Using VB2008 to acccess the Betfair API: A tutorial

[Drifter]

on DB connections

If you look in the Headfirst C# (sorry... ) book (google for it if you don't know it, can't find it in hard copy etc.), the very first example (of porting a rolodex) shows how to connect to the SQL server lite which will almost certainly have been installed when you installed VS2005/8. The example is very clear, very quick, and you can bang out the C# version in 20 minutes. Doing a VB version ought not to take much longer (though I haven't done it [in VB]), and I suspect it may be more stable and easier than getting it into to Access.

If you go that route, perhaps consider posting it as an example would be of interest to the wider community on the parallel 'questions' thread.

[willyray1]

Hi all, I am trying to get the bestprices to back/lay and as they're not readily available in BetFairUK_getCompleteMarketPricesCompressedComplet ed I am trying to use BetFairUK_getMarketPricesCompressedCompleted. There is no .runnerInfo, so using runnerPrices. However code getting a System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException error. Anyone know how to sort the MarketPrices?

[Vadim]

marketData question

Question. In GetAllMarkets if eventTypeIds = 15 (Greyhound - Todays Card), in response marketData = "". In Horse Racing - Todays Card is similar. What is the problem?

[bfhopsen]

I have noticed same behavior as you can see in http://forum.bdp.betfair.com/showthread.php?t=214.
GetAllMarkets does not work on Todays Card
I am using GetEvents to extract markets from Todays Card.

[TIP102]

Hi all,

Thank you for answering question about save data to database I am still trying to work this out. But before saving data I tried to call GetInPlayMarkets with this code:

Private Sub bInPlay_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles bInPlay.Click
Print("*** InPlay Markets ****")
Dim oInPlayReq As New BFUK.GetInPlayMarketsReq
Dim oInPlayResp As New BFUK.GetInPlayMarketsResp
oInPlayReq.header = oHeaderUK()
oInPlayResp = BetFairUK.getInPlayMarkets(oInPlayReq)
With oInPlayResp
CheckHeader(.header)
Print("ErrorCode = " & .errorCode.ToString)
End With
End Sub

When I start debuging I recive error:

*** InPlay Markets ****
HeaderCode = SERVICE_NOT_AVAILABLE_IN_PRODUCT
ErrorCode = API_ERROR

Please can you help me, am I missing something obvious I tried to follow tutorial step by step.

Best regrads!

[Mumbles0]

Reply to TIP102 (re: getInPlayMarkets)

getInPlayMarkets in not available on the Free API. Check the product comparison table here. That's what your error message is telling you.

The data that is returned by getInPlayMarkets can be obtained from getAllMarkets. In the request specify the next 24-hour period. From the response simply filter out the markets which have .turningInPlay = True

[COLOR="Gray"]Private Sub bInPlay_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles bInPlay.Click
  Print("*** InPlay Markets ***")
  Dim oMarketsReq As New BFUK.GetAllMarketsReq
  With oMarketsReq
    .header = oHeaderUK()
 [COLOR="Black"]   .fromDate = Now
    .toDate = Now.AddDays(1)  'Specifies next 24 hour period[/COLOR]
  End With
  With BetfairUK.getAllMarkets(oMarketsReq)    'Call the UK API
    CheckHeader(.header)
    Print("ErrorCode = " & .errorCode.ToString)
    If .errorCode = BFUK.GetAllMarketsErrorEnum.OK Then
      Dim AllMarkets As New UnpackAllMarkets(.marketData)  'Unpack .marketData
      With AllMarkets
        For i = 0 To .marketData.Length - 1
          With .marketData(i)
[COLOR="Black"]            If .turningInPlay Then  'This market will become InPlay
              Print(.menuPath & "\" & .marketName)
            End If[/COLOR]
          End With
        Next
      End With
    End If
  End With
End Sub[/COLOR]

[Mumbles0]

Reply to Vadim (re: Todays Card)

Just repeating what has been said by others:

getAllMarkets does not return data for eventTypeIds:

• 13 (Horse Racing - Todays Card)
• 14 (Soccer - Fixtures)
• 15 (Greyhound - Todays Card)

[Mumbles0]

Reply to willyray1 (Re: Best Back/Lay prices)

Although you can get best back/lay prices from getCompleteMarketPricesCompressed, it is easier to obtain them from getMarketPricesCompressed (covered in Step 14). Within each .runnerPrices array element there are two arrays .bestPricesToBack and .bestPricesToLay which contain the top 3 prices (if they exist). These prices are exactly as shown on the website. To demonstrate, add 2 extra lines to this sub:

[COLOR="Gray"]Private Sub BetFairUK_getMarketPricesCompressedCompleted(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As BFUK.getMarketPricesCompressedCompletedEventArgs) Handles BetFairUK.getMarketPricesCompressedCompleted
  Try
    ..........

      With oMarketPrices
        Print(.marketId & " " & .marketStatus.ToString & " " & .runnerPrices.Length & " runners")
        'Process returned market prices here.
        For i = 0 To .runnerPrices.Length - 1
          With .runnerPrices(i)
            Print(.sortOrder & " " & .selectionId & " " & .totalAmountMatched & " " & .lastPriceMatched)
[COLOR="Black"]            If .bestPricesToBack.Length > 0 Then Print("Best back = " & .bestPricesToBack(0).price)
            If .bestPricesToLay.Length > 0 Then Print("Best lay = " & .bestPricesToLay(0).price)[/COLOR]
          End With
        Next
      End With
  
    ..........

  End Try
End Sub[/COLOR]

Here we assume the best price is in each array element 0. We print it only if there is at least one price for the runner.

If we don’t include the tests (.Length > 0) and we encounter a runner having no back or lay prices then a run-time exception will occur, displaying the Exception Assistant. This tells us that we have “TargetInvocationException”. If you click the “View Detail...” link you will see that the InnerException is: "Index was outside the bounds of the array." This tells us exactly what is wrong.

I’m guessing, but I think you might have been having this problem.

[willyray1]

Thanks for the response mumbles, I am actually trying to sort the sortOrder in your above example:
Print(.sortOrder & " " & .selectionId & " " & .totalAmountMatched & " " & .lastPriceMatched)

What I am doing in this order:

1. Load form and treeview
2. Select market from tree
3. Check to see if a tab exists with the market id, if not create one
4. Use the number of runners from the marketdata to create a panel for each runner with 6 buttons for the odds in each panel and an overall timer to refresh the market using the GetMarketPricesCompressedReq to refresh the prices every second.
5. Load the runner names from oMarketResp

I think its something to do with the timer when I switch tabs so will have to do a bit more debugging however whenever it falls over I get the TargetInvocationException error. I might set the timer when the tab is selected only.

[Vadim]

???

 Private Sub bPlaceBets_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles bPlaceBets.Click
        Print("*** PlaceBets ***")
        Dim oPlaceBetsReq As New BFUK.PlaceBetsReq     
        Dim oPlaceBetsResp As New BFUK.PlaceBetsResp    
        Dim obets As New BFUK.PlaceBets
        With oPlaceBetsReq
            .header = oHeaderUK()
            With obets
                .asianLineId = 0
                .betCategoryType = BFUK.BetCategoryTypeEnum.NONE
                .betPersistenceType = BFUK.BetPersistenceTypeEnum.NONE
                .betType = BFUK.BetTypeEnum.B
                .marketId = 100535013
                .price = 1000
                .selectionId = 204703
                .size = 4.0
            End With
        End With
        oPlaceBetsResp = BetFairUK.placeBets(oPlaceBetsReq)    
        With oPlaceBetsResp
            CheckHeader(.header)
            Print("ErrorCode = " & .errorCode.ToString)
            With .betResults
               ...

HeaderCode = OK
ErrorCode = BETWEEN_1_AND_60_BETS_REQUIRED

What's mistake?

[Mumbles0]

Reply to Vadim (re: placeBets)

There are 2 problems:

(1) You are calling placeBets with oPlaceBetsReq.bets = Nothing because you are not assigning the obets object to this parameter. This is causing the error. Add the 2 lines as shown. Note that .bets is an array. For a single bet we put the bet details into element 0.

(2) Set bspLiability = 0 because API requires a value here. API has bug (#34314).

Also (3), Not a problem, but perhaps better to use BetCategoryEnum.E rather than BetCategoryEnum.NONE. (Although it works OK either way)

Private Sub bPlaceBets_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles bPlaceBets.Click
  Print("*** PlaceBets ***")
  Dim oPlaceBetsReq As New BFUK.PlaceBetsReq
  Dim oPlaceBetsResp As New BFUK.PlaceBetsResp
  Dim obets As New BFUK.PlaceBets
  With oPlaceBetsReq
    .header = oHeaderUK()
    With obets
      .asianLineId = 0
      .betCategoryType = BFUK.BetCategoryTypeEnum.E             '<<< Perhaps use 'E' (note 3)
      .betPersistenceType = BFUK.BetPersistenceTypeEnum.NONE
      .betType = BFUK.BetTypeEnum.B
      .marketId = [I]Your market[/I]
      .price = 1000
      .selectionId = [I]Your selection[/I]
      .size = 4.0
      .bspLiability = 0       '<<< Add this (note 2)
    End With
    ReDim .bets(0)            '<<< Add this  
    .bets(0) = obets          '<<<  and this (note 1)
  End With
  oPlaceBetsResp = BetfairUK.placeBets(oPlaceBetsReq)
  With oPlaceBetsResp
    CheckHeader(.header)
    Print("ErrorCode = " & .errorCode.ToString)
    If .errorCode = BFUK.PlaceBetsErrorEnum.OK Then
      For i = 0 To .betResults.Length - 1
        With .betResults(i)
          Print("BetId = " & .betId & " " & .resultCode.ToString & " " & "Success = " & .success)
        End With
      Next
    End If
  End With
End Sub

[John Moore]

Difficulty retrieving eventDate and time

Hi Mumbles, thanks for this thread. I`m attempting to write a bet bot. I am storing my marketIds, selectionIds into a dim array. but I am having trouble retriving the event date/time. Can you suggest which API call to make, and when to call it?

Thanks again John Moore

[daylosh]

How to revise step 6?

Mumbles great post!

How do i revise step 6 to make the code execute faster? Probably seems stupid but im not sure which bit to replace with 'string.split'.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

[Vadim]

Internal_error

Mumbles0, thanks. PlaceBets and CancelBets me be clear. But UpdateBets error INTERNAL_ERROR.

 Private Sub bUpdateBets_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles bUpd:cool:ateBets.Click
        Print("*** UpdateBets ***")
        Dim oUpdateBetsReq As New BFUK.UpdateBetsReq
        Dim oUpdateBetsResp As New BFUK.UpdateBetsResp
        Dim oUpdateBets As New BFUK.UpdateBets
        With oUpdateBetsReq
            .header = oHeaderUK()
            With oUpdateBets
                .betId = 7919011854
                '.newBetPersistenceType = BFUK.BetPersistenceTypeEnum.NONE
                '.newPrice = 1000
                .newSize = 4.5
                .oldBetPersistenceType = BFUK.BetPersistenceTypeEnum.NONE
                .oldPrice = 1000
                '.oldSize
            End With
            ReDim .bets(0)
            .bets(0) = oUpdateBets
        End With
        oUpdateBetsResp = BetFairUK.updateBets(oUpdateBetsReq) 'INTERNAL_ERROR SoapHeaderException was unhandled
        With oUpdateBetsResp
            CheckHeader(.header)
            Print("ErrorCode = " & .errorCode.ToString)
            If .errorCode = BFUK.PlaceBetsErrorEnum.OK Then
                For i = 0 To .betResults.Length - 1
                    With .betResults(i)
                        Print("BetId = " & .betId & " " & .resultCode.ToString & " " & "Success = " & .success)
                        Print("NewBetId = " & .newBetId & " NewPrice = " & .newPrice & " NewSize = " & .newSize & " SizeCancelled = " & .sizeCancelled)
                    End With
                Next
            End If
        End With
    End Sub

[TIP102]

Data from getMarketPrices to database

Thanks Mumbels a lot for answering about inPlay!

I am trying to work it out how to save prices in database. Enclosed is the code I used to save marketID when calling getMarketPrices. I declared mymarketID as globaled variable and declered value for it by inserting in With MpriceResp...and this worked...

Please if someone can help me with hint how to save prices in database.

Thank you!

Private Sub bPrices_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles bPrices.Click

        Print("*** Prices ***")
        ShowMprices(BetFairUK.getMarketPrices(MpricesReq))    'Get market prices

        Dim Test As New SqlClient.SqlConnection("Data Source=MyPC\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=Test;Integrated Security=True")
        Test.Open()
        Dim sqlStatement As New SqlClient.SqlCommand("INSERT INTO Table1 (MarketID) VALUES (" & mymarketID & ", Test)

        sqlStatement.ExecuteNonQuery()
        Test.Close()
    End Sub

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Sub ShowMprices(ByVal MpriceResp As BFUK.GetMarketPricesResp)
        Dim Lay, Back As String
        With MpriceResp
            CheckHeader(.header)
            Print("ErrorCode = " & .errorCode.ToString)
            If .errorCode = BFUK.GetMarketPricesErrorEnum.OK Then
                With .marketPrices
                    [COLOR="Red"]mymarketID = .marketId    [/COLOR]             
                    Print("MarketID = " & .marketId)