OpenLinkz

We just experienced a major problem with the widgets that retrieve stock quotes from Yahoo finance.

It is fixed now but it was a frustrating experience while I was trying to correct the situation. Here is what I believe happened.

The widgets used a proxied XML-HTTP request via the WidgetBox servers that allows us to retrieve data from the Yahoo domain no matter what domain is displaying the widget. It appears that WidgetBox has tightened up their criteria as to what constitutes a valid XML-HTTP response. We were retrieving plain text, no XML at all, and it stopped working.

Our solution was to create a Yahoo Pipe that retrieved the text-based data and transformed it into an RSS feed. This was done by renaming the fields to comply with the typical RSS structure and then render it as RSS. We had to cheat a little here. The fieldnames that can be used are as follows: title, description, category and link. We mapped our stock data to these four fields. Luckily, the content doesn't matter so we can use these four fields for any data item we wish.

In any case, WidgetBox is happy to pull in the RSS as an XML-HTTP response. We are then able to pick up the data from the nodes in the XML response and display it as needed. Problem solved.