How to Get a Medium Publication ID

Using Medium API JS Package

If you’re working with the Medium API to integrate Medium publications into your application, one of the key identifiers you’ll need is the publication ID. This unique identifier is essential for performing operations like fetching articles or analyzing publication data.

Let’s walk through how to fetch the publication ID for a given publication slug using the medium-api-js package.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following:

• Node.js Installed: Make sure Node.js is installed on your system.
• API Key: Obtain a RapidAPI key to access the Medium API endpoints.
How to Subscribe to Medium API and Get Your API Key from RapidAPI Platform
• medium-api-js Package: Install the package in your project by running:

  npm install medium-api-js

• dotenv Package: Install the package for managing environment variables:

  npm install dotenv

• Environment File: Create a .env file in your project’s root directory and store your RapidAPI key:

  RAPIDAPI_KEY=your_rapidapi_key_here

Code Breakdown

This script fetches the publication ID for a given Medium publication slug. Let’s break it down:

1. Importing Required Modules

import Medium from 'medium-api-js';
import dotenv from 'dotenv';

dotenv.config();

• Medium: The primary class from medium-api-js used to interact with the Medium API.
• dotenv: Allows loading environment variables from a .env file for secure and convenient API key management.
• dotenv.config(): Ensures that variables from the .env file are available throughout the script.

2. Initializing the Medium API Client

const medium = new Medium(process.env.RAPIDAPI_KEY);

• process.env.RAPIDAPI_KEY: Accesses the API key securely stored in the .env file.
• new Medium(): Initializes the Medium client with the provided API key, enabling authenticated API calls.

3. Defining the Publication Slug

const publicationSlug = 'codex';

• publicationSlug: The slug of the publication whose ID you want to fetch. Replace 'codex' with the slug of your target publication.

4. Fetching the Publication ID

medium.getPublicationId(publicationSlug).then(data => {
    console.log('Publication ID:', data);
});

• getPublicationId(publicationSlug): A method provided by medium-api-js to fetch the publication ID based on the slug.
• .then(data => { ... }): Handles the promise returned by the API call. The data object contains the publication ID and slug, which is logged to the console.

Running the Script

Save the script to a file (e.g., getPublicationId.js) and run it using Node.js:

node getPublicationId.js

Output Explanation

When the script runs successfully, you’ll see an output similar to this:

• publication_id: The unique ID of the Medium publication.
• publication_slug: The slug used to fetch the ID, confirming the correct mapping.

Potential Use Cases

• Fetching Publication Articles: Use the publication ID to retrieve articles from the publication.
• Content Analysis: Analyze publication data based on the fetched ID for insights and optimization.
• Custom Features: Implement custom features or functionalities using the publication ID as a reference.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned how to fetch a Medium publication ID using the medium-api-js package. This process enables seamless integration with Medium publications, allowing for enhanced functionalities like article retrieval and content analysis.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out to me at nishu@mediumapi.com.