Yahoo Expands YQL Capabilities With Insert, Update And Delete

Sunnyvale, California — A year ago, Yahoo launched its Yahoo Query Language, a language that allowed users query, filter, and join data across web data sources or services on the web. On Wednesday Yahoo added three more functions (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) for its YQL, that now also allow developers to not just read and manipulate data, but also write data back to other services.

YQL or Yahoo Query Language is based on a SQL-like language, and it helps apps run faster with fewer lines of code.

This extends the platform by adding “write” capability to its capabilities, including YQL Open Data Tables and Execute,” a spokesperson for Yahoo said in a statement.

“Using our YQL Web service, apps run faster with fewer lines of code and a smaller network footprint. YQL uses a SQL-like language because it is a familiar and intuitive method for developers to access data. YQL treats the entire Web as a source of table data, enabling developers to select from internet,” said Jonathan Taylor, of the YQL team, in a blog post.

While the earlier avatars of YQL were mainly intended to read data, but yesterday’s extensions add “missing” SQL verbs to YQL, as the focus has now shifted towards writing data back to the net as well. Developers can now use YQL to write and modify data on web services and applications.

“This enables YQL Open Data Tables to insert new Twitter status messages, not just list them; to add new comments to a blog as well as read them; to store data in a remote database; to Insert Into Internet,” Taylor said.

“If you have developed some Open Data Tables already and the source supports some type of update, you might want to take this opportunity to go back and add the capability in,” says Taylor.

To explain its usefulness, the Yahoo team employed a few different examples. A developer can now easily use YQL to update a Twitter account (even authentication with OAuth is possible), for example, or add a new comment to a blog post, or insert any data into a remote database. Basically, developers can now use YQL to write data back to any web site that uses forms for data entry and to any API, including authenticated APIs.

Documentation is available here for developers. To get a better understanding of what you can do, keep an eye on Yahoo’s developer blog.