How do I use an API in Discord.js?

Question

I was looking for a cool way I could automate some interesting news articles on my discord server. I wanted to use webhooks at first but then decided to go with APIs. I looked all around and saw that I should go with New York Times API but when I went to code it, it came up with a few errors.

const Discord = require("discord.js");
const client = new Discord.Client();
const token = require("./token.js");
const fetch = require('node-fetch');
const prefix = '!';

const trim = (str, max) => str.length > max ? `${str.slice(0, max - 3)}...` : str;

client.once('ready', () => {
    console.log('Ready!');

});

client.on('message', async message => {
    if (!message.content.startsWith(prefix) || message.author.bot) return;

    const args = message.content.slice(prefix.length).trim().split(/ +/);
    const command = args.shift().toLowerCase();

    if (command === 'news') {
        const { file } = await fetch('https://api.nytimes.com/svc/topstories/v2/technology.json?api-key=').then(response => response.json());

        message.channel.sendMessage(file);

    }
    }).then((state) => {
        assert(state.action === 'DONE', 'should change state');
    })
        .catch((error) => {
            assert.isNotOk(error, 'Promise error');
        });
throw
client.login(token);

This is my code, I know this is probably riddled with mistakes but I am just starting out with node.js I looked at the example from the discord.js website and took some stuff from there. I don't know what I should do and if you could explain it out a little to help me learn that would be great. I keep getting the Unhandled Rejection Promise Warning and the Cannot send an empty message errors. I am using Visual Studio Code.

Answer 1

The response from the Top Stories API does not have a file key and so is undefined. You want to destructure results to access the articles array.

The error message says that you cannot call sendMessage with an empty message (undefined in this case).

I'm not sure of the message you want to send but you can send the link to the first article with the following code, for example.

const res = await fetch(`https://api.nytimes.com/svc/topstories/v2/technology.json?api-key=${NYTIMES_API_KEY}`)
const { results } = await res.json()

if (results.length) {
  message.channel.sendMessage(results[0].url)
} else {
  message.channel.sendMessage('No articles found')
}

Answer 2

You can use the async/await to get the results array from the API response, then send the details in embeds. You can either send the first article, a random article or more than one articles.

The following should work, it sends the first three articles:

const { Client, MessageEmbed } = require('discord.js');
const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const token = require("./token.js");

const client = new Client();
const API_KEY = 'QerEdX953-NOT-REAL-hdvgx7UPs';
const prefix = '!';

client.on('message', async (message) => {
  if (!message.content.startsWith(prefix) || message.author.bot) return;

  const args = message.content.slice(prefix.length).split(/ +/);
  const command = args.shift().toLowerCase();

  if (command === 'news') {
    try {
      const response = await fetch(
        `https://api.nytimes.com/svc/topstories/v2/technology.json?api-key=${API_KEY}`,
      );
      const data = await response.json();

      if (data.results.length === 0) {
        return message.channel.send('There are no top stories for you today ');
      }

      const embed = new MessageEmbed();
      // you could also get the number of stories from args[0]
      const MAX_STORIES = 3;

      data.results.slice(0, MAX_STORIES).forEach((result) => {
        embed.setTitle(result.title);
        embed.setDescription(result.abstract);
        embed.setURL(result.url);
        embed.setTimestamp(result.published_date);

        if (result.multimedia.length && result.multimedia[2]) {
          embed.setThumbnail(result.multimedia[2].url);
        }

        message.channel.send(embed);
      });
    } catch (error) {
      message.channel.send('Oops, there was an error fetching the API');
      console.log(error);
    }
  }
});