Google currency converter no longer working

Question

It appears that Google Finance Currency Converter has stopped working altogether. A week ago I started getting these email notifications from my Magento 1.9.2 store:

Currency update warnings: WARNING: Cannot retrieve rate from https://finance.google.com/finance/converter?a=1&from=GBP&to=EUR. WARNING: Cannot retrieve rate from https://finance.google.com/finance/converter?a=1&from=GBP&to=USD.

Those URLs are indeed no longer valid. Does anyone know if there are new URLs we can use, or do we need to configure a different service?

Answer 1

This link is not working anymore.

 protected $_url = 'https://finance.google.com/finance/converter?a=1&from={{CURRENCY_FROM}}&to={{CURRENCY_TO}}';

I researched and found this codes.

Find this file:

app/code/local/Payserv/GoogleFinance/Model/Google.php

Replace the codes with this:

class Payserv_GoogleFinance_Model_Google extends Mage_Directory_Model_Currency_Import_Abstract {

protected $_url = 'http://free.currencyconverterapi.com/api/v3/convert?q={{CURRENCY_FROM}}_{{CURRENCY_TO}}';

protected $_messages = array();

protected function _convert($currencyFrom, $currencyTo, $retry=0) {
    $url = str_replace('{{CURRENCY_FROM}}', $currencyFrom, $this->_url);
    $url = str_replace('{{CURRENCY_TO}}', $currencyTo, $url);
    try {
         $resultKey = $currencyFrom.'_'.$currencyTo;
         $response = file_get_contents($url);
         $data = Mage::helper('core')->jsonDecode($response);
         $results = $data['results'][$resultKey];
         $queryCount = $data['query']['count'];
         if( !$queryCount &&  !isset($results)) {
            $this->_messages[] = Mage::helper('directory')->__('Cannot retrieve rate from %s.', $url);
            return null;
        }
       return (float)$results['val'];
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        if ($retry == 0) {
            $this->_convert($currencyFrom, $currencyTo, 1);
        } else {
            $this->_messages[] = Mage::helper('directory')->__('Cannot retrieve rate from %s', $url);
        }
    }
}
}

Answer 2

It seems to be intermittent (it shows if I load a page 10 times or so, but only once every 10 clicks). But I've personally started configuring other services. I am using bank API's (currently a Swedish one so it might not help you). But check with your bank, they usually have APIs.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Apparently Google doesn't offer this service anymore.

The main alternative looks to be:

• Fixer.io API
• Currencylayer API

Both offers 1000 request for free a month ( you need to create an account on their homepage )

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8391430/716435

Answer 4

Google doesn't provide the currency converter API anymore. There are several alternative APIs offering currency conversion data. Some have been mentioned in posts already (Fixer, Currencylayer...)

Another option is SWOP currency exchange rate API, a fast, easy to use, reliable and transparent foreign exchange rate API made from developers for developers. Full disclaimer: I'm one of the developers of SWOP :)

• The SWOP API offers current and historical rates for 180+ currencies. They are gathered directly from trusted sources (various Central Banks and other important banks).
• The SWOP API has two endpoints, GraphQL and REST/JSON, for developer convenience.
• There's a free plan allowing 1,000 requests per month.

Answer 5

The problem is with the link, google updated the api link recently, and I found success once on checking 10 times to the existing link. Try changing to this link https://www.google.com/finance/converter

see this https://www.techbuy.in/google-finance-api-currency-converter-not-working-updated-link-check-currency-converter/

Answer 6

I was facing same problem from last week. But new url solved my problem and now currency conversion working fine. try this: https://finance.google.com/bctzjpnsun/converter

Answer 7

Google's finance URL doesn't seem to work for now, I have prepared a workaround to use MSN Money (Microsoft's) API. It returns JSON so you can consume it using any programing language, I have put sample using PHP:

    function msn($from, $to, $amount) {

    $url = 'https://finance.services.appex.bing.com/Market.svc/ChartDataV5?symbols=245.20.'.strtoupper($from).strtoupper($to).'LITE&chartType=1y';
    $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);
    $response = json_decode(curl_exec($request));
    curl_close($request);

    $rate = array_last($response[0]->Series)->P;

    return $rate * $amount;
}

The above function accepts the currency that you currently have, the target currency and amount. Send's a GET request to MSN URL and parses the JSON to get today's exchange rate. Finally, it multiplies the rate with your amount to convert it to the target currency.

I hope this solves your need, the code has a lot of rooms for optimization I just gave you a simple implementation For example, you can save the exchange rate in your database and use that rate for one day this way you will only call the API once a day.