Rails RESTful JSON API Integration App

[Scrumpy Dog]

Put together a proof of concept Rails App that acts as RESTful JSON middleware app for the SOAP API.

Very much proof of concept, to highlight my Ruby Betfair Gem.

You can check out both here:

https://github.com/lukebyrne/betfair
https://github.com/lukebyrne/betfair-json-api

The gem also has a working bot in it that will lay odds on horses.

[AlgoTrader]

Originally Posted by Scrumpy Dog

Put together a proof of concept Rails App that acts as RESTful JSON middleware app for the SOAP API.
Very much proof of concept, to highlight my Ruby Betfair Gem.

There is a problem, Betfair forbids any proxies and middlewares. Any proxy should be stricly for personal use I beleive. Transforming XML into JSON and vice versa is trivial, I had to do it as JSON is a native object representaion in JavaScript applications.

Although RESTful json API is great, it will increase API call delays. Can you please suggest what are the reasons to have such a proxy? SOAP is shit, but not that shit to avoid it adding the additional complexity level.

[Scrumpy Dog]

Originally Posted by AlgoTrader

There is a problem, Betfair forbids any proxies and middlewares. Any proxy should be stricly for personal use I beleive. Transforming XML into JSON and vice versa is trivial, I had to do it as JSON is a native object representaion in JavaScript applications.

Although RESTful json API is great, it will increase API call delays. Can you please suggest what are the reasons to have such a proxy? SOAP is shit, but not that shit to avoid it adding the additional complexity level.

I wrote this Rails App primarily as a proof of concept to see whether I could and to demonstrate what I thought a RESTful JSON API may look like for the Exchange.

I am aware that it will increase API call delays.

A practical use may be if you were writing a mobile app for BF and needed a web app to act in the middle. I imagine as hard as SOAP is with traditional computing environments, it must be an absolute nightmare on native IOS and Android to create libraries to interact with BF.

[AlgoTrader]

Originally Posted by Scrumpy Dog

I imagine as hard as SOAP is with traditional computing environments, it must be an absolute nightmare on native IOS and Android to create libraries to interact with BF.

I never tried Adndroid, but for IOS implementing SOAP is simple. I can send the source code in Objective-C.

Cocoa has good collections (arrays, dictionaries), have several robust XML parsers (DOM, SAX) and XML serializers. It also have quite good HTTP (asynchronous and easy to use NSURLConnection). It has everything to make SOAP without much worries. IOS also allows use C/C++ without limitations so if one hates Objective-C he can use C/C++.

Betfair anyway does not allow applications working through proxies, so it will block the app in AppStore.

[AlgoTrader]

Originally Posted by Scrumpy Dog

A practical use may be if you were writing a mobile app for BF and needed a web app to act in the middle. I imagine as hard as SOAP is with traditional computing environments, it must be an absolute nightmare on native IOS and Android to create libraries to interact with BF.

There is another issue that is not technical. Supposedly you have a proxy REST service working at proxy.supertrader.com. I bought the supertrader application for iphone and I will somehow learn that my betfair password is going not to betfair but to proxy.supertrader.com. It's a matter of trust. Then proxy owner can get access to lots of accounts data, it's like sharing my credit card data with some service that I cannot trust for sure.

The same problem is with desktop apps, but first there is the "certification" process for such applications and second is the app works on a local computer and I can check which sites the app connects to.