currencies update fail due to yahoo discontinued service

[Marek Rozenberg]

Hi,

I just installed the software 5.1.6, Running against GTK+ 3.22.16, running on Windows 7 Ultimate, 64 bit
- thanks for a really beautifully designed interface!

I'm using 3 currencies and trying to update them online but it does not work - it says "Update online error. Bad Request"

Tried to do it repeated times over the past week and it shows the same message - see the attached file.

Please let me know how to fix it.

Regards

Marek

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

This is not something that I use so I haven't noticed until now that I'm also seeing this problem using Homebank 5.1.6 on both Xubuntu 17.04 and Xubuntu 17.10.

No error message is displayed when trying to update the currency rates but I can confirm that the rates do not change and there is no date in the "Last modified" column.

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

The yahoo api return something with http ok code
but with no currency data
that's why no error message is displayed
example:
http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?q=select * from yahoo.finance.xchange where pair in
("EURUSD","EURCHF","EURAUD","EURCAD","EURJPY","EURCNY","EURGBP")&env=store://datatables.org/alltableswithkeys

it might be temporary
or not, and I will investigate further in that case (maybe change on syntax or service usage maybe)

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Thanks Maxime for looking into it.

It seems that the problem is with the yahoo service:
https://yahoo.sdx.socialdynamx.com/portal/conversation/19248672
"It has come to our attention that this service is being used in violation of the Yahoo Terms of Service. As such, the service is being discontinued. For all future markets and equities data research, please refer to finance.yahoo.com "

If that service is discontinued then Morningstar.com or maybe google provide similar service and it may be just very easy to change the retrieval URL.

Marek

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

so far I did not find a decent "free" with no hits limitation replacement
option available are:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3139879/how-do-i-get-currency-exchange-rates-via-an-api-such-as-google-finance

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Thanks Maxime for looking into it.

I found following services but since I'm not a programmer I don't know if that can be used:

http://fixer.io/
Fixer is a free API for current and historical foreign exchange rates published by the European Central Bank.
The rates are updated daily around 4PM CET every working day.

http://www.mycurrency.net/page/Free+Currency+Converter+API

https://www.nbp.pl/homen.aspx?f=/kursy/instrukcja_pobierania_kursow_walut_en.html

Marek

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

...and few more free API sources:

https://www.alphavantage.co/
https://www.alphavantage.co/support/#api-key

http://www.jarloo.com/real-time-google-stock-api/

https://1forge.com/forex-data-api/pricing (1,000 requests per day)

Marek

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

...and two more API services:
https://www.barchart.com/ondemand/free-market-data-api
Up to 100 symbols per query, and up to 2,500 queries per day

https://api.tiingo.com/
https://api.tiingo.com/pricing
Requests Per Day 20,000

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Hi Maxime,

One idea that came to my mind is that even if you find a good API service with some hits limitations, then it could perhaps be used in this way:

Instead of integrating it for all the users inside the code every user could subscribe to that limited service and enter their own API code in the options/settings. In this way no one will exceed the limits for the free subscription.

What do you think about that?

Marek

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

OK, Maxime, your summary is definitely correct :-)
But the main thing is - are you going to fix it using other APIs that I suggested above?

Greetings

Marek

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Sorry, I don't understand what that means.
Does it mean that you are planning to fix it in the next version?
or
that you will not fix it in the upcoming 5.1.7 version?

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

yes, planned for 5.1.7 to come as soon as I have finished it.

the goal here is not to pickup an exotic api service, make some development and that this api to close in 3 months. It should be reliable and with the minimal requirement to change the base currency and provide sufficient currency exchange rate, that's why I choose yahoo, as Google one was no more existing either.

There is no free service like yahoo, as the API key seems inevitable, so yes I will probably move to 1 or 2 (needs to test first) provider that have free plan, meanwhile needs to register to get an API key. And I will not provide a key by default. That means every user will need to get an API key by itself.

So I needs to evaluate (free plan to provide base currency and optionaly select target currencies)
currencylayer.com
openexchangerates.org

according to this comparison table: http://www.freecurrencyconverterapi.com/comparison

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Thanks! I'm putting on a 'be patient' hat and will be waiting until 5.1.7 version comes out :-)

I hope you'll decide for openexchangerates.org since it provides the rates for the Alternative/Digital currencies as well, like BTC, ETH and LTC

Marek

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

I have started to code an API for fixer.io, to enable a free default one with no key nor register, but limited currencies thus.

And I will see for openexchangerate as well as an option for those who want to use it.
Working on a tiny JSON parser for now.

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

(for remind)
nor currencylayer.com or openexchangerates.org enables to change the source currency in their frenn plan, so unless you pay for the API service you can only get quotes from USD

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

And what about the http://fixer.io/
does it allow to change the source currency?

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

or maybe https://www.alphavantage.co/ does?

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

fixer.io does, and I have just finished to implement the API, in replacement of yahoo, but it has limited quotes, the ones emitted from the european central bank https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html
thus it my suit for most people.

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Does it mean that everyone has to use the rates against Euro? and not egains USD or SKR or GBP?

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

No, actually Fixer.io enable to change the base currency, which is good, you can convert in every way, but it does provides a limited currency set to 32: USD, JPY, BGN, CZK, DKK, GBP, HUF, PLN, RON, SEK, CHF, NOK, HRK, RUB, TRY, AUD, BRL, CAD, CNY, HKD, IDR, ILS, INR, KRW, MXN, MYR, NZD, PHP, SGD, THB, ZAR, ISK.

https://api.fixer.io/latest?base=USD&symbols=EUR,GBP
or
https://api.fixer.io/latest?base=JPY&symbols=EUR,GBP

In the opposite, currencylayer.com or openexchangerates.org don't allow the change of the base currency (so you are stick to base=USD in their free plan), but they provide more currencies.
So for those 2, anyone with anther USD base currency will be forced to buy a pay plan. SO I do hesitate to make an API for now.

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Perhaps using Fixer.io would be best? 32 currencies may cover the needs of most of all the users.

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

let's keep fixer.io for now.

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Yes, and Happy New Year!

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Installed the latest version and tried to update the currencies but getting error:
"Unacceptable TLS certificate"

What's wrong?

[Gustavo Antonio Lutz de Matos (gustavo.lutz)]

Hi all!

I recently installed Homebank 5.1.7 with Windows 10, and experienced the same problem as Marek described when I try to update the currency.

"Unacceptable TLS certificate"

[Maxime DOYEN (mdoyen)]

I have copy/paste from their website sample and it uses https for this, which is not mandatory for public quote.
Anyway, this requires some addition cert files I did not included into the release.
Here they are, just unzip into the homebank installation root dir (C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeBank)

[Marek Rozenberg (marosub53)]

Thanks!
Works very well.