Signal Developer Reference, Standard eSignal API Edition

[Andrew Staffer]

No problem downloading the "eSignal Developer Reference, eSignal Desktop API Edition".
But where can I get the "eSignal Developer Reference, Standard eSignal API Edition" document?

Thanks, Andrew

[Gene]

http://share.esignal.com/groupcontents.jsp?folder=&groupid=185

is that what you want ?

[Andrew Staffer]

Gene,

Thanks for the response - I went to that link, maybe I am blind, but I only see the deskop document which is called "eSignal Desktop API Edition". This doc is VB based. In it there are references to two other docs. The one I am looking for is the "Standard eSignal API Edition" which is C/C++

Thanks, Andrew

[pawnbroker]

Andrew,


I suspect that you are referring to the old Turbo Feed API, which is not available to the "general public" and that is why you can't find the documents.


eSignal has two API's, the old Turbo Feed API is only available to corporate customers and approved developers (which will not include the majority of eSignals customers).

I think that the problem with the Turbo Feed API is that some developers will create an unintended distributed denial of service attack on eSignals servers; for example, by requesting a whole days worth of 1min bars every minute, instead of downloading the data once and then using a streaming connection to keep the charts up to date.


The Turbo Feed API is the ideal development tool as it does not need eSignal's charting application to be running in order to obtain data. However, it is no use if you are not allowed to use it.


The new API is the Desktop ActiveX API, which is an extension of eSignal's charting application and eSignal must be running in order to get data via the ActiveX api. This API has caching built in, which avoids the denial of service problem - even from the dumbest developer.

If you want to develop in C++, you are going to find life hard as the API is really intended for access by higher level languages such as VB. This is not to say that you can't use C++, but the examples are in VB and I understand that programming ActiveX in C++ is not easy.


The next problem with the Desktop API is that it only exposes data, and there is no method to return data back to eSignal. So you can't use the advanced charts in eSignal to plot data derived from you ActiveX API software.


I have found it hard to find a control to let me plot real time charts and it seems like a fundamental design error to exclude the return of data. This makes the ActiveX API useless as a means to create indicators for use in eSignal, for which you must use EFS or DLL's.

In my trading system, I want to plot the entry and exit signals and lines on the chart to show the stop and limit levels. I could impliment this by creating a text file in my ActiveX application and then parse this file using the file functions in an EFS script, but this is hardly a neat solution.


Depending on what you want to do, you may find that it will be better for you to create a DLL in C++, which will avoid the one off fee for the API and the $20 monthly charge for the API - and it will let you return data to your eSignal charts.


The DLL will be supplied bar data when it is called and that may be all that you need.



Pawnbroker

[Gene]

Pawnbroker,
I am using Providex, a very powerful business basic. I understand you lack of a clean solution to write data received from the API back to Esig. I haven't tried it yet, but my plan is to get the API which is readable by Providex and then I can do whatever I want.
I don't have any requirements for anything fancy in the way of charts , but, doing a simple price chart overlaying your custom study would be pretty simplistic. I found the language very easy to use compared to VB or C++, very small learning curve.
If you have any interest let me know.
Gene

[Andrew Staffer]

Pawnbroker,

Thank you very much for your response. This is key data for all regarding the architecture of the system. It would be great if this was posted somewhere as general data.

Andrew

[pawnbroker]

Gene,

I have not heard of ProvideX, but it looks as thought it has some nice features, such as the thin client capability across platforms.

Anyway, back to the main point, the Desktop ActiveX API does not have a mechanism to return data to eSignal, which is why I mentioned work arounds such as parsing files.

Sadly, you will not be able to create overlays on charts via the Desktop API.

The only ways at present to return data is by a DLL. You could write an ActiveX program, which communicates with a DLL that sends data to eSignal, but this is a lot of work to get round the problem.


e.g.

Data Out
eSignal - Destop API - ActiveX program

Data In
ActiveX program - DLL Link - eSignal Chart

or

Data In
ActiveX program - text file - Parse text in EFS - eSignal Chart


Pawnbroker