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Currency Conversion Using Web Services

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9 Nov 2006CPOL2 min read 186K   35   47
This article teaches how to use a currency converter Web Service from www.xmethods.net in order to get exchange rates between currencies.

Introduction

I was navigating the web looking for a currency converter and, finally, I found an article by Phil Williams that explains currency conversion using Web Services. So I based this ASP.NET example on that article, and I have tries to make a little bit easier implementation using the ASP.NET environment. You will find the original article here: "Currency Conversion Using Web Services" by Phil Williams. Now, let's focus on the program. This article shows how to implement the currency converter Web Service from http://www.xmethods.net/ in order to get the exchange rates between currencies; the countries list is available in the xmethods website.

Step 1

Start a new ASP.NET project. In the web form, you must create three labels, named Trm (it will show US dollars in Colombian Pesos), Euro (same case but with Euro), Euro_Us (Euro in dollars).

Step 2

The second step is to add the Web Service reference to the third party Web Service, but how?? Go to the Solution Explorer, right click on the root, and click on Add Web Reference.

Sample screenshot

Sorry about the Spanish language in the screenshot, that's my mother language. In this page, you must specify the Web Service URL and click on Go. The URL is http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/CurrencyExchangeService.wsdl. Now you will see all the methods available for the Web Service; this one just has one: the GetRate() Web Method.

  • Change the Web Reference name to any string; in this case, it will be Rate_WS.
  • Click on the Add Web Reference button.

Sample screenshot

Add Web Reference Wizard

Now you will be able to invoke the GetRate() method from your program.

Step 3

In the page_load event, add these lines:

C#
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try{
        Rate_WS.CurrencyExchangeService to_currency = 
                new Rate_WS.CurrencyExchangeService();
        float euro_us = to_currency.getRate("euro", "united states"); 
        float us_pesos = to_currency.getRate("united states", "colombia"); 
        float euro_pesos = to_currency.getRate("euro", "colombia"); 
        Trm.Text = us_pesos.ToString(); 
        Euro.Text = euro_pesos.ToString(); 
        Euro_Us.Text = euro_us.ToString(); 
    } 
    catch(Exception){} 
}

Change the country names to what you want; the list of countries supported is available at http://www.xmethods.net/. This is an easy implementation for a basic Web Service. Feel free to make any changes.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Web Developer
Colombia Colombia
Web Developer during 3 years and counting, i worked over my school website by two years, right now im webmaster at World Wowan foundation banking in my home city.

Please forgive my pictures examples, they are at spanish language because its my mother language.


Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionError in code Pin
venkat sh15-Oct-12 8:37
venkat sh15-Oct-12 8:37 

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