fintech 

hackathon 2013

Digging in to the Xignite 
Financial Web Service APIs


Who are we?


  • Financial Web Services since about 2006
  • Emphasis on simplicity and ease of integration
  • Began with SOAP and simple HTTP GET
  • ..still REST Level 0 / XML-RPC model
  • Supports SOAP, [non-SOAP] XML, JSON, CSV

What services?


  • Security Master
  • Funds and ETFS
  • Equities
  • Forex & Metals
  • Commodities
  • Fixed Income / Credit
  • Indices / Markets
  • Companies
  • Splice
  • Other stuff*

Samples / Links


Languages w/ sample code


  • C#
  • Java
  • Ruby
  • PHP
  • Perl
  • VB.NET
  • No samples, but suds seems to be leader for Python
  • Easiest integration elsewhere is probably JSON

TECHNICAL DETAILS


  • Append _token parameter for auth
  • Auth also supported via cookie, IP
  • Supports JSONP via _callback param
  • _fields parameter allows filtering of output files
  • If using CSV serializer, add _flatten=true

HACKATHON ACCOUNT INFO


  • _token = fintechhackathon2013
  • Xignite website dynamically builds test URLs for you
  • Just append your _token, if using HTTP GET endpoint
  • Website credentials
  • Username: info@fintechhack.com
  • Password: fintechhackathon2013
  • Not really needed, but easier for discovery / research

Best Practices


  • Most things return 2xx or 5xx
  • In-API status:
  • Success [Great!]
  • RegistrationError [Retry won't help]
  • RequestError [Probably asking for the wrong thing]
  • SystemError [Retry very well may succeed]
  • plz with exponential backoff

Best practices (cont'd)


  • Still over the public web
  • ..so use low-integerial # of retries
  • Circuit Breaker pattern!
  • SSL/TLS, if desired
  • Cache results for frequent requests or ref data queries

Fabulous prizes


Xignite will be awarding a $500 
gift certificate to Amazon.com to the 
best app/widget utilizing our APIs!

Ideas:
  • Data viz
  • Analytics
  • Bonds
  • Multiple instrument types


Questions?


mbollinger@xignite.com
@slpsys

fintech hackathon 2013

By slpsys

fintech hackathon 2013

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