Forum Discussion

Antony_Hawkins's avatar
7 years ago

(Ridiculously simple) currency exchange rate monitor

@Jon Davis previously did something similar using the Yahoo exchange rate API; this one just does a Google search for whatever pair of currencies you wish and parses out the exchange rate.

v1.1.0: 6PRRRL

By default it has an AppliesTo that will associate it with all collector devices, but you can apply it to any device(s) you choose - the device is really just an anchor in the UI and is irrelevant to data collection. It is multi-instance but demands manual creation of instances so until you create said instances, it won't do anything, make any calls, etc.

By default also it calls google.com; if you wish you can change the GET to call a regional Google address.

Create instances on the device via the Manage button's drop arrow -> Add Monitored Instance, then select the DataSource and create instances using:

Name: Whatever makes sense as a human-readable form, e.g. "US Dollars to Icelandic Króna"

Wildvalue: You *must* use something that gives a sensible result in Google. Using the standard three-letter codes for the source and destination currencies is strongly recommended, e.g. USD-ISK. Other formats may or may not give expected results. Test the phrase in Google first! Note that what Google serve you as a human using a browser differs from what Google serves the collector, presumably due to a browser's greater abilities as a web browser.

Description is optional.

Polling is every five minutes.

Disclaimers:

If you create hundreds of monitoring instances and Google block your collector, don't blame me.

Exchange rates returned by Google are likely to be mid-market rates, may not be up-to-the-second accurate, are probably not available to regular people going on holiday, and are almost certainly more generous than the currency traders airside at your departure airport. Values returned are therefore for interest only and to give a general indication of rate changes with time.