fetches the top content on Hacker News

top_hn.rb

require "open-uri"
require "cgi"
require "json"

SEARCH_API = URI "http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search"
START_DATE = "2012-01-01"
END_DATE   = "2012-12-31"
TOP_LIMIT  = 10

def get(type, sortby)
  params = {
    "sortby" => sortby,
    "limit" => TOP_LIMIT,
    "filter[queries][]" => "create_ts:[#{START_DATE}T00:00:00Z TO #{END_DATE}T23:59:59Z]",
    "filter[fields][type][]" => type
  }
  SEARCH_API.query = URI.encode_www_form params
  return JSON.parse SEARCH_API.open.read
end

def deets(item)
  by = item["username"]
  on = Date.parse item["create_ts"]
  url = item["url"]
  id = item["id"]
  points = item["points"]
  comments = item["num_comments"]
  content = item["title"] || item["text"]

  "#{points} by #{by} on #{on}: #{content} : #{url} : #{id} : #{comments}"
end

def run(type, sortby)
  response = get type, sortby

  puts
  puts "# #{type}s by #{sortby}"
  puts
  puts "## #{response['hits']} total #{type}s"
  puts

  response["results"].reverse.each do |result|
    puts deets result["item"]
  end
end

run "submission", "points desc"
run "submission", "num_comments desc"
run "comment", "points desc"