An Introductory Message

Here is the current state of affairs: there are two modules (created by Khalid Baheyeldin) that deal with the stock market: stock and stockapi. The first one deals with displaying stock pricing information in both a page format and in a block format. The second one is an API that the first one uses to get the stock information. The API uses Yahoo! Finance as it's source of stock information.

There is also the erp module that has some stock market functionality built-in and the Ystock module. I have not personally been able to get the erp module installed, and I have had little time to pursue fixing it so I could install it. The Ystock module is older and has much of the same functionality as the stock and stockapi modules, but there might be a couple of ideas that might be worthwhile integrating.

I have begun work on a module that will display a stock chart in a Drupal page. In it's primary iteration, it will be rather basic, and not much more than could be done on Yahoo!'s site. I plan on improving it later on...

Here is my Grand Vision(tm) for the near future of what these modules will look like. First, the stockapi module will abstract the reporting service and allow for multiple reporting services (not simultaneously -- though that detail still needs to be worked out), and not just Yahoo! (Khalid has some good ideas on this. Maybe he will share them later on, or maybe I'll just paste his e-mails here. :^)) Second, a portfolio module will come into being (there has already been work on this by other people) that will allow site users to create their own portfolio and track their stocks there. Third, the stock and chart modules will be modified to be able to utilize the information that would be available in the portfolio module. At that point, the future gets fuzzy for me. Maybe it's too far in advance for me to see it. :^)

One of the things I think will need to be defined early on, is the separation point where one module leaves off and another begins. The one I believe this will most affect is the stock module. It is quite possible that much of it's functionality could be duplicated in the other modules and leave it languishing for meaning to life.

So, anyone with any other ideas, or comments on mine? Please pipe up!