grabweb_for_NewsTracker_v1
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This script is designed to automate the process of gathering economic news data directly from a financial website and organizing it into a structured format for use within the MetaTrader platform. Rather than requiring a user to manually copy and paste news events, the tool handles the retrieval, filtering, and formatting automatically.
Core Workflow
1. Data Retrieval The script initiates an internet connection to reach a specific URL containing an economic calendar. It acts as a web reader, downloading the raw HTML source code of that page into the trading environment's memory.
2. Temporary Storage Once the data is successfully pulled from the web, the script creates a local temporary file on your computer (named with the current date). This acts as a "snapshot" of the raw website content, ensuring the data is captured before the script begins processing it.
3. Data Parsing and Extraction The tool then scans through the complex HTML code to identify specific pieces of information. It looks for segments containing:
- Dates and times of news events.
- The country or currency involved.
- The description of the news (e.g., "Consumer Price Index").
- The "Impact Level" (High, Medium, or Low).
- Key figures such as Actual results, Forecasts, and Previous data points.
4. Filtering Logic One of the primary functions of this script is its ability to customize what information you actually see. It allows you to set specific rules to ignore certain types of news based on your preferences:
- Impact Filtering: You can choose to include or exclude High, Medium, or Low-impact events.
- Keyword Filtering: It has a specific toggle to filter out "Speaks" events (such as speeches by central bank officials), which often behave differently in the market than hard data releases.
- Currency Conversion: It can automatically standardize currency labels (for example, converting "USD" into a specific pair).
5. Final Export After the data has been cleaned and filtered according to your settings, the script converts the information into a CSV (Comma Separated Values) format. This organized file is saved to your computer, providing you with a clean, structured list of economic events that can be easily reviewed or used by other tools for trading analysis.
6. Time Standardization To ensure accuracy regardless of your local time zone, the script includes a dedicated logic block to translate the website's date and time format into a standardized 24-hour clock format (YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM).
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| grabweb.mq4 |
//| Copyright © 2006 |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
#property copyright "Copyright © 2006"
#property link "http://"
#property show_inputs
extern string sUrl = "http://www.forexfactory.com/index.php?s=&page=calendar&timezoneoffset=g0"; // GMT output for the week
extern string Outputfile = "NewsItems.csv";
extern bool IncludeHigh = true;
extern bool IncludeMedium = true;
extern bool IncludeLow = false;
extern bool IncludeSpeaks = false; // news items with "Speaks" in them have very different characteristics
extern string ConvertUSDto = "USD"; // can change this to a full currency pair such as "GBPUSD"
extern double Parameter2 = 0;
extern double Parameter3 = 0;
extern double Parameter4 = 0;
extern double Parameter5 = 0;
int hSession_IEType;
int hSession_Direct;
int Internet_Open_Type_Preconfig = 0;
int Internet_Open_Type_Direct = 1;
int Internet_Open_Type_Proxy = 3;
int Buffer_LEN = 13;
#import "wininet.dll"
int InternetOpenA(
string sAgent,
int lAccessType,
string sProxyName="",
string sProxyBypass="",
int lFlags=0
);
int InternetOpenUrlA(
int hInternetSession,
string sUrl,
string sHeaders="",
int lHeadersLength=0,
int lFlags=0,
int lContext=0
);
int InternetReadFile(
int hFile,
string sBuffer,
int lNumBytesToRead,
int& lNumberOfBytesRead[]
);
int InternetCloseHandle(
int hInet
);
int hSession(bool Direct)
{
string InternetAgent;
if (hSession_IEType == 0)
{
InternetAgent = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312461)";
hSession_IEType = InternetOpenA(InternetAgent, Internet_Open_Type_Preconfig, "0", "0", 0);
hSession_Direct = InternetOpenA(InternetAgent, Internet_Open_Type_Direct, "0", "0", 0);
}
if (Direct)
{ return(hSession_Direct); }
else
{ return(hSession_IEType); }
}
int start()
{
// Print("fake start");
}
int init()
{
int hInternet;
string iResult;
int lReturn[]={1};
string sBuffer="x";
string sData, csvoutput;
int handle;
int bytes;
int beginning, finalend,end,i;
string aju, text, newsdate, newstime, country, news, level, actual, forecast, previous;
hInternet = InternetOpenUrlA(hSession(FALSE), sUrl, "0", 0, 67108864, 0);
Print("hInternet: " + hInternet);
iResult = InternetReadFile(hInternet, sBuffer, Buffer_LEN, lReturn);
Print("iResult: " + iResult);
Print("lReturn: " + lReturn[0]);
//iResult = InternetCloseHandle(hInternet);
Print("iResult: " + iResult);
Print("sBuffer: " + sBuffer);
Comment("sBuffer: " + sBuffer);
bytes = lReturn[0];
sData = StringSubstr(sBuffer, 0, lReturn[0]);
//if there's more data then keep reading it into the buffer
while (lReturn[0] != 0)
{
iResult = InternetReadFile(hInternet, sBuffer, Buffer_LEN, lReturn);
if (lReturn[0]==0) break;
bytes = bytes + lReturn[0];
sData = sData + StringSubstr(sBuffer, 0, lReturn[0]);
}
Print("sData: " + sData);
iResult = InternetCloseHandle(hInternet);
Print("iResult: " + iResult);
handle=FileOpen(Day()+ "-"+ Month() +"-"+ Year() +"-"+ "grabweb.htm",FILE_BIN|FILE_READ|FILE_WRITE);
if(handle<1)
{
Print("Can\'t open htm file, the last error is ", GetLastError());
return(false);
}
FileWriteString(handle,sData,StringLen(sData));
FileClose(handle);
Print("bytes: "+bytes);
// htm file is written, let's parse it now and write to csv file
handle=FileOpen(Outputfile,FILE_CSV|FILE_WRITE,",");
if(handle<1)
{
Print("Can\'t open csv file, the last error is ", GetLastError());
return(false);
}
FileWrite(handle,"Description","Currency","DateTime","TimeZone","Level","Parameter2","Parameter3","Parameter4","Parameter5");
beginning = 1;
beginning = StringFind(sData,"<span class=\"smallfont\">Info.</span>",beginning)+36;
finalend = StringFind(sData,"</table>",beginning)-1235;
while (beginning < finalend)
{
for (i=0; i < 8; i++)
{
beginning = StringFind(sData,"<span class=\"smallfont\"",beginning)+23;
beginning = StringFind(sData,">",beginning)+1;
end = StringFind(sData,"</span>",beginning)-0;
if (end != beginning)
{
text = StringSubstr(sData, beginning, end-beginning);
}
else
{
text = "";
}
if (i == 0)
{
if (text != "")
{
newsdate = text;
}
else
{
text = newsdate;
}
}
// date and time conversion here if needed
if (i == 1)
{
text = StringTrimLeft(text);
newstime = StringTrimRight(text);
}
if (i == 2)
{
country = text;
}
if (i == 3)
{
news = text;
beginning = StringFind(sData,"src=\"http://www.forexfactory.com/forexforum/images/misc/",beginning)+59;
end = StringFind(sData,".gif",beginning);
text = StringSubstr(sData,beginning,end-beginning);
level = text;
}
if (i == 4)
{
actual = text;
}
if (i == 5)
{
forecast = text;
}
if (i == 6)
{
previous = text;
}
}
// csvoutput = newsdate + ", " + newstime + ", " + country + ", " + news + ", " +level + ", " + actual + ", " + forecast + ", " + previous;
if (!IncludeHigh && level == "high") continue;
if (!IncludeMedium && level == "med") continue;
if (!IncludeLow && level == "low") continue;
if (!IncludeSpeaks && (StringFind(news,"speaks") != -1 || StringFind(news,"Speaks") != -1) ) continue;
if (country == "USD") country = ConvertUSDto;
int nLevel = 0;
if (level == "high") nLevel = 3;
if (level == "med") nLevel = 2;
if (level == "low") nLevel = 1;
csvoutput = StringConcatenate(news,",",country,",",MakeDateTime(newsdate,newstime),",GMT,",nLevel,",",Parameter2,",",Parameter3,",",Parameter4,",",Parameter5);
Print("newslist: "+ csvoutput);
FileWrite(handle,news,country,MakeDateTime(newsdate,newstime),"GMT",nLevel,Parameter2,Parameter3,Parameter4,Parameter5);
}
FileClose(handle);
return(0);
}
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
string MakeDateTime(string strDate, string strTime)
{
// converts forexfactory time & date into yyyy.mm.dd hh:mm
int nDateSpacePos = StringFind(strDate," ");
int nDateSlashPos = StringFind(strDate,"/");
string strMonth = StringSubstr(strDate,nDateSpacePos+1,nDateSlashPos-nDateSpacePos-1);
string strDay = StringSubstr(strDate,nDateSlashPos+1);
int nTimeColonPos = StringFind(strTime,":");
string strHour = StringSubstr(strTime,0,nTimeColonPos-1);
string strMinute = StringSubstr(strTime,nTimeColonPos+1,2);
string strAM_PM = StringSubstr(strTime,StringLen(strTime)-2);
int nHour24 = StrToInteger(strHour);
if (strAM_PM == "pm" || strAM_PM == "PM")
{
nHour24 += 12;
}
string strHourPad = "";
if (nHour24 < 10) strHourPad = "0";
return(StringConcatenate(Year(),".",strMonth,".",strDay," ",strHourPad,nHour24,":",strMinute));
}
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