Creation of download sources

To download share price information of different financial instruments with Stockbrowser, first all sources of where this information should come from must be specified.

First, determine which site offers good information. The more data is displayed on the site the more complete the data that is obtained with Stockbrowser. When performing technical analysis, the more complete the data, the better the analysis.

With the most complete information you can benefit as a technical analysis conducted on the data.

Define the source

When a website from which the data can be collected is selected, add this website to the 'sources_personal.txt', which can be found in the installation directory of Stockbrowser. The following data must be added on one line in the file. Between each parameter a semicolon must be added.

• Format code: a unique code with the order and layout of the columns of the source page.
• URL: the URL from which the data must be downloaded. This URL is the page on which the data is displayed.
• Type: the type of financial product which is displayed on the page. To see which products are available to download, see the table below.
• Category: the category in which the stocks will be put in Stockbrowser. This category corresponds with one of the categories in Stockbrowser.
• Page name: the page name is displayed in Stockbrowser. This name is, among others, displayed when a download group is created.
• Page category: the categories to which the stocks on the page belong. Three categories must be added here: Country, Type and Source (e.g. Netherlands, Share, Skuzet).
• Currency: the currency in which this stock is registered.

Abreviation	Product
S	Shares
T	Topshares
F	Funds
I	Indices
O	Options
OB	Bonds
FU	Futures
IN	Intrest
M	Currency
U	Unknown

Define the code format

After one or more rules are added, the format in which the columns are displayed must be added. This new format can be added to the file 'definitions.ini' or 'personal_definitions.ini', which are also available in the installation directory of Stockbrowser.

The 'format code', which has just been described, must be added between checkered hooks ('[' and ']'). This is the first line of the layout description. The next line beneath the first line, the order of the columns must be added. This line starts with 'TabFormatString='. The columns that can be used are:

Symbol	Meaning
ASK	Ask price
BID	Bid price
DATE	Date
DATETIME	Date and time in one field
DELTA	Delta of the day
DELTA%	Delta of the day in %
DESCRIPTION	Description which is added to the option
EARNINGS	Earnings per share
HIGH	Day high
HIGH_LOW	Day high and low in one field
LAST	Last with decimals (required)
LOW	Day low
OI	Open interest
OPEN	Open
OPTIONSTRIKE	Option strike price
PREVCLOSE	Closing of the last day
PREVDATE	Previous date
PREVHIGH	Previous day high
PREVLOW	Previous day low
PREVOPEN	Previous day open
PREVVOLUME	Previous day volume
SYMBOL	Symbol
SYMBOLYYYYMON	Symbol and option strike date
TICKER	Ticker
TIME	Time
USHIGH	Day high with fraction (e.g. 1 1/16)
USLAST	Last price with fraction
USLOW	Day low with fraction
USOPEN	Opening price with fraction
USVOLUME	Volume with a comma as thousand seperator
VOLUME	Volume

When the order of the columns is clear, the markup of the date and time fields must be added. This can be done by adding the following lines:

• ‘DateString=’: date markup.
• ‘TimeString=’: time markup.
• ‘DateTimeSting=’: date and time markup.
• ‘DateSeparatorChar=’: date seperator symbol.
• ‘TimeSeparatorChar=’: time seperator symbol.
• ‘NoTime=1’: time is removed from DATETIME.

An example of the format is:

[FORMATCODE]
TabFormatString=Symbol;Description;Last;Delta;Delta%;Usvolume;DATE;
DateSeparatorChar=/
DateString=DD/MM/YYYY
Timestring=HH:MM
TimeSeparatorChar=:

The before mentioned format is a simple format, but this will do for most of the download sources. When you have found a more complicated or extended source, you can use following markup parameters:

• ‘AbsoluteColumns=9,15,21,28,34,40’: When no seperators are used, then use the absolute starting position of the columns.
• ‘BeginCell=1’: change the <TD>-tag in a semicolon (‘;’).
• ‘Delimiter=’: the fields are seperated by the given symbol.
• ‘HasQoutes=1’: all data is between brackets.
• ‘HasStocks=0’: no sounds when the funds are not found.
• ‘HomePage=’: the site of which the pages are part.
• ‘HTMLReplaceString=A;B;C;D;’: replace A with B and C with D, etc. after all HTML-tags are removed. This way, special characters like ë can be changed.
• ‘IgnoreEOL=0’: Usually, lines are wrapped on <BR> and <TR>-tags. When this code is used, also other line breaks apply.
• ‘IngoodSection=0
  StartKeyword=CONVERTABLE
  Stopkeyword=WARRANTS’: only use the data between ‘StartKeyword’ and ‘StopKeyword’.
• ‘MaxFields=’: the maximum number of columns in a line. When this code is used, the 'Minfields' code must also be applied.
• ‘MinFields=’: the minimum number of columns. Also use 'Maxfields'.
• ‘MultiField=1’: take the first number when more are available in one field.
• ‘PostFix=’: always add extra signs at the end of a symbol.
• ‘QuitOnError=1’: nothing is restored when an error occurs.
• ‘ReplaceChars=1’: replace ‘/’ and ‘\’ with ‘#’, and ‘-‘ with a white space in the symbol of description.
• ‘ReplaceString=A;B;C;D;’: replace A with B and C with D, etc. after all HTML-tags are removed. This way, special characters like ë can be changed.
• ‘SingleLinedate=2
  SingleLineSeparator=;’: date is available in the second column. Columns are seperated with a semicolon.
• ‘SingleLinedate=2’: the date is the second word on the page. Default, words are seperated with a white space.
• ‘SingleLinedate=3
  SingleLineSeparator=10,20,30’: the date is available in the third column. The first column counts 10 positions, as do the 2nd and 3rd columns.
• ‘SkipTrailing=0’: do not remove the white space prior to the data.
• ‘Strikt=1’: the line is ignored when some error is in the line.
• ‘UnixFormat=0’: accelerate the parsing.
• ‘UserAgent=’: identify the account with which the data will be fetched.

Loading of the definitions

At this moment, it is possible to load the new definitions into Stockbrowser. This can be done by opening the application and click in the menu File on Reread Download Sources. The new definitions can now be used to fetch the data from the new download source.