viewflex/forex

A Laravel package providing live currency exchange rates, with caching.

Forex

, _(*1)

Providing live currency exchange rates in Laravel and Lumen, with configurable provider and caching., _(*2)

Overview

For live currency exchange rates, your choice of provider depends on various factors, including pricing, features, and reliability, which sometimes change. The purpose of this package is to provide a fixed exchange rate endpoint for your application, which can be configured to use one of the various popular providers, and re-configured at any time to use a different provider if necessary., _(*3)

Installation

Via Composer:, _(*4)

``` bash $ composer require viewflex/forex, <sub>(*5)</sub>

## Configuration

Configuration values must be specified in the application's `.env` file, or in your environment's `$_ENV` or `$_SERVER` arrays -  all of these options are supported transparently. Below are sample configurations for the currently supported providers. You can also customize the cache refresh interval as described below.

### Supported Providers

#### Currency Converter API (free)

FOREX_PROVIDER=CurrencyConverterApiFree FOREX_PROVIDER_URL=http://free.currencyconverterapi.com/api/v6/convert, <sub>(*6)</sub>

#### Currency Converter API (paid)

FOREX_PROVIDER=CurrencyConverterApi FOREX_PROVIDER_URL=https://api.currencyconverterapi.com/api/v6/convert FOREX_PROVIDER_KEY=, <sub>(*7)</sub>

#### Fixer (free and paid)

FOREX_PROVIDER=Fixer FOREX_PROVIDER_URL=https://data.fixer.io/api/latest FOREX_PROVIDER_KEY=, <sub>(*8)</sub>

**The free subscription supports only EUR as the base currency.*

#### Open Exchange Rates (free and paid)

FOREX_PROVIDER=OpenExchangeRates FOREX_PROVIDER_URL=https://openexchangerates.org/api/latest.json FOREX_PROVIDER_KEY=, <sub>(*9)</sub>

**The free subscription supports only USD as the base currency.*

### Caching

Use the `FOREX_CACHE_MINUTES` environment variable to specify how long a rate is cached.  Unless specified, the default of 720 (12 hours) is used. Setting this variable to 0 disables caching of rates. Using a longer cache refresh interval can help you to avoid interruption of service (or extra charges if using a paid service).

## Usage

``` php
$server = new \Viewflex\Forex\Forex();
echo $server->getRate('USD', 'CAD');

Tests

Tests can be run as described in the test documentation., <sub>(*10)</sub>

License

This software is offered for use under the MIT License., <sub>(*11)</sub>

Changelog

Release versions are tracked in the Changelog., <sub>(*12)</sub>