Finance-InteractiveBrokers-SWIG This module provides Perl connectivity to the InteractiveBrokers market data and program trading service, using the IB-provided C++ code. It is primarily intended to be used with L, which provides a better API, but may be used standalone if desired, by referring to the IB documentation itself (under L). It is a very complex module with an involved build process, and thus you should read the documentation thoroughly. PREREQUISITES You must have the following to build and use this module: * Finance::InteractiveBrokers::API Provides a programmatic means of looking up methods and events in the IB API. * A working build environment Capable of compiling C and C++ files, and running 'make'. * SWIG >= 1.3.28 The "Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator", capable of building SWIG interfaces. This module has been tested with versions from 1.3.28-2.0.1. Optional, but highly recommended: * Alien::InteractiveBrokers Installs (downloading if necessary) the InteractiveBrokers API files, and provides Perly mechanisms for locating them. INSTALLATION To install this module, run the following commands: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install HOW IT WORKS The IB API is available as either a set of C++ or Java source code files. This module builds a library from this, and then runs SWIG (the Simplified Interface Wrapper and Generator) against it to provide Perl connectivity. The API consists of several methods, callable from this module, as well as several events, containing the asynchronous responses from IB to methods you have called. In order to catch the events, you must subclass L, and override all of the events therein with your own code to handle their responses (e.g. save them to a database, or do whatever). You then pass your $handler into ->new(), and you have complete access to the IB API, delegated through the C++ library. NOTES ON BUILDING ON OS-X When building on OS-X, you may see warnings similar to the following, when linking the final dynamic library: ld: warning: directory not found for option '-L/usr/local/lib' ld: warning: directory not found for option '-L/usr/local/lib' ld: warning: directory not found for option '-L/usr/local/lib' ld: warning: directory not found for option '-L/usr/local/lib' This is avoidable, but it would reduce the flexibility and require a much more convoluted build process. An explanation of why this happens: When distributing modules, especially binary modules as complex as Finance::InteractiveBrokers::SWIG for myriad end-user platforms, the only way to get an idea of the local system's configuration is to query Perl itself, via various methods. The build process expects that, since perl is built and (hopefully!) working, that its configuration will work. This is not the case if the people who packaged your copy of 'perl' do not use a common system configuration such as would be found on an OS-X end-user's machine. In particular, it looks like the packagers had some libraries installed in '/usr/local/lib', which is not necessarily a normal directory on OS-X. Blame them, not me. The solution is to ignore these warnings; the final build works fine, if everything else has completed successfully, and a 'make test' reports a PASS. SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc Finance::InteractiveBrokers::SWIG You can also look for information at: RT, CPAN's request tracker http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Finance-InteractiveBrokers-SWIG AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation http://annocpan.org/dist/Finance-InteractiveBrokers-SWIG CPAN Ratings http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Finance-InteractiveBrokers-SWIG Search CPAN http://search.cpan.org/dist/Finance-InteractiveBrokers-SWIG/ LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2010-2012 Jason McManus This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information. The authors are not associated with InteractiveBrokers, and as such, take no responsibility or provide no warranty for your use of this module or the InteractiveBrokers service. You do so at your own responsibility. No warranty for any purpose is either expressed or implied by your use of this module suite. The data from InteractiveBrokers are under an entirely separate license that varies according to exchange rules, etc. It is your responsibility to follow the InteractiveBrokers and exchange license agreements with the data. # END