[GNC-dev] Robust error handling and respecting the Apha Vantage API limits in gnc-fq-helper.

[Edward d'Auvergne]

On Sun, 19 Jan 2020 at 06:24, David H <hellvee at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Mike/Edward, I'm not sure if either of you have seen Vince's posting in Finance-quote-devel <finance-quote-devel at lists.sourceforge.net> which seems like he's working on a similar thing?
>
> Copy below....
>
> Cheers Dave H
>
>
> Hi,
>
> In June, Erik sent a message about his idea for cleaning up the FQ API to have consistent ways to set/get instance variables and expand new to allow for named parameters and module specific data.
>
> One benefit is a sustainable way to enable users to register API keys for specific modules.
>
> I just pushed the branch "new-new" to explore these ideas.
>
> See the file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finance-quote/finance-quote/new-new/new-API-notes.txt for details about the set/get methods.
>
>
> I used the new API to thread an API key to the IEXCloud module from the test suite as an example:
> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finance-quote/finance-quote/new-new/t/iexcloud.t
>
>
> If there is agreement to proceed with the API update there are a few things to do and I can help:
>
> - updating the POD documentation for Quote.pm
> - enabling AlphaVantage to use the module specific data as another source for its API key
> - renew discussion with gnucash developers on enabling users to specify API keys for more modules

I could be wrong, but looking at the 'new-API-notes.txt' file (link
above) I have the impression that these changes do not fix the issue
of multiple sequential calls to F::Q respecting the API request
limits.  As far as I can tell, it would allow the GnuCash perl script
to be rewritten to eliminate the while loop and instead call F::Q with
a long list of all symbols.  But the GnuCash side will need to know
the exact API request limit that the user has access to, and then pass
that into F::Q.

If this is the case, it would nevertheless require some UI
feedback/warning on the GnuCash side as fetching many quotes via the
GUI is going to be very, very slow.

Regards,

Edward