Using VB2008 to acccess the Betfair API: A tutorial

[Mumbles0]

Reply to Mr.Anderson (re: security)

The API has an "https://...." URL. All data transferred between the API and a remote host is encrypted using SSL. It is reasonable to assume that the security of the API is similar to the website as far as sending your username and password is concerned.

(Note: This is IMHO. You could perhaps seek further info from Betfair re security.)

It certainly is good policy not to hard-code your username & password, particularly if other people have access to your computer. You could perhaps use a couple of TextBoxes to login and logout as required. Thewhistler devised a way to do this using a separate Login form. See here.

[Mumbles0]

Reply to Monairda (using the TabControl for multi-markets)

Monairda,

The TabControl is a nice way to view the data for several markets, but it requires a bit of effort to get it going. I will soon post a step (or two) showing how to do this.

[Mumbles0]

Reply to monkeymagix (re getMUBets)

I’m pleased to see that a C# programmer has got some benefit from the thread. After all, the two languages come from the same stable and are basically similar. With C# all you have to do is put the type before the name, add some semicolons and throw in a few curly things;

I translated your GetMUBetStatus method:

Public Sub GetMUBetStatus(ByVal betId As Long)

  Dim Req As New BFUK.GetMUBetsReq
  With Req
    .header = oHeaderUK()
    .betStatus = BFUK.BetStatusEnum.MU
    .recordCount = 100
    '// tried with a market ID but no luck - comment out when using the betId
    .marketId = 101836370
    '/*  OR	*/
    ReDim .betIds(0) : .betIds(0) = betId
  End With

  Dim resp As BFUK.GetMUBetsResp = BetFairUK.getMUBets(Req)
  With resp
    CheckHeader(.header)
    Print("ErrorCode: " & .errorCode.ToString)
    If .errorCode = BFUK.GetMUBetsErrorEnum.OK Then
      For i = 0 To .bets.Length - 1
        Print("BetID: " & .bets(i).betId & " - Status: " & .bets(i).betStatus.ToString & " - Price: " & .bets(i).price)
      Next
    End If
  End With

End Sub

This worked fine for me. I could use either marketId or betIds (or both). All I can suggest is perhaps the bet was not on the market you specified. This would give errorCode = NO_RESULTS.

As far as I know there is no test facility for the Sports API. This would be handy to have because it’s not easy to experiment with partially-matched bets (without spending a lot of money). You have asked some very good questions. I don’t know the answers. I too would like to know, when a bet is partially matched:

• Do the two parts have the same betId ?
• Do they have the same transactionId?
• What is the transactionId?

[Monairda]

Thank you very much

You are a great help. You're always willing to help.

I am interested in learning. The main problem is that I can not associate the call to getMarketPricesCompressedCompleted with the call to
getMarketTradedVolumeCompressedCompleted without using the solution you developed.

And I wanted to find another solution without having the forms filled monitor.

I look forward to your response. Sorry for the English translation by a translator. Thank you very much.

[gvigliani]

Drag & Drop for more markets in same Panel

Hello everyone.
I have a little problem, as always, I hope you will help me to solve. I have a TreeView with nodes and subnodes and that a panel should receive information about the clicked node and carried.
In this way I wish I could put more markets on the same panel. If I click on the treeview = start Added: Drag & Drop = successive engagements

I created this sub on the treeview

Private Sub tvMarkets_DragEnter(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs) Handles tvMarkets.DragEnter
              If e.Data.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text) Then
                  e.Effect = DragDropEffects.Copy
              Else
                  e.Effect = DragDropEffects.None
              End If
End Sub

While these other two relate to the Panel that receives:

Private Sub tbox_DragEnter(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs) Handles tbox.DragEnter
              If e.Data.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text) Then
                  e.Effect = DragDropEffects.Copy
              Else
                  e.Effect = DragDropEffects.None
              End If
End Sub

Private Sub tbox_DragDrop(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs) Handles tbox.DragDrop
              Dim dummy As String = "hello"
              Dim s As String = CStr(e.Data.GetData(dummy.GetType()))
              s = s.Substring((s.IndexOf(":") + 1)).Trim()
              Position.X = e.X
              Position.Y = e.Y
              Position = tbox.PointToClient(Position)
              MsgBox(s)
End Sub

The problem is that the code tells me, via the msgbox (s) as the name of the text node and not the Node.Name that interests me.

Do you have a way to solve my problem?

I enclose also the code that gives me 'is this information if I click on the affected node without of course the drag and drop.

Private Sub tvMarkets_AfterSelect(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.TreeViewEventArgs) Handles tvMarkets.AfterSelect
              If e.Node.Nodes.Count = 0 Then
                  Dim marketId As Integer = Val(e.Node.Name)    'This is the selected marketId  
              End If
End Sub

Thank you

[Mumbles0]

Step 31. Using the TabControl for multi-markets.

A control worth considering for your user interface is the TabControl. In this step we will investigate using a TabControl to view the data for several markets at once.

Drag a TabControl from the Toolbox onto your form and rename it tabMarkets. Initially two TabPages are shown, but we don’t want these. Select the TabControl (itself, not the TabPages) and in the properties window select the TabPages property, then click on (...) to show the "TabPage Collection Editor". Click on the Remove button to remove TabPage1 and TabPage2. OK.

Now add a Sub which displays a TabPage for a given market:

'Display the Tab for the given MarketId

Private Sub DisplayMarketTab(ByVal MarketId As Integer)

  With tabMarkets
    If .TabPages.ContainsKey(MarketId) Then  'A Tab exists for this market
      .SelectedTab = .TabPages(MarketId.ToString)  'Show the existing Tab
    Else  'A new market, call getMarket
      Dim Req As New BFUK.GetMarketReq With {.header = oHeaderUK(), .marketId = MarketId}
      Dim Resp As BFUK.GetMarketResp = BetFairUK.getMarket(Req)  'Call API (getMarket)
      CheckHeader(Resp.header)
      If Resp.errorCode = BFUK.GetMarketErrorEnum.OK Then

        Dim Tab As New TabPage  'Create a new Tab
        Tab.Name = MarketId   'The name is the marketId
        Tab.Text = Resp.market.name  'The Tab's caption is the market name
        'Tab.Controls.Add(New RunnerGrid(Resp.market.runners)) 'Put a DataGridView on the Tab
        .TabPages.Add(Tab)   'Add this tab to the TabPages collection
        .SelectedTab = Tab   'Show this Tab
        'If .TabPages.Count = 1 Then TabSelect(Tab) 'Because first tab does not raise 'Selected' event

      Else
        Print("GetMarket error: " & Resp.errorCode.ToString)
      End If
    End If
  End With
End Sub

Note that 2 lines have been commented out. We will include these later on.

We can call this Sub when we click on a market node of the TreeView control we added in Step 15 if we add a line to the existing AfterSelect event handler:

[COLOR="Gray"]Private Sub tvMarkets_AfterSelect(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.TreeViewEventArgs) Handles tvMarkets.AfterSelect
  If e.Node.Nodes.Count = 0 Then
    Beep()
    Dim marketId As Integer = Val(e.Node.Name)  'This is the selected marketId
    [COLOR="Black"]DisplayMarketTab(marketId)   'Display a Tab for this market[/COLOR]
  End If
End Sub[/COLOR]

Alternatively you could call it from a "Today’s Card" list (Step 18) if you extract the marketId.

When Sub DisplayMarketTab is called it first tests the TabPages property to see if a Tab already exists for the given marketId. If so, it simply displays the existing Tab, otherwise an API call is made to getMarket and a new Tab is added. Run the project to test this. Click on a few market nodes in the TreeView and you will, I hope, see it working.

It’s handy to have the means to remove a tab when it is no longer required. We can do this with a KeyDown event handler:

Private Sub tabMarkets_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles tabMarkets.KeyDown
    If e.KeyCode = Keys.Delete Then  'Delete key down
      With tabMarkets
        If .SelectedTab IsNot Nothing Then
          .TabPages.RemoveByKey(.SelectedTab.Name)  'Remove the Tab
        End If
      End With
    End If
  End Sub

This removes the currently-selected Tab when the Delete key is pressed while tabMarkets is selected.

For each market we will use a DataGridView to show the list of runners. Because the market Tabs are added while the program runs we cannot simply drag a DataGridView from the Toolbox. Instead, we add these at runtime.

Add a class module from the Project menu (Project > Add Class). Name it RunnerGrid and add this code:

Public Class RunnerGrid   'A customised DataGridView

  Inherits DataGridView

  Public Const colRunner = "Runner"  'Runner names column
  Public Const colSelId = "SelId"    'SelectionId column

  Sub New(ByVal Runners As BFUK.Runner())

    RowHeadersVisible = False  'Turn off row headers
    Dock = DockStyle.Fill       'The grid fills the Tab
    If Runners.Length > 0 Then   'Runner data exists

      Dim NameColumn As New DataGridViewTextBoxColumn  'Add column for runner names 
      With NameColumn
        .Name = colRunner
        .ReadOnly = True
        .AutoSizeMode = DataGridViewAutoSizeColumnMode.AllCells  'Column width is automatic
      End With
      Columns.Add(NameColumn)  'Add to columns collection

      Dim SelIdColumn As New DataGridViewTextBoxColumn  'Add column for selectionId
      With SelIdColumn
        .Name = colSelId
        .Width = 70       'Column width is fixed
        .ReadOnly = True
      End With
      Columns.Add(SelIdColumn)  'Add to columns collection

      RowCount = Runners.Length  'A row for each runner 
      For i = 0 To RowCount - 1
        With Runners(i)
          Item(colRunner, i).Value = .name  'Add the runner name
          Item(colSelId, i).Value = .selectionId  'Add the selectionId
        End With
      Next

    End If
  End Sub

End Class

This class is based on the DataGridView. The Inherits statement gives the RunnerGrid all members of the DataGridView class as well as any we care to add. We call the constructor (Sub New) with the .Runners array returned in a getMarket response object to create columns for the runner names and selectionIds. The grid is then loaded with the runner names and selectionIds.

The line in Sub DisplayMarketTab:

Tab.Controls.Add(New RunnerGrid(Resp.market.runners))

invokes this constructor and places a RunnerGrid, complete with runner names and selectionIds, onto a Tab. Uncomment this line and run the project to test it.

This step demonstrates the basic operation of a TabControl with DataGridView controls placed on the Tabs at runtime. In the next step we will add some prices returned by getMarketPricesCompressed.

[Monairda]

To Mumbles0:

Simply fantastic!

As always thank you very much :-))

[Sports API + VB .Net]

Using DataGridView To Display Market Odds

Sorry for using Poor English...............................
Hi i am a new for betfair api program, this article is quite amazing for new babies like me, my question is very often:
Q: how can we display the market odds in a datagridview does any one knows the coding for that in vb.net.
and another question is :
Q: if anyone can post jpeg file displaying how can we use all the api calls step by step for example 1st call for login then keepalive then display all markets in treeview as betfair does then if user double click on perticular market -------> the markets odds and available amounts display in datagridview then bet on a perticular selection .......... i have read the first 10 steps posted by mumble that was helpfull for me but i still dont understand what to do first if i call all the markets in treeview just after login as happened on betfair then if in runtime i select perticular market what else should i do....................................... I am just a vb application designer and i had never worked on any project in which api are called......
What i want to design is just a simple application as betfair itself all the functions will remain same and it is just for practise after getting complete knowleadge about the simple betfair interface i will further decide what special features should be there in my prog.............
IT WILL BE VERY THANKFULL IF SOME ONE SEND ME A COMPLETE VB PROJECTS FOR LEARNING PURPOSE......................... SO I GO FURTHER.... SORRY IN ADVANCE IF I MAKE SOMEONE ANGRY..... BUT NO ONE IS MASTER FROM SCRATCHE..................

[Sports API + VB .Net]

Help Learning Betfair

I forgot to mention my email address if someone is interested to help me out

My id is = wilsum786@hotmail.com

[Mumbles0]

Step 32. Displaying Prices in the Runner Grid

In this step we add more code to display price info for the runners shown on the Tabs we made in Step 31.
For this we require more columns in the DataGridView, so add extra code (shown bold) to Class RunnerGrid:

[COLOR="Gray"]Public Class RunnerGrid   'A customised DataGridView

  Inherits DataGridView

  Public Const colRunner = "Runner"  'Runner names column
  Public Const colSelId = "SelId"    'SelectionId column
  [COLOR="Black"]Public Const colBack = "Back"      'Back price column
  Public Const colLay = "Lay"        'Lay price column[/COLOR]

  Sub New(ByVal Runners As BFUK.Runner())

    RowHeadersVisible = False  'Turn off row headers
    Dock = DockStyle.Fill       'The grid fills the Tab
    If Runners.Length > 0 Then   'Runner data exists

      Dim NameColumn As New DataGridViewTextBoxColumn  'Add column for runner names 
      With NameColumn
        .Name = colRunner
        .ReadOnly = True
        .AutoSizeMode = DataGridViewAutoSizeColumnMode.AllCells  'Column width is automatic
      End With
      Columns.Add(NameColumn)  'Add to columns collection

      Dim SelIdColumn As New DataGridViewTextBoxColumn  'Add column for selectionId
      With SelIdColumn
        .Name = colSelId
        .Width = 70       'Column width is fixed
        .ReadOnly = True
      End With
      Columns.Add(SelIdColumn)  'Add to columns collection

      RowCount = Runners.Length  'A row for each runner 
      For i = 0 To RowCount - 1
        With Runners(i)
          Item(colRunner, i).Value = .name  'Add the runner name
          Item(colSelId, i).Value = .selectionId  'Add the selectionId
        End With
      Next

[COLOR="Black"]      Dim BackColumn As New DataGridViewTextBoxColumn  'Add column for Back prices
      With BackColumn
        .Name = colBack
        .Width = 50
        .DefaultCellStyle.Alignment = DataGridViewContentAlignment.MiddleRight
        .DefaultCellStyle.Format = "f2"
        .ReadOnly = True
      End With
      Columns.Add(BackColumn)

      Dim LayColumn As New DataGridViewTextBoxColumn  'Add column for Lay prices
      With LayColumn
        .Name = colLay
        .Width = 50
        .DefaultCellStyle.Alignment = DataGridViewContentAlignment.MiddleRight
        .DefaultCellStyle.Format = "f2"
        .ReadOnly = True
      End With
      Columns.Add(LayColumn)[/COLOR]

    End If
  End Sub

[COLOR="Black"]  Sub UpdatePrices(ByVal RunnerPrices As BFUK.RunnerPrices())  'Method to update the Prices
    Dim i, j, SelectionId As Integer

    For i = 0 To RowCount - 1  'For each row in grid
      SelectionId = Item(colSelId, i).Value
      j = Array.FindIndex(RunnerPrices, Function(x As BFUK.RunnerPrices) x.selectionId = SelectionId) 'Array index for this runner
      If j >= 0 Then 'Prices exist for this runner
        With RunnerPrices(j)
          Item(colBack, i).Value = If(.bestPricesToBack.Length > 0, .bestPricesToBack(0).price, "")   'Update best Back price
          Item(colLay, i).Value = If(.bestPricesToLay.Length > 0, .bestPricesToLay(0).price, "")      'Update best Lay price
        End With
      End If
    Next

  End Sub[/COLOR]

End Class[/COLOR]

To add a new column you simply create a new instance of DataGridViewTextBoxColumn and assign its properties as required. These properties control the behaviour of the column (width, readonly, visible, etc). The DefaultCellStyle property controls the appearance of the data in the column (alignment, font, colour, format, etc). You add this column to the grid by calling the Columns.Add method.

For this exercise we only add two columns to show the best back and lay prices. A typical app would probably have more (for amounts, other prices, bets, etc). I’ll leave this up to you.

The method UpdatePrices updates the price columns. The calling parameter is the RunnerPrices array which will be returned by getMarketPricesCompressed.

To get regular price updates we will call getMarketPricesCompressedAsync from a timer. We already have a PriceTimer from Step 8 which we can re-use. Select the PriceTimer and ensure that these properties are set: Enabled = True, Interval = 2000 (for 2 sec period). Change the Tick event handler to this:

Private Sub PriceTimer_Tick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles PriceTimer.Tick
  With tabMarkets
    If .SelectedTab IsNot Nothing Then  'A Tab is selected
      Dim Req As New BFUK.GetMarketPricesCompressedReq
      Req.header = oHeaderUK()
      Req.marketId = .SelectedTab.Name  'Get prices for this market
      BetFairUK.getMarketPricesCompressedAsync(Req, New UserState(.SelectedTab)) 'Call the API to get prices
    End If
  End With
End Sub

For the async call we also require Class UserState (which was given in Step 28):

Class UserState
  Property Param As Object
  Sub New(ByVal Value As Object)
    Param = Value
  End Sub
End Class

Note the use of the SelectedTab property which holds a reference to the currently-selected Tab. We call getMarketPricesCompressedAsync with the marketId for this Tab (which is in the Tab‘s Name property).

We also put the SelectedTab reference into the UserState object of the async call. This lets us know, when the API returns the price data, which Tab was selected when the call was made.

From step 14 you may already have an event handler for getMarketPricesCompressedCompleted. This has probably served its purpose so I suggest you comment it out and replace it with this new one:

Private Sub BetFairUK_getMarketPricesCompressedCompleted(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As BFUK.getMarketPricesCompressedCompletedEventArgs) Handles BetFairUK.getMarketPricesCompressedCompleted
  Try
    If Not e.Cancelled Then
      With e.Result
        CheckHeader(.header)
        If .errorCode = BFUK.GetMarketPricesErrorEnum.OK Then 'OK

          Dim Tab As TabPage = e.UserState.Param  'The selected Tab when the request was made
          Dim Rgrid As RunnerGrid = Tab.Controls(0)  'A reference to the selected RunnerGrid
          Dim oMarketPrices As New UnpackMarketPricesCompressed(.marketPrices)  'Unpack the prices
          Rgrid.UpdatePrices(oMarketPrices.runnerPrices) 'Update the prices in the grid

        Else
          Print("GetMarketPricesCompressed error:" & .errorCode.ToString) 'If problem
        End If
      End With
    End If
  Catch ex As ApplicationException
    Print(e.Error.Message)
  End Try
End Sub

This Sub is invoked by the system when a response is returned from getMarketPricesCompressed. If the reponse is OK, the object variable Tab is assigned a reference to the Tab that was selected when the API request was made. To ensures that we update the correct RunnerGrid , we use Tab rather than the current SelectedTab. These object references will usually be the same, but they could differ if another Tab has just been selected. From Tab we obtain a reference to its RunnerGrid, which we update by calling the UpdatePrices method after first unpacking the price data.

For at the UpdatePrices method (in Class RunnerGrid above): We obtain the selectionId for each grid row in turn. We then use the Array.FindIndex method to lookup the index (j) for the corresponding selectionId in the RunnerPrices array. We do this because the order of the runners in the grid rows (derived from getMarket) is not necessarily the same as the order of the price data returned in the RunnerPrices array. This approach ensures that the array element RunnerPrices(j) contains the corresponding price data, and also caters for the possibility of a removed runner (for which j = -1).

That gives us the prices.

There is a bit more to this topic. The next step we look at how to select a runner when a grid row is clicked.

[Monairda]

Mumbles0, It works perfectly!
Looking forward to the next step.

Thank you very much

[Sports API + VB .Net]

How To Display Odds

My question is how can we display runners and their odds and amout available to back and lay after selecting perticular market navigating treeview as same as happens over betfair webiste i am stick to this and cant solve myself Please MUMBLE help me out you are geneous in your previous post i am sure you have solved these probs which is very easy for others but not for me kindly help me out in this regards............. Ignore poor english,,,,,,,,,i will be waiting.............

[Mumbles0]

Sports API + VB .Net,

The two recent steps in the tutorial (Step 31 & Step 32) do what you are asking - show the best back and lay prices for a market in a DataGridView. It is easy to extend this to show amounts available for each price.

The Steps in the tutorial are to help you understand VB programming, and to give you ideas for design. You must write your own application. I won’t do this for you.

Perhaps you are having trouble reading my English. It may be tedious but I think some other readers are using a translator to help.

[Mumbles0]

Step 33. Selecting a runner

If you’ve succeeded with Steps 31 and 32 you should now be able to display the list of runners for a selected market in a DataGridView on a TabPage within a TabControl. You may now want to select a particular runner, perhaps to display additional data or set up a bet.

It’s convenient to select a runner simply by clicking on it’s grid row. For this we need a handler for the grid’s CellMouseClick event:

Private WithEvents SelectedGrid As RunnerGrid  'A variable to hold a reference to the currently-selected grid

'This event fires when you click on a cell in the selected RunnerGrid:

Private Sub SelectedGrid_CellMouseClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellMouseEventArgs) Handles SelectedGrid.CellMouseClick
    Dim MarketId, SelId As Integer, SelName As String
    Dim j As Integer = e.RowIndex  'The clicked row no.

    Beep()  'Get values for the clicked runner:
    SelId = SelectedGrid(RunnerGrid.colSelId, j).Value   'The selectionId
    SelName = SelectedGrid(RunnerGrid.colRunner, j).Value  'The name
    MarketId = tabMarkets.SelectedTab.Name 'The marketId

    Print(MarketId & " " & SelId & " " & SelName)  'To demonstrate

  End Sub

This Sub demonstrates how to extract parameters associated with the selected runner from the grid (and tab). Your app will typically have more code than this.

If you test this you will notice that nothing happens when you click on a runner. This is because the SelectedGrid object variable contains Nothing. To make it work we must assign a reference to the currently-selected DataGridView. We can do this by handling the Selected event for the TabControl. This fires whenever a different TabPage is selected:

'Event fires when a Tab is selected:

Private Sub tabMarkets_Selected(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.TabControlEventArgs) Handles tabMarkets.Selected
  TabSelect(e.TabPage)
End Sub

Private Sub TabSelect(ByVal Tab As TabPage)
  If Tab IsNot Nothing Then
    SelectedGrid = Tab.Controls(0)   'A reference to the RunnerGrid on this Tab
  Else
    SelectedGrid = Nothing  'Clear the variable if no tabs exist
  End If
End Sub

Also uncomment the line in Sub DisplayMarketTab that was added in step 31:

If .TabPages.Count = 1 Then TabSelect(Tab)

I have included this line because, for some strange reason, the Selected event for the TabControl does not fire when the first TabPage is added. (Events often don’t do quite what you expect - this can drive you nuts.)

Run the project to test. Select a market then click on a runner’s row in the grid. Sub SelectedGrid_CellMouseClick should now execute, taking the course of action you‘ve programmed.

[Monairda]

Mumbles, It's works fine!!

Thanks for your help!!