NAME
POE::Component::Client::opentick::FAQ - The official FAQ for POE::Component::Client::opentick.
DESCRIPTION
This is just a Frequently-Asked Questions list. For complete documentation, please see POE::Component::Client::opentick.
OVERVIEW-TYPE QUESTIONS
What is this module? How do I use it?
POE::Component::Client::opentick is a POE CLIENT COMPONENT FOR ACCESSING MARKET DATA, via the feed provided by http://www.opentick.com.
It is intended to do just that: supply your own application with market data. The onus is on the end user (you!) to provide the supporting framework into which this component fits, be it a graphing/monitoring/alert system, an algorithmic trading platform, a home-built ticker system, or whatever else you can imagine that you could use inexpensive market data for.
Instead of threads (which are poorly implemented in Perl), this component runs under POE, a very robust, well-tested and well-supported asynchronous event environment. POE has a bit of a learning curve, but it is extremely versatile and useful, not only for this but for many applications, and is generally a much better and faster solution than Perl threading.
POE::Component::Client::opentick does NOT:
directly support online trades.
directly provide a built-in graphing component.
contain additional utilities that are well-provided via other modules on CPAN, that would need to be separately developed and maintained, and which are doing just fine being maintained by their respective authors.
contain algorithms that will get you a solid gold house by the end of the fiscal year.
Here is the documentation for POE, the Perl Object Environment.
Here is an entire, official Perl site dedicated to POE: http://poe.perl.org.
Are there any example scripts?
Yes, there are 2 well-documented example scripts, and they are included in the source distribution from CPAN in the examples/ directory. You probably already have them on your system.
You may also browse them on the web here:
http://search.cpan.org/src/INFIDEL/POE-Component-Client-opentick-0.20/examples/
And the CPAN overview page here:
http://search.cpan.org/src/INFIDEL/POE-Component-Client-opentick-0.20/
(Be sure to go to your correct version.)
Which interface/API should I use? opentick.pm? OTClient.pm?
You should use the one that you are more comfortable with.
If you are building a NEW application, have NOT used the opentick.com official OTClient.pm library, OR wish to have the entire feature set of this component available to you, use the base interface:
use POE::Component::Client::opentick;If you are migrating from opentick.com's official OTClient.pm library, or you wish to use the somewhat simpler interface, albeit with some advanced features made more difficult to get at (they are still available), you may wish to use the facade interface provided by my OTClient.pm:
use POE::Component::Client::opentick::OTClient.pm;Full documentation for each of these below:
POE::Component::Client::opentick
POE::Component::Client::opentick::OTClient
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
Why do you only accept UNIX epoch dates?
Can't you write a method to convert dates?
That is out of scope for the goal of this component, which is to provide a CLIENT COMPONENT FOR ACCESSING MARKET DATA. I use UNIX epoch dates because they use 1-second resolution, which is the smallest resolution that opentick.com provides, AND it is easy to work with and natively supported on almost all platforms (you're not still using MS-DOS, are you?)
Also, working with dates and time is actually very complicated, much more complex than it seems in a passing thought. I don't want to maintain non-core code that has no direct bearing on the purpose of being a CLIENT COMPONENT FOR ACCESSING MARKET DATA.
A quick search on http://search.cpan.org/ gave me a list of 3838 results for "Date" and more than 5000 results for "Time", so it is also well-covered territory.
Here are some of the better/more widely-used ones:
How do I change the server list? port numbers? realtime?
All options similar to this, which change critical settings such as these, are specified as arguments to the "spawn()" in POE::Component::Client::opentick constructor of opentick.pm, or overload the base class for POE::Component::Client::OTClient.
(I may provide additional accessor methods in the future for OTClient.pm; right now, there has been no demand yet.)
META QUESTIONS
Are you affiliated with opentick.com?
No.
Why is 'opentick' lowercase in the module name? THAT'S NOT PERLY!
Because the logo and trademark of opentick is lowercase. This was intentional.
Where should I send questions, complaints, cookies, money, yachts?
If you have bug reports, please use the RequestTracker at http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=POE-Component-Client-opentick.
If you have questions or comments that haven't been answered above (please actually check), I can be reached at:
Jason McManus (INFIDEL) - infidel AT cpan.org
As the user 'infi' on the Freenode IRC Network: irc://irc.freenode.net/#perl
I wouldn't mind receiving mail telling me a brief overview of what you're using it for.
RESOURCES
Web Links
The POE::Component::Client::opentick documentation.
The POE::Component::Client::opentick::OTClient documentation.
The project page, http://search.cpan.org/~infidel/POE-Component-Client-opentick/ for this module.
The CPAN search page: http://search.cpan.org.
The POE documentation, POE::Kernel, POE::Session
http://poe.perl.org/ - POE's official site.
http://www.opentick.com/ - opentick's main site.
http://www.opentick.com/dokuwiki/doku.php - opentick's documentation.
The examples/ directory of this module's distribution.
AUTHOR
Jason McManus (INFIDEL) - infidel AT cpan.org
LICENSE
Copyright (c) Jason McManus
This module may be used, modified, and distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. Please see the license that came with your Perl distribution for details.
The data from opentick.com are under an entirely separate license that varies according to exchange rules, etc. It is your responsibility to follow the opentick.com and exchange license agreements with the data.
Further details are available on http://www.opentick.com/.