Quickstart: Use the Bing Visual Search .NET client library

Use this quickstart to begin getting image insights from the Bing Visual Search service, using the C# client library. While Bing Visual Search has a REST API compatible with most programming languages, the client library provides an easy way to integrate the service into your applications. The source code for this sample can be found on GitHub.

Reference documentation | Library source code | Package (NuGet) | Samples

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2019.
• If you are using Linux/MacOS, this application can be run using Mono.
• The NuGet Visual Search package.
  • From the Solution Explorer in Visual Studio, right-click on your project and select Manage NuGet Packages from the menu. Install the Microsoft.Azure.CognitiveServices.Search.VisualSearch package. Installing the NuGet packages also installs the following:
    • Microsoft.Rest.ClientRuntime
    • Microsoft.Rest.ClientRuntime.Azure
    • Newtonsoft.Json

Create and initialize the application

1. In Visual Studio, create a new project. Then add the following directives.

   using Microsoft.Azure.CognitiveServices.Search.VisualSearch;
   using Microsoft.Azure.CognitiveServices.Search.VisualSearch.Models;
   

2. Instantiate the client with your subscription key.

   var client = new VisualSearchClient(new ApiKeyServiceClientCredentials("YOUR-ACCESS-KEY"));
   

Send a search request

1. Create a FileStream to your images (in this case TestImages/image.jpg). Then use the client to send a search request using client.Images.VisualSearchMethodAsync().

    System.IO.FileStream stream = new FileStream(Path.Combine("TestImages", "image.jpg"), FileMode.Open);
    // The knowledgeRequest parameter is not required if an image binary is passed in the request body
    var visualSearchResults = client.Images.VisualSearchMethodAsync(image: stream, knowledgeRequest: (string)null).Result;
   

2. Parse the results of the previous query:

   // Visual Search results
   if (visualSearchResults.Image?.ImageInsightsToken != null)
   {
       Console.WriteLine($"Uploaded image insights token: {visualSearchResults.Image.ImageInsightsToken}");
   }
   else
   {
       Console.WriteLine("Couldn't find image insights token!");
   }
   
   // List of tags
   if (visualSearchResults.Tags.Count > 0)
   {
       var firstTagResult = visualSearchResults.Tags[0];
       Console.WriteLine($"Visual search tag count: {visualSearchResults.Tags.Count}");
   
       // List of actions in first tag
       if (firstTagResult.Actions.Count > 0)
       {
           var firstActionResult = firstTagResult.Actions[0];
           Console.WriteLine($"First tag action count: {firstTagResult.Actions.Count}");
           Console.WriteLine($"First tag action type: {firstActionResult.ActionType}");
       }
       else
       {
           Console.WriteLine("Couldn't find tag actions!");
       }
   }
   

Next steps

Build a single-page web app.