Bitcoin Windows gadget which displays BTC and currency amounts

[glon]

These past few days the mining stats section has been behaving somewhat erratically.

It seems like the gadget is losing the connection to the API (BTC guild in my case) - the BTC amount will zero out several times during the 10 minute window that it's supposed to be refresh at.

Is there something going on with the BTCGuild API perhaps?

Thanks!

[phoxpup]

Call me a minimalist but do I really need to look at that "1" in the labelled BTC field.  Its always "1". (of course) Why not make the gadget smaller by allowing it to be hidden? Alternatively,  I'd like to be able to configure the gadget to just show 2 fields, one for MtGox (latest) and another for BTC-E (latest) for instance.  Even if nothing changes with this gadget, it is already an excellent one.  (way to go!!)

[Domchi]

These past few days the mining stats section has been behaving somewhat erratically.

It seems like the gadget is losing the connection to the API (BTC guild in my case) - the BTC amount will zero out several times during the 10 minute window that it's supposed to be refresh at.

Is there something going on with the BTCGuild API perhaps?

Thanks!

It's strange that you get changes between refreshes; that could indeed signal that it takes a long time to get response from one of the APIs, typically all calls complete during a few seconds. Also, check if both mining and exchange data intervals are set to ten minutes. If your exhange update interval is shorter than 600 seconds (10 minutes), it could be the issue with exchange.

[Domchi]

Call me a minimalist but do I really need to look at that "1" in the labelled BTC field.  Its always "1". (of course) Why not make the gadget smaller by allowing it to be hidden? Alternatively,  I'd like to be able to configure the gadget to just show 2 fields, one for MtGox (latest) and another for BTC-E (latest) for instance.  Even if nothing changes with this gadget, it is already an excellent one.  (way to go!!)

I hear you, I'm all for minimalism. But it's not meant to always be 1; miners will typically have different amount there, and I for example have two BTC gadgets, one with 1 BTC to monitor price and other to monitor my Bitcoin net worth (where I actually pull this number from Google doc spreadsheet which calculates my current holdings).

There's an issue with making it smaller (1-field) - there can be only two sizes for one gadget, normal and expanded, and expanded is already used for displaying 5 fields view. And displaying only one field on the current size might be ugly, though I'll have to try it - though it won't save any space.

You do make interesting suggestions and I'll think about it for the next version. I actually like the idea of displaying two exhange rates at the same time - now you have to either use expanded view or put two instances of the gadget on desktop, one for each exchange.

[glon]

These past few days the mining stats section has been behaving somewhat erratically.

It seems like the gadget is losing the connection to the API (BTC guild in my case) - the BTC amount will zero out several times during the 10 minute window that it's supposed to be refresh at.

Is there something going on with the BTCGuild API perhaps?

Thanks!

It's strange that you get changes between refreshes; that could indeed signal that it takes a long time to get response from one of the APIs, typically all calls complete during a few seconds. Also, check if both mining and exchange data intervals are set to ten minutes. If your exhange update interval is shorter than 600 seconds (10 minutes), it could be the issue with exchange.

Nope both times are set to 10 minutes. Just now the gadget would not display any mining data even after 5 refreshes so I left it be. After a few minutes it finally caught on, but I bet it will again lose the mining data briefly soon. It's weird.

[Tigggger]

I find that I frequently have to change the 'correction' box as I receive BTC from sources other than the usual pools (alt coins), exchanges plus I might be buying and selling things

An alternative could be to enter BTC address(es), and then just add to them the 'unpaid' balances from pools

IE.
Wallet Contains 10
BTCGuilld Unpaid 0.5

Widget shows 10.5

If I then buy something for 5 out of the wallet it changes to 5.5

This way it always shows your net assets.

[Domchi]

I find that I frequently have to change the 'correction' box as I receive BTC from sources other than the usual pools (alt coins), exchanges plus I might be buying and selling things

An alternative could be to enter BTC address(es), and then just add to them the 'unpaid' balances from pools

IE.
Wallet Contains 10
BTCGuilld Unpaid 0.5

Widget shows 10.5

If I then buy something for 5 out of the wallet it changes to 5.5

This way it always shows your net assets.

Try this... use one of the pool slots and enter this:

Pool API URL: http://blockchain.info/address/1KeBs4HBQzkdHC2ou3gpyGHqcL7aKzwTve?format=json
Unpaid amount JSON key: json.final_balance/100000000

(Obviously, use your own address in URL.)

This should pick a balance for BTC address from blockhain and add it to balances from other pools, but if people need to monitor more addresses I should consider adding more pool slots.

[Domchi]

It's strange that you get changes between refreshes; that could indeed signal that it takes a long time to get response from one of the APIs, typically all calls complete during a few seconds. Also, check if both mining and exchange data intervals are set to ten minutes. If your exhange update interval is shorter than 600 seconds (10 minutes), it could be the issue with exchange.

Nope both times are set to 10 minutes. Just now the gadget would not display any mining data even after 5 refreshes so I left it be. After a few minutes it finally caught on, but I bet it will again lose the mining data briefly soon. It's weird.

I'm not sure that anything can be done from in gadget to alleviate this, it looks like either API or network/connectivity/caching proxy problem. I'll try polling my old BTCGuild account for a few days to see if I can reproduce this.

Note that it's normal for gadget to show N/A or 0 for a bit when it refreshes, especially if you have more URLs, but if this lasts it means that it's getting something unexpected in response or not getting response at all. I've seen something similar when polling data from Google Docs API, but I haven't been able to find a cause so far, so any example that's reproducible is precious to me.

[glon]

I find that I frequently have to change the 'correction' box as I receive BTC from sources other than the usual pools (alt coins), exchanges plus I might be buying and selling things

An alternative could be to enter BTC address(es), and then just add to them the 'unpaid' balances from pools

IE.
Wallet Contains 10
BTCGuilld Unpaid 0.5

Widget shows 10.5

If I then buy something for 5 out of the wallet it changes to 5.5

This way it always shows your net assets.

Try this... use one of the pool slots and enter this:

Pool API URL: http://blockchain.info/address/1KeBs4HBQzkdHC2ou3gpyGHqcL7aKzwTve?format=json
Unpaid amount JSON key: json.final_balance/100000000

(Obviously, use your own address in URL.)

This should pick a balance for BTC address from blockhain and add it to balances from other pools, but if people need to monitor more addresses I should consider adding more pool slots.

I currently have all my BTC in a bitcoin client wallet. I don't suppose you could get the balance of this wallet via a blockchain URL? But if yes, how?

[Tigggger]

...
An alternative could be to enter BTC address(es), and then just add to them the 'unpaid' balances from pools
...

Try this... use one of the pool slots and enter this:

Pool API URL: http://blockchain.info/address/1KeBs4HBQzkdHC2ou3gpyGHqcL7aKzwTve?format=json
Unpaid amount JSON key: json.final_balance/100000000

(Obviously, use your own address in URL.)

This should pick a balance for BTC address from blockhain and add it to balances from other pools, but if people need to monitor more addresses I should consider adding more pool slots.

Works perfectly, thank you

Donation sent !

[Domchi]

Try this... use one of the pool slots and enter this:

Pool API URL: http://blockchain.info/address/1KeBs4HBQzkdHC2ou3gpyGHqcL7aKzwTve?format=json
Unpaid amount JSON key: json.final_balance/100000000

(Obviously, use your own address in URL.)

This should pick a balance for BTC address from blockhain and add it to balances from other pools, but if people need to monitor more addresses I should consider adding more pool slots.

I currently have all my BTC in a bitcoin client wallet. I don't suppose you could get the balance of this wallet via a blockchain URL? But if yes, how?

This will work no matter which client you use, since all your transactions are registered in Bitcoin blockchain. Your bitcoins are not "in your wallet", only your private key required to spend them is. When you start your client, it won't display the correct balance until it downloads all of the blockchain and calculates your balance based on all transactions on your Bitcoin addresses. Blockchain.info can do the same - it gives you paid, spent and final balance of any Bitcoin address.

If you're using standard bitcoin-qt client, go to "Receive coins" and there you can see all your addresses.

[glon]

Gadget has some difficulty connecting to btcguild API currently... anyone else?

[Domchi]

Gadget has some difficulty connecting to btcguild API currently... anyone else?

I was actually looking at BTCGuild since you've mentioned it, but I have no good and permanent fix. It seems that BTCGuild recently started using CloudFlare DDOS protection which displays some sort of Javascript challenge which gadget, not being browser, seems to fail. One thing I found that helps - sometimes and for a while - is to load pool API URL manually in Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer answers the challenge and this sometimes fixes things. If it doesn't, try rebooting after you've done that. No guarantees though - it's really behaving a bit strange. 

[Domchi]

Hi guys,

it seems that MtGox has switch to Cloudflare (cloud anti-DDOS and content distribution network) which caused gadget to fail retrieving exchange rates temporarily (for an hour or so). The problems with BTCGuild are also caused by Cloudflare, and in the near future there might be problems retrieving exchange rates from MtGox, so I'm watching closely.

In any case, please remember that MyBitcoins gadget is made to be extremely configurable, and it's very simple to switch to another exchange. I've already posted this a few replies back, but here goes again:

BTC-E
exchange URL: https://btc-e.com/api/2/btc_usd/ticker
exhange rate JSON key: sell
field 1 JSON key: sell
field 2 JSON key: last
field 3 JSON key: buy

Vircurex
exchange URL: https://vircurex.com/api/get_info_for_1_currency.json?base=BTC&alt=USD
exhange rate JSON key: lowest_ask
field 1 JSON key: lowest_ask
field 2 JSON key: last_trade
field 3 JSON key: highest_bid

Bitstamp
exchange URL: https://www.bitstamp.net/api/ticker/
exhange rate JSON key: lowest_ask
field 1 JSON key: ask
field 2 JSON key: last
field 3 JSON key: bid

[Domchi]

Hi everybody,

the new versions of all gadgets are out. This is major and recomended update with bugfixes and quite a bit of new features.

As always, visit the gadget page to download it: http://domchi.cc/mybitcoins

Please note that from now on you can subscribe to be notified about updates by e-mail.
And as a bonus, here's a tip how to use this gadget to retrieve data from Google Docs: http://domchi.cc/mybitcoins/tips.htm

[Tigggger]

This should pick a balance for BTC address from blockhain and add it to balances from other pools, but if people need to monitor more addresses I should consider adding more pool slots.

Been using it this way for a while now and it's been great, but now run out of addresses (I have several investements/rigs and like to use individual addresses to keep track of them easier) so if you could add more on the next update it would be great.

If possible why not keep the existing pool settings and just add a new option to enter comma|pipe seperated addreses, that would keep functionality for existing users who just want pools and allow many addresses to be entered by those who want this.

[Domchi]

Been using it this way for a while now and it's been great, but now run out of addresses (I have several investements/rigs and like to use individual addresses to keep track of them easier) so if you could add more on the next update it would be great.

If possible why not keep the existing pool settings and just add a new option to enter comma|pipe seperated addreses, that would keep functionality for existing users who just want pools and allow many addresses to be entered by those who want this.

I hear you. I'll add up to five pools/sources in the next version, and maybe something specific for retrieving address balances from blockchain.info (have to think about this a bit more though, so not promising anything).

[memyself]

Now that coindesk has developed its own Bitcoin Price Index at http://www.coindesk.com/price/ does anyone know if there is a way to use their exchange rate?

[Domchi]

Now that coindesk has developed its own Bitcoin Price Index at http://www.coindesk.com/price/ does anyone know if there is a way to use their exchange rate?

It seems that their API is not (yet?) public, they want interested parties to contact them directly to gain access to API.

[memyself]

ok, so I contacted them and received this response.

Hi,

Thanks for your enquiry about API access to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.

As we just launched it, we still need to finalise a few things to ensure the API is stable and performant, as well as provide developer documentation.

We should be able to do this within the next few days, so we will be in touch next week with further information on gaining access.

Please note that this is a free API, and result data will be formatted using JSON.

Kind regards,

Jeremy

Hopefully they will let us know soon.