One of the problems with WWW based Web services is that they're not always very reliable. It's all very well talking about the multitude of Web services that are going to be on the Web but when you actually go looking using a tool like Google you find that there isn't as many as you'd think, they're is little indication that they are current, and there is no guarantee they will be there tomorrow.
I went looking for the simple stock quote Web service and found only a handful. I found one that worked well on the xmethods.net Web site. I found the example in the Ruby Cookbook (page 630). I'm not sure if it was due to my posting my Ruby based Web service client on Tuesday, and it causing some sort of spike in usage, but since yesterday this service no longer exists! It's not even listed anymore. So those of you that were thinking "this Ruby program doesn't work!" are right! It no longer works. I will be fixing that.
When you do find a Web service using the Google approach to finding them, they might be dated 2003, or something like that. Which is fine - if a service written in 2003 worked and still works fine then there is no need to change it. However as a user you'd still like to know that it is current and won't be gone in like ... a DAY!
So then I found a WSDL for a simple Stock quote Web service on the IBM site. I had to change my Ruby code to use the WSDL instead of the API that uses the URL and namespace. But as it turns out this service no longer exists either!
So I'll hunt down another stock quote Web service with a similar schema and post the updated Ruby file to the end of this post later. There are several out there, it's just a matter of finding whcih one is still there. I might use Yahoo.
IP Babble is the personal blog of William Henry.
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