Using Ajax to get Stock Quotes

This short tutorial shows how to access Stock Quotes from Yahoo Finance through an AJAX call utilizing JSONP. For the tutorial the following information is required.

  • JQuery - Javascript library with built in AJAX and JSONP functions

Step 1: Create a sample html page that includes the JQuery library

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC
   "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
  <head>
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"/>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="quote">
 
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Step 2: Create the table that will hold the stock information returned by the AJAX call

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
  <tr>
    <th>Symbol</th>
    <th>Last Trade</th>
    <th>Last Trade Time</th>
    <th>Change</th>
    <th>Open</th>
    <th>Previous Close</th>
    <th>Day's Low</th>
    <th>Day's High</th>
    <th>Volume</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td id="symbol"></td>
    <td id="lastTrade"></td>
    <td id="lastTradeTime"></td>
    <td id="change"></td>
    <td id="open"></td>
    <td id="previousClose"></td>
    <td id="daysLow"></td>
    <td id="daysHigh"></td>
    <td id="volume"></td>
  </tr>
</table>

Step 3: Define the JQuery JavaScript code that will call make an AJAX call for the specified stock information

  1. Create the document ready function so the JavaScript is not called until the page is loaded. 
    $(document).ready(function(){
});
  2. perform the AJAX call for JSONP data using the getJSON function of JQuery 
    $.getJSON(
  "http://mdbitz.com/testing/PHPYahooFinance/finance.php?symbol=DELL&amp;callback=?",
  function( data ) {
  }
);
  3. Output the returned data to the appropriate cells of the Table. 
    $("#symbol").text( data.symbol );
$("#previousClose" ).text( data.previousClose );
$("#open" ).text( data.open );
$("#lastTrade").text( data.lastTrade );
$("#lastTradeTime").text( data.lastTradeTime );
$("#change").text( data.change );
$("#daysLow").text( data.daysLow );
$("#daysHigh").text( data.daysHigh );
$("#volume").text( data.volume);

Step 4: View your sample page

Symbol Last Trade Last Trade Time Change Open Previous Close Day’s Low Day’s High Volume
DELL 16.13 10.19AM +0.31 15.77 15.82 15.75 16.20 7162443



Full Sample HTML Source

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC
  "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
  <head>
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
    <script>
      $(document).ready(function(){
        $.getJSON("http://mdbitz.com/testing/PHPYahooFinance/finance.php?symbol=DELL&callback=?",
          function(data){
            $("#symbol").text( data.symbol );
            $("#previousClose" ).text( data.previousClose );
            $("#open" ).text( data.open );
            $("#lastTrade").text( data.lastTrade );
            $("#lastTradeTime").text( data.lastTradeTime );
            $("#change").text( data.change );
            $("#daysLow").text( data.daysLow );
            $("#daysHigh").text( data.daysHigh );
            $("#volume").text( data.volume);
          }
        );
     });
     </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="quote">
      <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
        <tr>
          <th>Symbol</th>
          <th>Last Trade</th>
          <th>Last Trade Time</th>
          <th>Change</th>
          <th>Open</th>
          <th>Previous Close</th>
          <th>Day's Low</th>
          <th>Day's High</th>
          <th>Volume</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td id="symbol"></td>
          <td id="lastTrade"></td>
          <td id="lastTradeTime"></td>
          <td id="change"></td>
          <td id="open"></td>
          <td id="previousClose"></td>
          <td id="daysLow"></td>
          <td id="daysHigh"></td>
          <td id="volume"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

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