Ajax currency converter widget for WordPress
Let me introduce my very first Widget for WordPress: YAACC, an Ajax powered currency converter ! Feel free to try the live version on the right sidebar. As you might have noticed, the user interface is dead-simple. The widget is also optimised with a smart caching system and with compressed javascript and css. The option panel of the widget let you customise the default currencies and the initial amount. Finally, this currency calculator allow you to cutomize the list of available currencies by commenting or uncommenting lines of the complete list of currencies (177 currencies).
Download YAACC, a free Ajax powered currency converter widget for WordPress ! Your ideas or questions are welcomed.
Changelog
- 20080301: 0.9.3 fixed a minor bug, fix for the title option, version and usage check
- 20070922: 0.9.2 fixed a glitch in the caching of ajax-working.gif.
- 20070909: 0.9.1 replaced the ajax-working.gif image with a transparent version.
2007-08-05 at 11.06 am
Convertisseur de devises - Ajax widget pour WordPress…
- Vous aimez cet article ? Votez pour lui sur Blogmemes.fr !Un Widget en Ajax pour votre blog WordPress qui permet de convertir des devises. Facile à installer et à utiliser….
2007-08-18 at 8.10 am
Pratique ce petit outil
2007-09-06 at 11.38 pm
I just downloaded the plugin, and uploaded it to my host server, but it’s still not showing in the WP admin panel. What am I doing wrong. Can you help? I really like this widget.
2007-09-07 at 9.55 am
Hi,
Did you upload the yaacc folder under wp-contents/plugins/ ?
You should have the following structure and files :
/wp-content/
…|
…|–>/plugins/
………|
………|–>/yaacc/
……………|
……………|-/conversions/ (writable, chmod 775)
……………|-ajax-working.gif
……………|-all.js
……………|-money.png
……………|-textfield_bg.gif
……………|-yaacc.php
……………|-yaacc-fetch.php
You should then go to the plugins tab of your administration panel and look for the following entry :
currency-converter 0.9 yet another AJAX currency converter YAACC …
Click on the link to activate the plugin then move to the Presentation tab and click on the Sidebar Widgets sub-tab. You should find the yaacc widget in the list of widgets. Drag and drop it on one of your sidebar (your theme must be widget enabled).
Let me know how it went.
2008-02-20 at 5.31 pm
I can’t seem to figure out how to get the widget title to show up in my sidebar. I saw you left a place in the code for it, but I’m not sure how you intend it to be implemented.
2008-02-26 at 6.20 am
Josh,
I am getting ready a version that will fix this problem.
Stay tuned.
2008-02-28 at 7.23 pm
I actually figured out a way to do it.
2008-03-01 at 6.42 am
I have uploaded a new version of Yet Another Ajax Currency Converter (YAACC 0.9.3).
Fix for the title option and a minor bug.
Added version and referer check.
Upgrade required: older versions are not supported by the backend anymore.
2008-03-02 at 11.10 pm
I tried deactivating the old version, deleting, and uploading and activating the new. For some reason, it says under the second line ‘Reinstall’, and it won’t do any conversions. Check robertastephens.com for what I’m talking about. I made sure to not change ANY code on the new upload.
2008-04-30 at 8.45 pm
Thank you for making this plugin. I have install the plugin in the correct folder but when I run it a smiley face appears for the date then when I change the currency the smiley face changes to Update or Reinstall. The background around where the user enters the current amount doesn’t display. I am running WP 2.5.1.
Cheers
Tim
2008-05-01 at 6.34 am
Sorry for the troubles you had with my widget.
I have tweaked the backend. Now, it should work without any modification on your end.
As for the background not showing, could you tell me which browser are you using and the page where you are using the widget?
2008-05-05 at 8.52 am
Hi Kenji,
Thank you for fixing the background the conversion is working now. The background picture still isn’t working http://www.gadgetsdirect.com.au/wp-content/plugins/yaacc/textfield_bg.gif and I think I have it in the correct place. When I activate your plugin the footer doesn’t line up with my main page. Also in IE7 your plugin looks a bit crazy. I am using this theme http://www.jide.fr/english/downloads/freshy2/ The formatting is fine on the default wordpress theme but I still don’t get textfield_bg.gif displaying.
Cheers
Tim
2008-05-10 at 7.13 am
Sorry for the late reply.
I think I have found the reason why the background does not shows up.
The path to the background is set to “/blog/wp-content/plugins/yaacc/textfield_bg.gif” which is not the right path for your setup as your wordpress install is not under a blog directory.
You can solve the problem by editing the plugin files and remove any reference to /blog/
I will try to find a way to make the plugin work for any kind of installation.
Thanks for the feedback.
2008-05-11 at 9.18 am
Hi Kenji, thanks for the fix. I just removed the /blog/ part from your plugin and all good as you recommended. It still wasn’t displaying in Internet Explorer that well but when I changed .currency-converter-fieldset{width:160px to .currency-converter-fieldset{width:180px all was good but doesn’t look as nice in Internet Explorer. Can you make it 180px on the next version? I still can’t work out how your plugin is effecting my footer style. Might be your css conflicting with my themes css?
Cheers
Tim
2008-05-18 at 5.45 am
I have uploaded a new version that fixes the css problem for the background of the fields. Regarding the width of the widget, did you have problems with 160px? My site happens to have very narrow columns so I tried to make the widget fit in a width of 160px.
I also took a look at your site but could not find why your footer was messed up…
2008-05-18 at 10.14 am
0.9.4 fixed up the the css path problem
I have left it at 160px so you can see my site in internet explorer http://www.gadgetsdirect.com.au . You can also see in my footer which has my rss and rss comments (internet explorer or firefox). The css in your plugin might be escaping and effecting the css in my footer. My theme is http://www.jide.fr/english/downloads/freshy2/ . Be nice if you could make a mysql table for the currencies you want to show and default currency so when the plugin is updated don’t have to go edit the plugin manually. With wordpress 2.5 there is auto update can you add this? I think if you can fix the css and make a mysql table be a great plugin on wordpress.org and you should get a ton of backlinks for your blog. You plugin looks better than the others 
Cheers
Tim
2008-05-20 at 4.39 am
You are right the plugin does not look good in IE with 160px on your site…
I will try to come up with a new version with:
* a fix for the css
* a better interface to choose the currencies
* a way to save the settings
* implementation of Wordpress 2.5 auto-update
and I will eventually release the code with a GPL license so it can be included in the official plugins directory.
2008-05-20 at 8.54 pm
Hi Kenji,
Even when I increased the width of my sidebar it didn’t fix the display in IE. I don’t know much but it looks like IE displays css a little different than Firefox. Can’t wait for the updates.
Cheers
Tim
2008-06-17 at 5.43 pm
Hi Kenji,
Cheers for the update but I got the below error from auto update in WP Admin.
Warning: require_once(/home/content/t/i/m/timlester/html/gadgetsdirect/wp-content/plugins/yaacc/settings/currencies.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/t/i/m/timlester/html/gadgetsdirect/wp-content/plugins/yaacc/yaacc/yaacc.php on line 35
Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required ‘/home/content/t/i/m/timlester/html/gadgetsdirect/wp-content/plugins/yaacc/settings/currencies.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php’) in /home/content/t/i/m/timlester/html/gadgetsdirect/wp-content/plugins/yaacc/yaacc/yaacc.php on line 35
With a manual clean install worked fine. I still have the problem of your plugin effecting my footer layout.
Cheers
Tim
2008-06-18 at 6.08 am
Hi Tim,
I am still running on the the old branch of Wordpress (still maintained for security fixes) so I am not able to try this auto-update feature. My guess is that the repository was not completely up-to-date when you tried because the settings directory and its currencies.php definitely were there when I checked.
I also did check the css and html layout for unclosed tags but could not find any. I will look at your theme for errors whenever I have time.
I would really appreciate if you can rate the yaacc plugin in the wordpress directory.
Thanks again for your feedback.
2008-06-18 at 9.08 pm
You got 5 stars from me, did a quick forum post also. Might want to change the description in the Wordpress plugin directory from “Compatible up to: 2.1″ to “Compatible up to: 2.5.1″ as your plugin works great on the latest version of wordpress also.
What do you think about changing $ to USD as a lot of countries also use the $ sign. Eg in Australia we use $ for AUD and so does New Zealand and most likely a few more countries do also.
Be great if you could look at the theme I use.
Cheers
Tim
2008-06-18 at 9.53 pm
Thanks Tim,
I made the changes you proposed.
I will take a look at your theme tomorrow.
2008-07-06 at 9.14 pm
Hi, great plugin but I have a problem with the JS.
It shows me a XMLDoc is null error. How to fix it?
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Robert
2008-07-06 at 9.49 pm
Hi, I again.
I fixed the error. There was a mistake in the yaacc-fetch.php. I wrote now line 38 above line 36 and commented out line 255.
Take care.
Regards, Robert
2008-07-08 at 5.53 am
Hi,
I am not sure of the circumstances leading to the bug you described.
Could you give me more details?
Thanks.
2008-07-22 at 10.00 pm
Hi,
How do i manually activate the widget. I know i should type something in
Theme Editor >> ‘my theme’ >> sidebar.php but i dont know what. Anyone?
2008-07-28 at 5.42 am
You should go to the Presentation tab and then “Sidebar widgets”. There you should be able to drag and drop YAACC if your theme is compatible with widgets.
2008-08-02 at 6.44 am
Sorry for my bad english..
I install the WordPress YAACC plugin, and don´t work…
I change /conversions/ (writable, chmod 775)
and I change the file permisions to 775 to 0d22295dba298b8a4831a943545b0810-3518f8944d42212dd37daffe097d216e and 3518f8944d42212dd37daffe097d216e-0d22295dba298b8a4831a943545b0810..
Please help me
2008-08-04 at 5.41 am
I am looking into it.
Check back for updates.
2008-08-04 at 6.23 am
Hmm, I tried to access your cache files but got a 404… Also, the response of yaacc-fetch is strange: the xml content header is missing thus displaying html…
Please reinstall from scratch with the newest version (1.1) that might fix your problems.
If this still does not work, it might be due to limitations on your php install. The script then have to rely on a weaker method to poll the service which might cause your problems.
2008-08-28 at 11.50 am
Hi Kenji,
The plug-in looks excellent but for some reason it’s not working properly on my site. The loading image just continues spinning and it doesn’t convert any of the calculations.
Site: http://housemeetsowner.com
What do you think it could be? Thanks for making this plugin!
2008-08-28 at 9.13 pm
Hi,
I have checked your website and it seems that you are missing the conversions folder. Make a sub-folder named ‘conversions’ under wp-content/plugins/yaacc/ and it should work. Let me know how it goes.
2008-08-29 at 4.35 am
That did the trick! It works flawlessly, thank you for such an innovative plugin.
I downloaded the plugin from WordPress.org and it didn’t have an empty conversions folder in it.
2008-08-30 at 7.44 pm
Bonjour,
est-ce que cela fonctionne sous WP 2.6.1 ?
J’ai installé le plug-in mais je ne vois nulle part d’option pour les paramètres.
Merci
Frank
————
Hi I just installed it on my WP version 2.6.1. Does it run under this version ?
I didn’t see anywhere to fill the parameters.
Thanks
Frank
2008-08-30 at 10.02 pm
Ca devrait fonctionner sous 2.6.1 et plus. Cependant, comme il s’agit d’un widget, il faut l’ajouter par le biais du menu Sidebar Widgets qui se trouve sous l’onglet Présentation de l’interface d’administrateur de WordPress.
—–
It should work under 2.6.1 and later. However, this is a widget so you must activate it from the Sidebar Widget menu under the Presentation tab in your WordPress Admin page.
2008-10-04 at 5.19 am
HI!..
Excellent plugin, but how can i activate it “manually”?
(without the widgets feature)
Thanx
Cristián
2008-10-04 at 5.27 am
Hi,
If “activate it manually” means being able to display YAACC at a specific location, it’s not possible with the current version.
Could you explain me what you are trying to accomplish with YAACC? Maybe I can try to work on it for the next version.
2008-10-04 at 5.44 am
Hi, Kenji…
I wanna put it in a specific location, but my sidebar isnt’ a widget-like.
I’ll like that visitors can convert any currency (actually are 4 options only)…
That be great too.
Anyway, thanx for sharing this!…
2008-10-17 at 7.19 am
Hello Kenji,
Thank you for your great plugin! works like a charm.
I had 1 issue that I could fix on my own, but maybe you’d like to fix in the next version.
1. edit currencies.php to only allow JPY and CAD
2. Activate plugin
*** Plugin FAILS ***
how to fix
change all instances of “\” ( yen mark ) to “JPY”
output Yen mark is now displayed as “JPY” ( fine by me )
I also have a request.
my site will show ;
100 JPY
1 CAD
in reality it should be 1.xxx or 0.9xx or so.
if you could add perhaps 2 or 3 ( or have the options to choose the amout of ) digits after the decimal to give a more precise number
2008-12-11 at 4.19 pm
Hello,
I have added one more currency to the currencies.php file.
AMD (Armenian Drams), but it’s not working.
It just shows loading.
Please help.
2008-12-14 at 4.35 am
Tigran,
Did you un-comment the existing line for AMD ?
Also you might want to follow the instructions of Phil (the comment above yours) and check that you have a writable “conversions” folder under “yaccc”.
If it still does not work, let me know the address of your website.
2008-12-14 at 6.43 pm
Hello Kenji,
I have uncommended the line for AMD.
Also conversations folder hasm been chmod-ed and chown-ed appropriately.
For other currencies everything works fine.
But for AMD I see only loading.
Seems like rates for AMD are N/A.
Thanks!
2008-12-14 at 6.44 pm
Hello Kenji,
I have uncommented the line for AMD.
Also conversations folder has been chmod-ed and chown-ed appropriately.
For other currencies everything works fine.
But for AMD I see only loading.
Seems like rates for AMD are N/A.
Thanks!
2008-12-26 at 3.33 am
I have been looking for a converter like this. I live in Costa Rica and use Canadian dollars. I exchange money frequently and would like to have an indication as to the exchange rate. I use XP professional and was wondering if I can install this on desktop or at least IE.
Thank You
Ray
2009-01-22 at 5.03 am
Ray,
This is a WordPress plugin, you would need to install a WordPress blog (locally or on the Internet) and make that your default page on IE (or Firefox).
2009-01-26 at 8.48 pm
Bonjour, je viens d’installer ton plugin sur expatriation.com mais a priori, il “cherche” (il working
un peu le site sur lequel mettre à jour les taux ?
j’ai loupé une étape dans l’installation ?
merci d’avance pour ta réponse,
a bientôt
Ben
2009-01-29 at 6.16 am
Bonjour,
Je suis allez faire un tour sur votre site.
Le problème vient sans doute de la protection du répertoire conversions sous yaacc. Il doit être librement accessible sans quoi le plugin ne fonctionne pas.
2009-01-30 at 1.45 am
@Kenji. Exact !
Merci beaucoup. On va vous faire un petit “remerciement” public
Benjamin
2009-03-18 at 3.05 pm
Hi KEnji
I like your plugin.
I am having a problem, it is setup and works BUT it is affecting my background and header from loading properly. I am using the most recent WP upgrade. Could you please advise.
Thank you.
2009-04-11 at 9.13 pm
Hi Kenji,
I’m finding an error on the latest 2.7.1, when you go to the widget config you get the following error at the top of the settings box.
Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #2 is not an array in /home/owner/public_html/wp-content/plugins/yaacc/yaacc.php on line 133
YAACC V.1.1: settings
The widget is not showing on the page, even after the values are put in. Any ideas? Thanks!
2009-04-29 at 3.28 am
Hi Kenji,
It appears that YAACC isn’t pulling the feed properly any more.
See your widget on the right-hand side.
The AJAX-working.gif keeps looping and the data feed doesn’t load.
Can you look into this?
Thanks for reading!
2009-05-05 at 8.57 pm
Hi Kenji,
the YAACC tool doesn’t seems loading for awhile.. COuld you please advice
thank you
Regrads,
Ivay
2009-05-06 at 11.39 am
Hi,
Thanks for reporting the problem.
It turns out that the backend service I was using is down (domain temporarily parked). I will modify the endpoint connection if I can find an alternative solution that is also free. Or we can hope that the current service will be back in a few days.
You will not have to download/install a new version of the plugin.
Thanks for your patience.
2009-05-07 at 1.58 am
Hi Kenji,
Have you thought of parsing Yahoo’s data?
eg. http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=EURUSD=X&f=sl1d1t1ba&e=.csv
This example will grab the exchange rate from Yahoo, but it’s contained in a CSV.
Hope this helps.
2009-07-19 at 7.32 am
Thanks all for the long wait.
I have finally fixed the backend. Your widgets should work again.
Let me know if you still have some problems.
2009-07-21 at 10.58 am
Indonesian rupiah is not working… Could this be temporarily?
2009-07-22 at 3.37 pm
Effectivement, le widget “run” à nouveau
merci beaucoup kenji !
2009-07-22 at 3.52 pm
[…] Petit message de “service” pour vous annoncer le retour du convertisseur de devises sur Expatriation.com. Après quelques semaines de “moulinage” dans la colonne à droite, son développeur, un expatrié français au Japon , a trouvé le moyen de le rendre à nouveau opérationnel. […]
2009-07-23 at 6.30 am
The service that I am currently using does not have all the 177 currencies available (it currently has data for 40 currencies).
I am looking into other sources of information to grow that number up. I have a log that shows me the currencies for which the backend failed. I did found some candidates for Indonesian rupiah and other currencies that shows up in my log.
Please wait.
2009-07-23 at 11.29 am
Clear, Kenji, I’ll wait.
2009-07-24 at 11.57 pm
I think I got that backend thingy pretty much ironed out. Give it some time as the local cache of your installation needs to be purged (about a day).
Let me know if you still have some currencies that are not working after that period.
2009-07-25 at 7.52 am
I have added a request throttling feature on the backend to deal with what seems to be a rogue client (the local cache does not seem to be active for this particular client). If your install is clean, you should not notice any difference.
Let me know if this is not the case.
2009-07-25 at 10.51 am
It works, thanks
2009-08-26 at 5.52 pm
where is the plugin fetching the currency rates from? is it fetching them daily?
2009-09-18 at 8.43 am
Is there a way to fetch the data from Yahoo? The difference between the shown rate and the real rate is almost 3% now. It’s not accurate.
2009-09-19 at 5.28 am
Ovidiu,
The plugin is fetching data from different sources, including Yahoo Finance on a daily basis.
Okoth,
The data rate used for USD to IDR conversion is obtained from data published by the European Central Bank. I have checked their rates versus others (Yahoo finance, Google’s integrated conversion) and they all differ! You would think that the conversion rate is somewhat approximately the same but nope…
I could bump up Yahoo Finance priority but then someone might ask me to prioritize ECB… Should I end up making an average of all the rates?!
I might have to issue a new version of the plugin where you could specify your preference for the currency rate data.
Let me know what you think.
2009-09-20 at 10.36 pm
Hi,
I am just wondering if your plugin can be used on a non widget enabled side bar? If so what is the php code for it?
Thanks a lot.
2009-09-20 at 10.38 pm
ps just saw the above comment, i think Yahoo Finance is the way to go.. i just think that most people use it!
2009-11-23 at 2.11 pm
こんにちは。あなたのwidgetを利用させていただいております。すばらしいwidgetです。かっこいいし。大好きです。ひとつ質問なのですが、最近私のサイトの利用者が増えたようで、widgetが利用できない状態であることが多いです。
Slow down! No more than 10 queries per 12hour(s). と表示されております。
解決策はありますでしょうか？
何回でも通貨換算をしていただけるように変更したいのですが。
お時間のある時によろしければ教えてください。
2010-01-16 at 7.07 pm
I need to embed this in a static page, not in a widgetized sidebar.
Is it possible?
Thanks.