Currency server

Currency-enable your web sites, database and software! Currency Server includes an ActiveX
Component and a SOAP server interface to provide exchange rate information and currency conversion
services to Windows Automation and Scripting clients (ASP, VB, C/C++, SQL, etc.) and to cross-platform
clients (CORBA, Java, Perl, PHP, etc.) By working locally rather than relying on remote servers for each
transaction, Currency Server provides a unique level of performance, reliability and independence. The
service is always available to satisfy thousands of information and conversion requests per second.
Support for a variety of exchange rate data providers and advanced administrator notification options
assure fault tolerance and peace of mind.

When the software is implemented on a web server, visitors can see prices in their "language" without
having to use third-party sites for currency-related services and without being subject to external
advertising and cookies. Currency Server is one of the fastest and most cost-effective tools to add value
to an e-commerce site. Either alone or as part of a complete internationalization effort, Currency Server
can easily plug into an existing system and open up a new world of opportunities and user experience.

Advantages

 Support for a wide and diverse set of exchange rate data formats, protocols and providers (both
subscription-based and free services), plus plug-in filters (sample source code included) to
handle custom formats
 User-friendly configuration through Control Panel
 COM Automation (ActiveX) interface provides currency exchange rate information, conversion
and rounding functionality to local clients (C, C++, Visual Basic, VBS, ASP, PHP, Java,
JavaScript, Excel, etc.)
 SOAP interface provides XML-based currency exchange rate information, conversion and
rounding functionality to local and remote clients on any platform (C, C++, CORBA, Java,
JavaScript, Perl, Python, PHP, AppleScript, Visual Basic, VBS, ASP, etc.)
 Collection of exchange rate data can be invoked manually, via script or batch file, or through built-
in or system scheduling
 Notifies site administrators in case of problems relating to the connection or to the contents of the
remote data (alerts via application log entries, on-screen information and Windows messaging,
e.g. email, pager, etc.)
 One-click disaster recovery (change provider of exchange rate data while retaining settings, code
and all other work)
 Supports different types of data download (for exchange rate updates) and upload (for posts)
protocols (HTTP, FTP, file, etc.), firewalls, proxy servers and network authentication systems
(Windows NT Challenge/Response, etc.)
 Knows how to properly triangulate and round to, from and between euro currencies, as required
by European Commission and local consumer protection regulations
 Monitors the status of the European Monetary Union as well as other similar institutions which
may exist in the future, and deals with currencies joining it, becoming a sub-unit of another
currency, being replaced by it, and even the unlikely possibility of a region abandoning an existing
monetary union. Takes automatic actions and issues helpful information messages to
administrators.
 Rounding options can be manually changed for each currency (subject to special considerations
for euro currencies, explained in documentation)
 Caches the currency data and keeps satisfying client requests even when the remote exchange
rate data is unavailable or corrupt
 Optimized for performance. Individual client requests never cause unnecessary network or file
accesses, but rather are satisfied accessing cached data, which is refreshed by a separate task.
Benchmarks using the Automation interface resulted in the completion of approximately 5000
 exchange rate conversion requests per second on a single-CPU system (800 MHz Pentium III
running Windows 2000 Server and IIS).
 Designed for 24x7 servers based on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP (runs as
a service, installation does usually not require reboot, operation does not require logon, etc.)