Finwin - OnlineSDK

INTRODUCTION
FinWin provides a robust web service platform for your data needs. Each of our web services comes packaged as XML data using the Web Distributed Data Exchange (wddx). This standard is a flexible, easy to understand format that is ideal for just this purpose. FinWin also delivers some services (particularly quotes) in standard (more verbose) XML format. This document documents how to utilize FinWin's XML feeds to supply data to your web site or application. Please note, if you are developing without being a finwin subscriber you will see data that is in the correct format, but it will usually be out of date or inaccurate. FinWin allows you to utilzie the service to program without being a subscriber, but does not feed live data to your server or application until you subscribe to the service. When you subscribe the service you need you will be given a FinWin ID. This new id number validates your status as a subscriber and activates the live data. It must accompany every request made to the FinWin servers for data.
WHO CAN USE FINWIN'S DATA
FinWin is a subscription-based web service. In order to use FinWin content you must register with FinWin as a subscribing site. FinWin has a number of packages to suite your data needs. If full-scale development of an interactive site is not what you need, FinWin provides some customizable templates that may suite your needs just as well. The "ad-based" FinWin model is available only with the pre-defined templates. There is a "full-service" FinWin subscription that allows the use of the XML news and XML quotes. All FinWin services are also broken in to subsets of data that you can subscribe to as individual services. Under no circumstances may you use live FinWin data on a public web site without an explicit subscription agreement. FinWin understands the difference between development and a site that is in production. We will work with you to make sure you have the tools you need to develop your site prior to subscribing. Most FinWin applications will return mock data when used in conjunction with a development ID. In this way, you can develop your site using FinWin tools, and not pay the subscription fee until the site is launched. Not every FinWin service works this way however. Contact your sales rep for more information. FinWin requests are made using a POST request and not a GET request. All parameters passed to the FinWin Servers must be a part of the POST data (ie. form parameters). We use POST type request for the following reasons. Field size - In a number of our applications, the amount of data being sent to the FinWin server may actually be quite large. For example, a site using the Quote Batch service may send a list of 1000 symbols. Using a GET request means that such a request will house a very unwieldy and unreadable URL. A POST request sends the data with no limitation to the size of the parameter (a limitation of earlier URL type requests) and allows all of the data to be posted. Security through obscurity - Exposing the entire username/password string in the URL seems more risky than putting it in the header. Yes, we know it can be viewed there as well by clever programmers (ha). FireWall Caching - Through Trial and error FinWin has discovered that a number of enterprise level caching products used by ISP's will actually return cached data to a GET request if the URL parameters are the same as a previous recent request. This results in quotes that do not refresh in a timely manner. POST requests do not appear to exhibit the same behavior - usually allowing the return content through without caching.
DATA FEEDS
FinWin quotes, news and data all come from the most robust and reliable sources possible: News Feeds DTN Market Access Newsroom - 6 full-time editors edit and publish from AP, UPI, Market News and 3 other feeds. Internet Wire Prime Zone Media Network PR News Wire - This premium service is provided for an additional subscription cost. Business Wire - This premium service is provided for an additional subscription cost. AP Online News - This premium service is provided for an additional subscription cost. Quote Feeds - DTN Market Access aggregates quote feeds from ALL US equity and futures markets, as well as Canadian stocks. Feeds are direct from the exchange with no middleman. Our quotes are robust, reliable and very fast.