How to Get Related Medium Articles to a Given Article

Using JavaScript and Medium API

Discovering articles that are thematically connected to a specific Medium article can be incredibly useful. Whether you want to explore more on a topic, curate content for readers, or analyze patterns in writing, fetching related articles programmatically is an efficient approach.

This article explains how to use the medium-api-js library to get related Medium articles based on a given article ID.

By the end of this guide, you’ll understand the code and process to achieve this, and you'll be equipped to adapt the method for various use cases.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the code, ensure you have the following:

• Node.js and npm installed: Download and install from Node.js official website.
• medium-api-js package: This is a wrapper for the Medium API. Install it using npm:

  npm install medium-api-js

• dotenv package: This is required for securely managing your API key. Install it with:

  npm install dotenv

• A Medium API key: Sign up for an API key via a provider like RapidAPI. Store the key in a .env file in the following format:

  RAPIDAPI_KEY=your_medium_api_key_here

  How to Subscribe to Medium API and Get Your API Key from RapidAPI Platform
• Article ID: The ID of the Medium article for which you want related articles. You can extract this from a Medium article URL (e.g., in https://medium.com/article-id, the article-id part is what you need).

Code Explanation

This code fetches related articles for a specific Medium article. Let’s break it down step by step:

1. Import Dependencies

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

dotenv.config();

• Medium: This is the medium-api-js package, which provides a set of methods for interacting with the Medium API.
• dotenv: This package loads environment variables from a .env file, ensuring your API key remains secure.
• dotenv.config(): Initializes the environment variable loader.

2. Initialize the Medium API

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

• new Medium(process.env.RAPIDAPI_KEY): Creates an instance of the Medium API client, using the API key stored in the .env file.

3. Define the Article ID

const articleId = '67fa62fc1971';

• articleId: This is the ID of the Medium article for which you’ll fetch related articles. Replace it with your desired article’s ID.

4. Fetch Related Articles

medium.getRelatedArticles(articleId).then(data => {
    console.log('Related Articles:', data);
});

• medium.getRelatedArticles(articleId): This method retrieves related articles for the given articleId.
• .then(data => { console.log('Related Articles:', data); }): Handles the API’s response and logs the related articles to the console.

Running the Code

Save the code in a file named getRelatedArticles.js. Run it in the terminal using the command:

node getRelatedArticles.js

Output and Explanation

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

Explanation of Output

• related_articles: An array of article IDs related to the specified article. These can be used to fetch details about the articles using other Medium API methods.
• id: Confirms the ID of the article for which related articles were fetched.

Potential Use Cases

• Content Recommendations: Suggest related articles to readers based on their current reading.
• Topic Exploration: Discover additional content for research or inspiration.
• Curated Lists: Build themed collections of Medium articles for newsletters or blogs.
• Automated Workflows: Create bots or apps that automatically fetch and share related content.

Summary

In this article, we explored how to use the medium-api-js library to fetch related Medium articles, a feature that enables efficient content curation, analysis, and recommendations. With minimal setup, this method can be integrated into larger projects to enhance user engagement or streamline research workflows.

If you have any questions about Medium API or the code implementation, feel free to reach out at nishu@mediumapi.com.