splunk-demo-yelp-search-command

A custom search command for querying [Yelp's API] (http://www.yelp.com/developers/documentation)! This demonstrates how to use the Python SDK's GeneratingCommand to query an external API and pipe results into Splunk. You can use the patterns here basically for talking to any API in an adhoc fashion.

What is it?

This is a custom search command implemented using Python SDK which uses Yelp's API. It allows issuing adhoc queries realtime against Yelp data which is then pulled into Splunk.

Pre-requisites.

• An instance of Splunk where you can install the command.
• An valid set of API credentials for Yelp's API. Sign up [here] (http://www.yelp.com/developers/getting_started) for an account and register for an API key.

Setup

• Copy this application to a new folder in your $SPLUNK_HOME$\etc\apps\ folder.
• Change to the bin folder of your app and rename the config.template file to config.json.
• Edit the config.json with your favorite text editor replace the values with the corresponding values from the [Yelp API management portal] (http://www.yelp.com/developers/getting_started/api_access).
• Restart your splunk instance so the the app is loaded.

Yelp Command 101

Using the Yelp command is very easy, open your Splunk portal and go to the Yelp Search app. Now you can use the "yelp" command. Below are a few simple examples of syntax.

Finding sushi and italian restaurants in San Francisco

| yelp location="San Franciso" term=sushi,italian

Finding sports shops in New York

| yelp location="New York" term="Sporting Goods"

Finding all skydiving places in New Zealand

| yelp location="Auckland, New Zealand" term="Sky diving"

Finding all museums in London

| yelp location="London" term=museums

Parameters

The following is the list of parameters. Any values that contain spaces, must be within double quotes.

• location - [required] Location to search for businesses
• term - [optional] Type of business to search for.
• category - [optional] Delimitted list of categories. See [here] (http://www.yelp.com/developers/documentation/category_list) for the supported list.
• sort - [optional] 0=Best matched, 1=Distance (default), 2=Highest Rated
• limit [optional] Number of records to return. (max=20).
• offset [optional] Offset the list of returned business results by this amount.

Running outside of Splunk.

For testing you can actually run the command outside of Splunk. Below are the steps.

• Go to the bin folder underneath the app.
• Use the following command template:

python yelp.py __EXECUTE__ location=[location] term=[term] < empty.csv

This will run the command and dump the results to your console. For example...

python yelp.py __EXECUTE__ location=NY term=italian < empty.csv

If the paramter has spaces, surround the full parameter and value in single quotes and use double quotes for the value i.e.

python yelp.py __EXECUTE__ 'location="San Francisco"' term=korean < empty.csv

License

The Splunk Demo Yelp Search Command is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Details can be found in the file LICENSE.