Rlinkedin
May 12th API Changes
On May 12th 2015 LinkedIn changed the availability for most of their API endpoints. In order to gain full access to the API, you must apply to their Partnership Program. You can find detailed information regarding what endpoints are still openly available in their Transition Guide.
Regarding this R package, the following lists cover which functions are and are not available for non-partners. If I gain access to their partnership program I will update the package accordingly.
Available:
- getProfile(token)
- searchCompanies(token, …)
- submitShare(token, …)
Not available:
- getMyConnections(token)
- getProfile(token, connections = TRUE)
- getProfile(token, id = …)
- searchPeople(token, …)
- getJobs(token, …)
- searchJobs(token, …)
- getCompany(token, …)
- getGroups(token, …)
- getGroupPosts(token, …)
- submitGroupPost(token, …)
This is a development version of an R package to access the LinkedIn API. I was motivated to create this after using and contributing to Pablo Barberá’s awesome Rfacebook package.
Contributions are welcomed, and if you come across any errors please don’t hesitate to open a new issue. At the bottom of this readme is a list of the functions I would still like to add to the package.
If you’d like to contribute or simply learn more about accessing the API, get started by visiting the LinkedIn Developer page.
Installation and Authentication
The current CRAN release is 0.1, however you can download the package with the most recent additions from GitHub.
# From CRAN:
install.packages("Rlinkedin")
# From GitHub:
library(devtools)
install_github("mpiccirilli/Rlinkedin")
library(Rlinkedin)1) Use the default API and Secret Key information.
2) Create your own LinkedIn Developer application.
The default information is not approved to use the People Search API (searchPeople) or the Job Search API (searchJobs). If you would like to utilize these functions you must create your own application and apply here for the “Vetted API Access”.
If you use your own application name, API Key, and Secret Key, you must paste http://localhost:1410/ into the ‘OAuth 2.0 Redirect URLs’ input box and select all of the ‘Scope’ parameters, both of which are in the ‘OAuth User Agreement’ section. Otherwise, you will not be able to create an authorized connection and these functions will not work properly.
For a step-by-step tutorial, check out this fantastic blog post by JulianHi.
# To use the default API and Secret Key for the Rlinkedin package:
in.auth <- inOAuth()
# To use your own application's API and Secret Key:
in.auth <- inOAuth("your_app_name", "your_consumer_key", "your_consumer_secret")Connections API
The Connections API returns a list of 1st degree connections for a user who has granted access to his/her account.
You cannot “browse connections.” That is, you cannot get connections of your connections (2nd degree connections).
Per LinkedIn: You may never store data returned from the Connections API.
my.connections <- getMyConnections(in.auth)
colnames(my.connections)
## [1] "id" "fname" "lname" "headline" "industry" "area" "country" "api_url"
## [9] "site_url"
require(plyr)
conn.freq <- count(my.connections, c("industry", "area"))
head(conn.freq[order(-conn.freq$freq),])
## industry area freq
## Financial Services Greater New York City Area 43
## Research Greater New York City Area 18
## Higher Education Greater New York City Area 13
## Accounting Greater New York City Area 10
## <NA> Greater New York City Area 10
## Computer Software Greater New York City Area 9Profile API
The Profile API returns a member’s LinkedIn profile. This function can retrieve proflie information about to yourself, your connections, or an individual.
To Do:
1/14: Include positions in results
1/22: Added positions into results, need to update example in readme (below).
3/19: Updated ReadMe, gave example to turn list into df
my.profile <- getProfile(in.auth)
connections.profiles <- getProfile(in.auth, connections = TRUE)
individual.profile <- getProfile(in.auth, id = my.connections$id[1])
# The output of this function is naturually in a list.
# However you can convert it into a dataframe quite easily.
# I will use 'my.profile' as an example, but the same can be applied to all three above.
# Data as a list:
class(my.profile)
## [1] "list"
my.profile
## [[1]]
## [[1]]$connection_id
## [1] "RIWnbCCRy2"
## [[1]]$fname
## [1] "Michael"
## [[1]]$lname
## [1] "Piccirilli"
## [[1]]$formatted_name
## [1] "Michael Piccirilli"
## [[1]]$location
## [1] "San Francisco Bay Area"
....
# Now as a dataframe:
data.frame(t(sapply(my.profile, function(x){
x[c("fname", "lname", "location")]})))
## fname lname location
## 1 Michael Piccirilli San Francisco Bay Area
# To see all the elements in the list, simply run:
sapply(my.profile, function(x) names(x))People Search API
The People Search API returns information about people. It lets you implement most of what shows up when you do a search for “People” in the top right box on LinkedIn.com.
People Search API is a part of their Vetted API Access Program. You must apply here and get LinkedIn’s approval before using this API. The default token in the package is not approved for this use.
Throttle limits: Up to 100 returns per search, 10 returns per page. Each page is one API call.
The arguments available to be used in a search:
- keywords
- first name
- last name
- company name
- current company (T/F)
- title
- current title
- school name
- current school (T/F)
- country code
- postal code
- distance
To Do:
1/14: Include positions in results
1/22: Added positions into results, need to update example in readme (below). Results are now a list, not a df.
3/19: Updated ReadMe, gave example to turn list into df
search.ppl <- searchPeople(token=in.auth, first_name="Michael", last_name="Piccirilli")
class(search.ppl)
## [1] "list"
length(search.ppl)
## [1] 12
# Again, you can use this function to check out the all the elements within each list item (aka, each person)
sapply(search.ppl, function(x) names(x))
## [[1]]
## [1] "connection_id" "fname" "lname"
## [4] "formatted_name" "location" "headline"
## [7] "industry" "num_connections" "profile_url"
....
# Now let's turn that into a dataframe:
data.frame(t(sapply(search.ppl, function(x){
x[c("formatted_name", "location", "industry", "num_connections")]
})))
## formatted_name location industry num_connections
## 1 Michael Piccirilli San Francisco Bay Area Higher Education 306
## 2 Mike Piccirilli Baltimore, Maryland Area Graphic Design 1
## 3 Michael Piccirilli Providence, Rhode Island Area Information Technology and Services 31
## 4 michael piccirilli Greater Boston Area Banking 0
## 5 Michael Piccirilli Greater Boston Area Logistics and Supply Chain 414
## 6 Michael Piccirilli Greater Los Angeles Area Entertainment 143
## 7 Michael Piccirilli Greater Boston Area International Trade and Development 157
## 8 MIke Piccirilli Baltimore, Maryland Area Graphic Design 22
## 9 Mike Piccirilli Greater Atlanta Area Government Administration 4
## 10 Sean Michael (Barry) Piccirilli Portland, Oregon Area Environmental Services 6
## 11 mike piccirilli Sharon, Pennsylvania Area Health, Wellness and Fitness 0
## 12 MICHAEL PICCIRILLI Naples, Florida Area Banking 2Job Bookmarks & Suggestions
The API can be used to retrieve the current members bookmarked and suggested jobs.
job.recs <- getJobs(token = in.auth, suggestions = TRUE)
job.bookmarks <- getJobs(token = in.auth, bookmarks = TRUE)
colnames(job.recs)
## [1] "job_id" "company_id" "company_name" "poster_id" "poster_fname" "poster_lname"
## [7] "job_headline" "salary" "job_desc" "location" Job Search API
The Job Search API enables search across LinkedIn’s job postings.
Job Search API is a part of their Vetted API Access Program. You must apply here and get LinkedIn’s approval before using this API. The default token in the package is not approved for this use.
Throttle limits: Up to 100 returns per search, 10 returns per page. Each page is one API call.
The arguments available to be used in a search:
- keywords
- company name
- job title
- country code
- postal code
- distance
search.jobs <- searchJobs(token = in.auth, keywords = "data scientist")
colnames(search.jobs)
## [1] "job_id" "post_timestamp" "exp_date" "company_id" "company_name"
## [6] "position_title" "job_type" "location" "poster_id" "poster_fname"
## [11] "poster_lname" "poster_headline" "job_desc" "salary"
head(search.jobs[,c(5,6,8)], 3)
## company_name position_title location
## Bloomberg LP Employee Services & Support Advisor at Bloomberg LP New York, NY, USA
## FILD Manager, People Operations at FILD Upper West Side
## KPMG US Associate Director, Marketing Experienced Hires at KPMG New York, NYCompany APIs
Company Profile API
Use the Company Profile API to find companies using a company ID, a universal name, or an email domain.
The universal name needs to be the exact name seen at the end of the URL on the company page on LinkedIn. In most cases this is simply the name of the company, but not always. For example, let’s consider Coca-Cola. The company’s LinkedIn page is: - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-coca-cola-company
Therefore, you would search “the coca cola company” or “the-coca-cola-company”. The same principles apply to other companies. See example below.
#### Search by Company Name ####
company.name <- getCompany(token=in.auth, universal_name="the coca cola company")
head(copmany.name)
## $company_id
## [1] "1694"
## $company_name
## [1] "The Coca-Cola Company"
## $company_type
## [1] "Public Company"
## $ticker
## [1] "KO"
## $website
## [1] "http://www.coca-colacompany.com"
## $industry
## [1] "Food & Beverages"
#### Search by Email Domain ####
company.email <- getCompany(token=in.auth, email_domain = "columbia.edu")
head(company.email)
## company_id company_name
## 263698 Columbia-Harlem Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
## 269863 Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning
## 239158 Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement
## 2600576 Columbia University School of Continuing Education
## 3328717 Columbia University Information Technology
## 444161 ICAP at Columbia University
#### Search by Company ID ####
# Select: Columbia University in the City of New York
company.id <- getCompany(token=in.auth, company_id = company.email$company_id[14])
class(company.id)
## [1] "list"
length(company.id)
## [1] 279
# This is so long because there are 261 email domain names associated 'columbia.edu'Company Search API
Use the Company Search API to find companies using keywords, industry, location, or some other criteria. It returns a collection of matching companies. Each entry can contain much of the information available on the company page.
1/22: Added searchCompanies() to repo. Will add/update readme w/ example soon…
3/19: I will add this function to the ReadMe this weekend.
search.comp <- searchCompanies(in.auth, keywords = "LinkedIn")
# Find list elements of interest:
sapply(search.comp, function(x) names(x))[[1]]
## [1] "company_id" "company_name" "universal_name" "website" "twitter_handle"
## [6] "employee_count" "company_status" "founded" "num_followers" "description"
data.frame(t(sapply(search.comp, function(x){
x[c("company_id", "company_name", "universal_name", "website", "num_followers")]
})))Groups API
The Groups API enables members to view and interact with groups off of LinkedIn.com with the same rules that apply on the LinkedIn site. Data available includes group profile information, discussion posts, comments on posts, and likes.
Group Information
my.groups <- getGroups(in.auth)
colnames(my.groups)
## [1] "group_id" "group_name" "member_status"
## [4] "allow_messages_from_members" "email_frequency" "manager_announcements"
## [7] "email_new_posts"
my.group.details <- getGroups(in.auth, details=TRUE)
colnames(my.group.details)
## [1] "group_id" "group_name" "group_desc_short" "group_desc_long" Group Posts
To Do:
1) Include functionality to retrieve information of people who have liked and commented on posts.
2) Currently this only returns the past 10 posts from each group. Build in functionality to retrieve more posts in each group.
my.group.posts <- getGroupPosts(token = in.auth)
colnames(my.group.posts)
## [1] "post_id" "creator_fname" "creator_lname" "creator_headline" "post_title"
## [6] "post_summary" "num_likes" "num_comments" Create a group discussion
There are two possible actions here:
1) Your post has been created and is visibile immediately. Most likely you posted to an unmoderated group.
2) Your post has been accepted by the API but is pending approval by the group moderator.
id <- my.groups$group_id[1]
disc.title <- "Test connecting to the LinkedIn API via R"
disc.summary <- "Im creating an R package to connect to the LinkedIn API, this is a test post from R!"
url <- "https://github.com/mpiccirilli"
content.desc <- "Dev version of access to LinkedIn API via R. Collaboration is welcomed!"
submitGroupPost(in.auth, group_id=id, disc_title=disc.title, disc_summary=disc.summary, content_url=url, content_desc=content.desc)
Share API
You can share network updates through the Share API.
Note: If one of the content elements is specified you must also include include a url for the post
comment <- "Test connecting to the LinkedIn API via R"
title <- "Im creating an R package to connect to the LinkedIn API, this is a test post from R!"
url <- "https://github.com/mpiccirilli"
desc <- "Dev version of access to LinkedIn API via R. Collaboration is welcomed!"
submitShare(token = in.auth, comment=comment, content_title=title, content_url=url, content_desc=desc)
To Do:
- Get Network Updates and Statistics API: The Get Network Updates API returns the users network updates, which is the LinkedIn term for the user’s feed. This call returns most of what shows up in the middle column of the LinkedIn.com home page, either for the member or the member’s connections.