Google Currency Converter has changed its URL but not getting same result

Question

I have the following code (below) and was using the iGoogle version.

   $url = 'http://www.google.com/ig/calculator?hl=en&q=' . $amount . $from_Currency . '=?' . $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('"', $rawdata);
    $data = explode(' ', $data[3]);
    $var = $data[0];

BUT having looked they are using a different URL:

  'http://www.google.com/finance/converter?hl=en&a=' . $amount . '&from=' . $from_Currency . '&to=USD';

But simply changing the url does not return the required result that i was used to.

Now all i would get is

 http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd

SO has anyone worked on this latest currency converter URL or have any ideas. Or a replacement using PHP

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

14

Thanks to some more in depth looking and rewording of issue found this post. So in a way its a duplicate. but here is the question:

Need API for currency converting

I used @hobailey answer for a temporary fix until i can update it to another version or google decide to do a proper api.

  $amount = urlencode($amount);
  $from_Currency = urlencode($from_Currency);
  $to_Currency = urlencode($to_Currency);
  $get = file_get_contents("https://www.google.com/finance/converter?a=$amount&from=$from_Currency&to=$to_Currency");
  $get = explode("<span class=bld>",$get);
  $get = explode("</span>",$get[1]);  
  $converted_amount = preg_replace("/[^0-9\.]/", null, $get[0]);

edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

Community

1
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answered Nov 07 '13 at 14:33

Simon Davies

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Hi Thanks, sorry without seeing or using woocommerce/wordpress I cannot help you but I am sure there will be help soon, or post your own question relating to your issue. sorry – Simon Davies Oct 06 '15 at 18:39
On my server when I use file_get_contents('https://www.google.com/finance....'), it does not return anything. So what I can do it for working? – Sanjay Goswami Jun 29 '16 at 14:03

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered May 02 '14 at 10:53

4

Using XPath:

function currency($from, $to, $amount)
{
   $content = file_get_contents('https://www.google.com/finance/converter?a='.$amount.'&from='.$from.'&to='.$to);

   $doc = new DOMDocument;
   @$doc->loadHTML($content);
   $xpath = new DOMXpath($doc);

   $result = $xpath->query('//*[@id="currency_converter_result"]/span')->item(0)->nodeValue;

   return str_replace(' '.$to, '', $result);
}

echo currency('USD', 'EUR', 1); // returns 0.7216

answered May 02 '14 at 10:53

ggirtsou

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On my server when I use `file_get_contents('https://www.google.com/finance....')`, it does not return anything. So what I can do it for working? – Sanjay Goswami Jun 29 '16 at 14:02
@PlanetHackers please ask your host to enable allow_url_fopen: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3694240/add-allow-url-fopen-to-my-php-ini-using-htaccess If that doesn't work, please check error logs to figure out what's preventing you to access that resource. It could well be that this service is not available anymore. – ggirtsou Jun 29 '16 at 19:57

Ujjwal Ojha · Answer 3 · 2013-11-07T16:08:22.707

2

I have created a class to connect to Google in easier way here.

currency-converter-php

I hope it should make some aspects easier!

Edit:I just knew that Google service was closed this November 2013.

I am gonna have to change it!

Edit Again: I have changed Google Api to Yahoo Api and it works perfectly fine!

edited Nov 07 '13 at 16:08

answered Nov 07 '13 at 14:57

Ujjwal Ojha

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Thanks for this nice class, will keep this in mind when i get to update the sotres. – Simon Davies Nov 07 '13 at 15:19
oops forgot to mention that you would need to rework on that ta little as it uses the OLD google url http://www.google.com/ig/calculator... as google now use 'https://www.google.com/finance/converter...' but its not a case of a simple url change as i thought :-) – Simon Davies Nov 07 '13 at 15:21
Thanks for telling. I didnt know that before! – Ujjwal Ojha Nov 07 '13 at 15:28
not a problem, it to a client to notice :-) Google hey! Other than the link the diff below is the explode commands as well – Simon Davies Nov 07 '13 at 16:07
I have changed Google Api to Yahoo Api and it works perfectly fine! – Ujjwal Ojha Nov 07 '13 at 16:08

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 29 '16 at 14:56

I have found another solution. It will also work if your server IP is not able to use google service.

<?php
    $from_currency    = 'USD';
    $to_currency    = 'INR';
    $amount            = 1;
    $results = converCurrency($from_currency,$to_currency,$amount);
    $regularExpression     = '#\<span class=bld\>(.+?)\<\/span\>#s';
    preg_match($regularExpression, $results, $finalData);
    echo $finalData[0];

    function converCurrency($from,$to,$amount){
        $url = "http://www.google.com/finance/converter?a=$amount&from=$from&to=$to"; 
        $request = curl_init(); 
        $timeOut = 0; 
        curl_setopt ($request, CURLOPT_URL, $url); 
        curl_setopt ($request, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); 
        curl_setopt ($request, CURLOPT_USERAGENT,"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1)"); 
        curl_setopt ($request, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeOut); 
        $response = curl_exec($request); 
        curl_close($request); 
        return $response;
    } 
?>

The source reference Step Blogging

The Google Finance API was due to be be shut down on October 20th 2012. However it remained working since then, until the answer is posted. Google Finance is a discontinued service which offers no support. — Sanjay Goswami, Aug 23 '19 at 13:32

Google Currency Converter has changed its URL but not getting same result

4 Answers4