The Quicken OFX AppID and AppVer are available in multiple websites and there are lot of other personal accounting softwares (GNUCash) that I can use Quicken OFX data to connect to banking server. Is it legal to use Quicken OFX AppId and AppVer in other software products?
While I am no legal expert, you seem to be conflating terminology-
*.ofx stands for Open Financial Exchange documents, which can be used by anyone.
*.qfx stands for Quicken Financial (proprietary) documents which are bound by license and usually associated with fees paid through your bank.
The two file formats are very similar, with the addition of some proprietary tags and session data which exist only in the Quicken file types. If the tags you are referring to don't exist in the open OFX format definition (found here) then you're out of luck.
Related
I'm interested in downloading my transactions from Chase without using a third party such as Mint, Quicken, Yodlee, Plaid, and so on. I don't trust third parties with handling my data, which is why I want to do it myself.
Works as of 1/8/18
Summary
Chase uses OFX to support programmatic interactions with its financial data. It does so somewhat reluctantly however, as this fact isn't widely advertised nor well documented - banks would rather have you use their products directly, rather than go to third parties. That being said, support for desktop products like Quicken still exists, and so one method is to spoof yourself as a desktop product (the other options are to use a third party service or use a screen scraper). Obviously this solution is completely at the mercy of Chase's whims, and as a discouraged access pattern this is not robust. But you're still reading, so let's do this!
Solution
Set up your account to accept connections from Desktop apps
Account > Profile & Settings > Manage Account Security > Desktop apps > Click enable
Generate a Client UID. Chase will use this to verify that the OFX requests it's receiving are intended.
Go to https://www.uuidgenerator.net/ and generate a UID.
Use ofx-ba-tfb.py to POST the following to https://ofx.chase.com. Comments begin with a # sign, do not include them.
Headers:
OFXHEADER:100
DATA:OFXSGML
VERSION:102
SECURITY:NONE
ENCODING:USASCII
CHARSET:1252
COMPRESSION:NONE
OLDFILEUID:NONE
NEWFILEUID:{Insert random alphanumeric string}
Payload:
<OFX>
<SIGNONMSGSRQV1>
<SONRQ>
<DTCLIENT>20180108012004
<USERID>{Insert user id}
<USERPASS>{Insert password}
<LANGUAGE>ENG
<FI>
<ORG>B1 # Comes from ofxhome.com
<FID>10898
</FI>
<APPID>QWIN
<APPVER>1800
<CLIENTUID>{Insert random alphanumeric string}
</SONRQ>
</SIGNONMSGSRQV1>
<CREDITCARDMSGSRQV1>
<CCSTMTTRNRQ>
<TRNUID>{Insert random alphanumeric string}
<CLTCOOKIE>4
<CCSTMTRQ>
<CCACCTFROM>
<ACCTID>{Insert account id here}
</CCACCTFROM>
<INCTRAN>
<DTSTART>20171208
<INCLUDE>Y
</INCTRAN>
</CCSTMTRQ>
</CCSTMTTRNRQ>
</CREDITCARDMSGSRQV1>
</OFX>
Verify the request
You will get a response that says,
"Please verify your identity within the next 7 days. Using your desktop computer, go to your bank's website and visit the Secure Message Center for instructions." After a small delay (in minutes), you will receive a message in your Secure Message Center asking to confirm that you made this request. Confirm the request. This response and verification happens with each new Client UID you submit.
Make the OFX request again, and you should receive your transactions!
Comments
Many thanks to Harry Sit # thefinancebuff.com for doing most of the work!!
More is possible through OFX, it's a complicated standard. Look to the specification for details.
You can also use GnuCash to see other promising settings.
This is using OFX 1.02, but Chase is now at 2.2
References
https://thefinancebuff.com/replacing-microsoft-money-part-5-ofx-scripts.html#comments
http://www.ofx.net/
http://www.ofxhome.com/
http://www.ofxhome.com/ofxforum/viewtopic.php?id=47456
https://rhye.org/post/parsing-ofx-leex/
since October 5, 2022, Chase disconnected ofx.chase.com and look like you have to go aggregators like Quicken/MD+ to get your data.
As HLE indicates, Chase has killed OFX/DirectConnect as of late Sept./early Oct. 2022. Here are some related articles:
"As of October 6th, 2022, Chase will no longer be supporting Direct Connect/OFX which includes 3rd-party bill pay. Along with some of the other larger financial institutions, Chase has moved to the Open Banking connection method for transaction importing. A link to an article that explains what Open Banking is all about is listed below."
https://www.banktivity.com/support/articles/banktivity-7/ofx-direct-connect-will-no-longer-be-supported-by-chase-as-of-october-6th-2022/
"Chase Bank is changing the way it connects with personal finance management solutions like Quicken. To keep Quicken connected to your Chase account you'll need to switch you connection method on or before September 26, 2022."
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7916266/quicken-chase-announce-killing-link-to-chase-direct-connect-bill-pay
Possible solutions for Moneydance users:
http://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/discussions/online-banking/23881-chase-bank-accounts-no-longer-can-connect
It sounds like .QXF files contain the same/similar data as .OFX files and the downloading of such files may be scriptable. I will update this answer if I find out more.
I'm a technical person with in-depth knowledge on Python and its framework. I've build an ecommerce store using Django-Oscar. I've multiple products in my store.
My store offers a large assortment of products in the Electronics category. A new and upcoming sub-category is surveillance and security systems. However, due to the varied nature of products in this category, the products are distributed across “Home Security” (Under Appliances) and “Security Systems”, etc. (under the Computers & Laptop > Office Equipment). A better understanding of the market segments is required for better positioning these products.
I reviewed Maplin, another e-store that provides same category of products on its store for better placing of my products.
Since I'm not a business analyst or a sales person, I want to get some recommendations/suggestions on how my e-commerce store can structure the products to increase conversion based on your review of the Maplin Storefront and my own product mix in this category. The constraint is that I cannot create a separate level 1 category for surveillance and security systems.
i tried Google on where should a particular product be placed to increase the conversion rate, but to little fortune. Also, I tried finding other SO portals where this type of question is a fit, but couldn't find any. So, if you can let me know the appropriate portal for this kind of question, it will be of great help!!! You can provide your recommendation/suggestions here as well.
Thanks!!! Appreciate your help!!!
register for google webmaster tools
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
-- then verify your website with google
take a look at google merchant center
https://www.google.com/merchants/
this page has links to google product taxonomy docs with categories etc
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/160081
amazon is also worth looking at http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200218500
next step would be structured data for the products
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1211158
http://schema.org/Product
I am using an OFX download function written in Python similar to ofxclient to download bank and credit card transactions. However, it only retreives posted transactions, not ones that are in progress. This results in the account infomation frequently being out of date by a day or more. I realize these pending transactions could be temporary (holds, etc.) But most of the time they turn into permanent transactions after they post or drop. But is there some different OFX command I can use to request pending transactions, with the understanding that they are subject to change? It is possible to see them from the web site of every financial institution I have tried, but trying to scrape web sites is out of the question and OFX I though was designed to avoid the need for such non-standard procecures.
Try the <INCLUDEPENDING> flag; see OFX Spec 2.2 - 2017, page 207.
It defaults to N. So, try:
<INCLUDEPENDING>Y
Note: The backend server must support this feature, which is available with OFX 2.2 (VERSION:220).
I apologize for being rather vague here, but I'm working on a project involving stock data and stock purchases. I'm sure I'm going to end up having to get a broker involved, but I was wondering if anyone knows of any documentation on the underlying technology involved with existing trading sites, as well as the channels through which systems like google finance get their information.
Note that I already know of the APIs from yahoo and tdameritrade that send out the data, I'm interested in the channels through which that data travels to them in the first place.
They're most likely getting the data feeds from one or more of the usual suspects (ie, Reuters, Bloomberg and the like). You've probably noticed that the feeds on the publically accessible websites are delayed by 15-20 minutes compared to the real time feeds. Keep that in mind in your application, if you need proper up to date/real time market data it'll cost you a fair penny.
Those firms trading directly on the exchanges obviously have access to the data from the actual exchange - that's what you (have to) use in real time and algorithmic trading. However, the above mentioned companies (and I'm sure there are a few more, these are just the ones that most people are familiar with) are usually the data providers for those trading via intermediaries.
For reference data on stocks (as opposed to actual stock quote data), Mergent ( http://www.mergent.com ) is one of the data suppliers and has been collecting the data for decades. It has a set of APIs at http://www.mergent.com/servius
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I am working on a large project involving creating a worldwide hotel database with rich data such as Addresses, Images, Descriptions, Policies, Coordinates, Facilities, Reviews, Local area descriptions and their amenities etc.
I am looking for a public hotel API where I can both retrieve the data and run (preferably RESTful) real-time queries for specific locations and available rooms, and where I can subsequently let my customers make bookings.
Can anyone share experience, knowledge and possible guidelines for such a project, which APIs are suitable and what are the best practices?
In my search for hotel APIs I have found only one API giving unrestricted open access to their hotel database and allowing you to book their hotels:
Expedia's EAN http://developer.ean.com/
You need to sign for their affiliate program, which is very easy.
You get immediate access to their hotel databases plus you can make availability/booking requests with several response options, including JSON, which is more convenient and lightweight than the (unfortunately) more widespread XML.
As you immediately access their API, you can start developing and testing, but still need their approval to launch the site, basically to make sure it provides the needed quality and security, which is reasonable.
They also offer "deep linking", i.e. you may customize your requests by adding parameters. Then if it sufficient for your purpose (for mine it is not), you don't even need to store their content on your server.
I have also signed for HotelsCombined program:
(link removed as this site doesn't seem to let me put more links)
However, they do not immediately allow you to use their API even for testing. From their answer:
"Apologies for the inconvenience caused, but it’s simply a business decision to limit access to our rich hotel content. Please kindly check back within the next 2-3 months, where we will be able to judge your traffic, and in turn judge your status on standard data feeds."
I have also signed for Booking.com affiliate program:
(link removed as this site doesn't seem to let me put more links)
Unfortunately, again, they limit access, from their answer:
"Please do note that, since there's a high amount of time and cost involved in the XML integration, we are only able to offer the XML integration to a small amount of partners with a high potential."
I did not explore Tripadvisor as they seem only to offer top 10 hotels and only as widgets, but most importantly for me, they wouldn't allow booking through them.
I've checked the hotelbase.org mentioned above, they have very extensive list but not as rich as by Expedia, also they don't seem to have images and don't allow booking either.
I've used the TripAdvisor API before and its suited me well. It returns, per destination, a list of top-rated hotels, along with options to retrieve reviews, photos, nearby restaurants and a couple other useful things.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/what_type_of_tripadvisor_content_is_available
From the API page (available API content) :
* Hotel, attraction and restaurant ratings and reviews
* Top 10 lists of hotels, attractions and restaurants in a destination
* Traveler photos of a destination
* Travelers' Choice award badges for hotels and destinations
To expand upon #nstehr's answer, you could also use Yahoo Pipes to facilitate a more granular local search. Go to pipes.yahoo.com and do a search for existing hotel pipes and you'll get the idea..
HotelsCombined has an easy-to-access and useful service to download the data feed files with hotels. Not exactly API, but something you can get, parse and use. Here is how you do it:
Go to http://www.hotelscombined.com/Affiliates.aspx
Register there (no company or bank data is needed)
Open “Data feeds” page
Choose “Standard data feed” -> “Single file” -> “CSV format” (you may get XML as well)
If you are interested in details, you may find the sample Python code to filter CSV file to get hotels for a specific city here:
http://mikhail.io/2012/05/17/api-to-get-the-list-of-hotels/
Update:
Unfortunately, HotelsCombined.com has introduced the new regulations: they've restricted the access to data feeds by default. To get the access, a partner must submit some information on why one needs the data. The HC team will review it and then (maybe) will grant access.
You could probably trying using Yahoo or Google's APIs. They are generic, but by specifying the right set of parameters, you could probably narrow down the results to just hotels. Check out Yahoo's Local Search API and Google's Local Search API
Check out api.hotelsbase.org - its a free xml hotel api
No images as of yet though
Try Tixik.com and their API there. They have a very different data that big players, really good coverage mostly in Europe and good API conditions.
After several days of searching found the EAN API - http://developer.ean.com/ - it is a very big one, but it provides really good information. Free demos, XML\JSON format. Looks good.