Now, I did find the Google Finance API and started looking through that but I found a lot of info about portfolios, transactions, positions & other stuff I know nothing about.
Am I looking at the wrong docs? What do I need to do to get a feed of exchange rates from GF? Is this even possible?
EDIT
To make things a little clearer. I'm not interested in technical stuff nor do I want any code.
This question is related to
api
google-finance-api
You can try geoplugin
Beside the geolocation done by IP (but the IP is the provider IP, so not so accurate), they return currencies also and have a currency converter: see examples.
They have 111 currencies updated.
If you're looking for a ruby based solution for this problem, I recommend using the Google Calculator method a solution similar to the following: http://j.mp/QIC564
require 'faraday'
require 'faraday_middleware'
require 'json'
# Debug:
# require "pry"
country_code_src = "USD"
country_code_dst = "INR"
connection = Faraday.get("http://www.google.com/ig/calculator?hl=en&q=1#{country_code_src}=?#{country_code_dst}")
currency_comparison_hash = eval connection.body #Google's output is not JSON, it's a hash
dst_currency_value, *dst_currency_text = *currency_comparison_hash[:rhs].split(' ')
dst_currency_value = dst_currency_value.to_f
dst_currency_text = dst_currency_text.join(' ')
puts "#{country_code_dst} -> #{dst_currency_value} (#{dst_currency_text} to 1 #{country_code_src})"
Here are some exchange APIs with PHP example.
Provides 1,000 requests per month free. You must register and grab the App ID. The base currency USD for free account. Check the supported currencies and documentation.
// open exchange URL // valid app_id * REQUIRED *
$exchange_url = 'https://openexchangerates.org/api/latest.json';
$params = array(
'app_id' => 'YOUR_APP_ID'
);
// make cURL request // parse JSON
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
CURLOPT_URL => $exchange_url . '?' . http_build_query($params),
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true
));
$response = json_decode(curl_exec($curl));
curl_close($curl);
if (!empty($response->rates)) {
// convert 150 USD to JPY ( Japanese Yen )
echo $response->rates->JPY * 150;
}
150 USD = 18039.09015 JPY
Provides 1,000 requests per month free. You must register and grab the Access KEY. Custom base currency is not supported in free account. Check the documentation.
$exchange_url = 'http://apilayer.net/api/live';
$params = array(
'access_key' => 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY',
'source' => 'USD',
'currencies' => 'JPY',
'format' => 1 // 1 = JSON
);
// make cURL request // parse JSON
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
CURLOPT_URL => $exchange_url . '?' . http_build_query($params),
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true
));
$response = json_decode(curl_exec($curl));
curl_close($curl);
if (!empty($response->quotes)) {
// convert 150 USD to JPY ( Japanese Yen )
echo '150 USD = ' . $response->quotes->USDJPY * 150 . ' JPY';
}
150 USD = 18036.75045 JPY
Yahoo has a YQL feature to get a whole bunch of currencies at once in XML or JSON. I've noticed the data is up to date by the minute where the ECB has day old data, and stops in the weekend.
Here is their query builder, where you can test a query and copy the url:
If you need a free and simple API for converting one currency to another, try free.currencyconverterapi.com.
Disclaimer, I'm the author of the website and I use it for one of my other websites.
The service is free to use even for commercial applications but offers no warranty. For performance reasons, the values are only updated every hour.
A sample conversion URL is: http://free.currencyconverterapi.com/api/v6/convert?q=EUR_PHP&compact=ultra&apiKey=sample-api-key which will return a json-formatted value, e.g. {"EUR_PHP":60.849184}
The European Central Bank (ECB) also has the most reliable free feed that I know of. It contains approx 28 currencies and is updated at least daily.
http://www.ecb.int/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml
For more formats and tools see the ECB reference page: http://www.ecb.int/stats/exchange/eurofxref/html/index.en.html
For all newbie guys searching for some hint about currency conversion, take a look at this link. Datavoila
It helped med a lot regarding my own project in C#. Just in case the site disappears, I'll add the code below. Just add the below steps to your own project. Sorry about the formatting.
const string fromCurrency = "USD";
const string toCurrency = "EUR";
const double amount = 49.95;
// For other currency symbols see http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter/
// Clear the output editor //optional use, AFAIK
Output.Clear();
// Construct URL to query the Yahoo! Finance API
const string urlPattern = "http://finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s={0}{1}=X&f=l1";
string url = String.Format(urlPattern, fromCurrency, toCurrency);
// Get response as string
string response = new WebClient().DownloadString(url);
// Convert string to number
double exchangeRate =
double.Parse(response, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
// Output the result
Output.Text = String.Format("{0} {1} = {2} {3}",
amount, fromCurrency,
amount * exchangeRate, toCurrency);
I got this content from http://www.scriptarticle.com/2012/05/03/get-live-currency-rates-and-currency-conversion-using-php-and-apis/
<?php
function get_currency($from_Currency, $to_Currency, $amount) {
$amount = urlencode($amount);
$from_Currency = urlencode($from_Currency);
$to_Currency = urlencode($to_Currency);
$url = "http://www.google.com/finance/converter?a=$amount&from=$from_Currency&to=$to_Currency";
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 0;
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT,
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1)");
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
$rawdata = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$data = explode('bld>', $rawdata);
$data = explode($to_Currency, $data[1]);
return round($data[0], 2);
}
// Call the function to get the currency converted
echo get_currency('USD', 'INR', 1);
?>
Here is one simple PHP Script which gets exchange rate between GBP and USD
<?php
$amount = urlencode("1");
$from_GBP0 = urlencode("GBP");
$to_usd= urlencode("USD");
$Dallor = "hl=en&q=$amount$from_GBP0%3D%3F$to_usd";
$US_Rate = file_get_contents("http://google.com/ig/calculator?".$Dallor);
$US_data = explode('"', $US_Rate);
$US_data = explode(' ', $US_data['3']);
$var_USD = $US_data['0'];
echo $to_usd;
echo $var_USD;
echo '<br/>';
?>
Google currency rates are not accurate google itself says ==> Google cannot guarantee the accuracy of the exchange rates used by the calculator. You should confirm current rates before making any transactions that could be affected by changes in the exchange rates. Foreign currency rates provided by Citibank N.A. are displayed under licence. Rates are for information purposes only and are subject to change without notice. Rates for actual transactions may vary and Citibank is not offering to enter into any transaction at any rate displayed.
Source: Stackoverflow.com