How to Get Tag Information from Medium

Using the Medium API (Javascript)

Tags on Medium help organize and classify articles, making it easier for readers to find content related to specific topics.

This guide demonstrates how to fetch detailed information about a specific tag on Medium, such as the number of followers, related articles, and subcategories.

Prerequisites

To run this code successfully, ensure the following are in place:

• Node.js Installed: Install Node.js from nodejs.org if it’s not already installed.
• API Key: Obtain a RapidAPI key for accessing Medium’s data through the Medium API.
How to Subscribe to Medium API and Get Your API Key from RapidAPI Platform
• Environment Configuration: Create a .env file to securely store your API key.
• Dependencies Installed:
  • Install the medium-api-js package for interacting with Medium’s API.
  • Install the dotenv package for managing environment variables.

  npm install medium-api-js dotenv

Code Explanation

This script retrieves information about the 'technology' tag using the Medium API. Let’s break it down step by step:

1. Import Dependencies

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

• Medium: The library provides methods to interact with Medium’s API.
• dotenv: This package helps load environment variables from a .env file into process.env.

2. Load Environment Variables

dotenv.config();

• dotenv.config(): Reads the .env file and adds the RAPIDAPI_KEY to the environment variables.
• Ensure your .env file contains the following line:

  RAPIDAPI_KEY=your_rapidapi_key_here

3. Initialize the Medium API Client

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

• Medium(process.env.RAPIDAPI_KEY): Creates an instance of the Medium API client, using the API key from the environment variables.

4. Fetch Tag Information

medium.getTagInfo('technology')
    .then(data => {
        console.log('Tag Info:', data);
    });

• medium.getTagInfo('technology'): Fetches detailed information about the ‘technology’ tag.
• .then(data => ...): Handles the API response and logs the tag information to the console.

Running the Code

To execute the script, run the following command in your terminal:

node getTagInfo.js

Output Explanation

When the code runs successfully, it outputs detailed information about the 'technology' tag. Here’s an example:

Breakdown of Output

• Tag: The tag being queried (‘technology’).
• Name: Human-readable name of the tag.
• Followers: Number of followers for this tag.
• Articles Count: Total number of articles under this tag.
• Authors Count: Total number of authors contributing to this tag.
• Latest Articles Count: Number of recent articles.
• Latest Authors Count: Number of recent authors.
• Children: List of related sub-tags, offering further categorization.

Potential Use Cases

• Content Insights: Analyze popular tags to determine trending topics and plan content strategy.
• User Research: Identify subcategories and related topics for a niche audience.
• Content Recommendations: Use the data to suggest articles based on trending tags.
• Reporting and Analytics: Generate reports on tag performance and trends.

Summary

Fetching tag information from Medium provides valuable insights for content creators, marketers, and researchers. By leveraging the Medium API, you can automate the retrieval of tag data and integrate it into your workflow.

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

Happy coding!