode, useful for getting more information from websites that use client-side frameworks.

The following documentation is going to teach you all these things and more.

Prefer not to compose query strings by hand? The [Microlink SDK](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/getting-started/overview) — the [microlink.io](https://www.npmjs.com/package/microlink.io) package — exposes every workflow above as a method, such as `microlink.screenshot(url)`, for Node.js, browsers, and Deno.