February 27, 2021

Stock Quote Plugin

Insert static inline stock ticker for known exchange symbols by customizable shortcode.

A simple and easy configurable plugin for WordPress which allows you to insert inline stock quotes with stock price information to posts, pages, widgets or even to template files. Insertion is mainly available by shortcode.

Please note, stock data has been provided by Alpha Vantage

Stock Quote is simplified, static inline variation of Stock Ticker plugin.

Multisite WordPress is not supported yet

IMPORTANT Stock Quote does not have own Gutenberg Block, so you can add [stock_quote] shortcode inline to Paragraph Block or Common Block to insert Stock Quote within the post/page content.

Disclaimer

All stock data used in Stock Quote is provided by Alpha Vantage, displayed for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advise.

Author of the Stock Quote plugin does not accept liability or responsibility for your use of plugin, including but not limited to trading and investment results. Along to that, author of Stock Quote plugin can not guarantee that stock prices are always accurate as they are provided by 3rd party service for free.

Features

Configure default stock symbol that will be displayed by shortcode if no symbol provided
Configure default presence of company as Company Name or as Stock Symbol
Configure global colours for unchanged quote, negative and positive changes
Tooltip for quote item display company name, exchange market and last trade date/time (if available)
Define custom names for companies to be used instead symbols
Plugin uses native WordPress function to get and cache data from AlphaVantage.co API for predefined duration of time

For feature requests or help send feedback or use support forum on WordPress.

How It Works?

When front-end is loaded in browser, plugin will render quote placeholder in place where you have inserted shortcode.
Right after page is loaded, AJAX call will request quote content and inject it inside quote placeholder. That quote is retrieved as a cached value in database.
Couple seconds latter, second AJAX request will initiate background quote update from WordPress.
If Cache Timeout period has expired, plugin will pick first symbol from All Stock Symbols field. Each time it will pick next symbol.
Without disturbing page rendering and speed to get quote from database, plugin in background retrieve data from AlphaVantage.co for picked symbol.
If quote is successfully retrieved, plugin will save value for that symbol in database.
New fetched quote for symbol will be displayed on front-end only after page reload but not right after updated quote get fetched from AlphaVantage.co!

How To Use

You can add Stock Quote to posts, pages or widgets by shortcode.

Shortcode

Use simple shortcode [stock_quote] without any parameter in post or page, to display quote with default (global) settings.

IMPORTANT All shortcode parameters and values should be lowercase, except symbols which must be uppercase!

You can tune single shortcode with parameters:

symbol – represent single stock symbol (if not provided then use default from settings page)
show – can be name to represent company with Company Name (default), or symbol to represent company with Stock Symbol. You must add preferred symbol to Custom Names textarea on Settings page because Google Finance does not provide nice company names in feeds
decimals – override default number of decimal places for values (default from settings page used if no custom set by shortcode). Valud values are: 1, 2, 3 and 4
number_format – override default number format for values (default from this settings page used if no custom set by shortcode). Valid options are: cd for 0.000,00; dc for 0,000.00; sd for 0 000.00 and sc for 0 000,00
template – override default template string (default is: %company% %price% %change% %changep%). You can use following template keywords: %company%, %company_name%, %exch_symbol%, %symbol%, %price%, %change%, %changep%, %volume%, %raw_price%, %raw_change%, %raw_changep%, %raw_volume% and %ltrade% which stand for the last trade day (like 2020-09-25), which can be followed by the PHP date format to customize date output, separate by pipe character, eg. |l, jS \of F Y
raw – enable printing quote content without wrapping to SPAN with classes. Default is disabled. Can be 1 or true for enabled, OR 0 or false for disabled.
class – (optional) custom class name for quote item, if you wish some special styling

Example

[stock_quote symbol="^DJI" show="symbol"]

[stock_quote symbol="MSFT" decimals=3 number_format=cd template="%symbol% %price% %change% %changep%"]<h3>Supported Stock Exchange Markets</h3>

Alpha Vantage provide stock data for following stock exchange markets:

BOM – Bombay Stock Exchange
BIT – Borsa Italiana Milan Stock Exchange
TSE – Canadian/Toronto Securities Exchange
FRA – Deutsche Boerse Frankfurt Stock Exchange
ETR – Deutsche Boerse Frankfurt Stock Exchange
AMS – Euronext Amsterdam
EBR – Euronext Brussels
ELI – Euronext Lisbon
EPA – Euronext Paris
LON – London Stock Exchange
NASDAQ – NASDAQ Exchange
CPH – NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen
HEL – NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
ICE – NASDAQ OMX Iceland
STO – NASDAQ OMX Stockholm
NYSE – New York Stock Exchange
SHA – Shanghai Stock Exchange
SHE – Shenzhen Stock Exchange
TPE – Taiwan Stock Exchange
TYO – Tokyo Stock Exchange

Not supported:
* MCX – Moscow Exchange (since December 2018) – eg. MCX:GAZP
* ASX – Australian Securities Exchange (since since May 2020) – eg. ASX:MSB
* SGX – Singapore Exchange (since July 13th 2020) – eg. C29.SI
* NSE – National Stock Exchange of India (since July 2020) – eg. NSE:VB

Installation

Easy install Stock Quote as any other ordinary WordPress plugin

Go to Plugins -> Add New
Search for Stock Quote plugin
Install and activate Stock Quote
Get a free API Key from AlphaVantage.co
In WordPress Dashboard go to Settings -> Stock Quote
Enter to field AlphaVantage.co API Key Alpha Vantage API Key you received in previous step
Enter to field All Stock Symbols all stock symbols you’ll use on whole website in various shortcodes, separated by comma. This field is used to fetch stock data from AlphaVantage.co API by AJAX in background. Because AV have only API to get data for single symbol, that can take a while to get. Please note, for default shortcode symbol there is still field in Default Settings section of plugin.
Save settings and click button Fetch Stock Data Now! to initially fetch stock data to database and wait for a while until we get all symbols from AlphaVantage.co for the very first time.
Insert shortcode [stock_quote] to page or post as usual.

Screenshots

Global plugin settings page
Stock Quote in action

FAQ

How to know which stock symbols to use?

For start you can try with AAPL (Apple). If you need some specific symbol, check you’ll need to figure out by your self.

How to get Dow Jones Industrial Average?

To get quote for this exchange, simply add symbol .DJI or ^DJI.

How to get currency exchange rate?

Use Currency symbols like EURGBP to get rate of 1 Euro = ? British Pounds

How to get descriptive title for currency exchange rates

Add to Custom Names legend currency exchange symbol w/o =X part, like:

EURGBP;Euro (€) ⇨ British Pound Sterling (£)

How to get proper stock price from proper stock exchange?

Enter symbol in format EXCHANGE:SYMBOL like LON:AVST

How to add Stock Ticker to header theme file?

Add this to your template file (you also can add custom parameters for shortcode):

<?php echo do_shortcode('[stock_ticker]'); ?>

I set to show company name but symbol is displayed instead

You’ll need to set company name to Custom Names field on plugin settings page.

My quote do not update or have large delay

There is couple possible causes for this issue:
1. Your website do not have enough visits to fetch each symbol from All Stock Symbols field. Solution: We are working on cron driven updates, but we do not have ETA for that release.
1. You have set too short Cache Timeout value so plugin do not have enough time to fetch updated quote for each symbol in All Stock Symbols. Solution: Increase Cache Timeout value.
1. You have too long Cache Timeout value so plugin skip fetching of updated quotes. Solution: decrease Cache Timeout value below 600 (that means below 10 minutes).
1. You have set too short Fetch Timeout so plugin do not have enough time to successfully retrieve symbol from AlphaVantage.co. Solution: Increase Fetch Timeout by 2-3 second than you have set already. If that still does not work, try with another 2-3 seconds.
1. When you hover over quote on front-end, you should see last trade date. If date is older than expected (including last trade day), it’s possible that something stuck in plugin. Solution: Enable debugging in WordPress as explained in official article https://codex.wordpress.org/Debugging_in_WordPress#Example_wp-config.php_for_Debugging and after couple of hours disable debugging, upload wp-content/stock-quote.log to DropBox/Google Drive/etc and provide link to log in email sent throug our contact form at https://urosevic.net/c/

Changelog

0.2.3 (20210227)

Tested: WordPress 5.6.2 and PHP 7.4.15
Add: new template keyword %ltrade% with optional modifier for customized date format like %ltrade|l, jS \of F Y%

0.2.2 (20200811)

Tested: WordPress 5.5-RC2-48768 and PHP 7.4.1
Add: New template keyword %company_name% which show descriptive company name even if show is set as symbol, if definition exists in custom legend.
Improve: Made all strings in plugin available for localization.
Improve: Retrieve single row of data from DB as Stock Quote has single symbol per shortcode or widget.
Improve: Help section on plugin settings page.
Simplify: Remove unused variables and improve conditionals for better DRY.
Change: FOREX symbol now should be used as EURGBP instead of old EURGBP=X
Change: Remove ASX, SGX and NSE from supported exchanges because AlphaVantage does not provide data for Australian Securities Exchange, Singapore Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India

0.2.1.1 (20200520)

Remove MCX from supported exchanges because AlphaVantage does not provide data for Moscow Stock Exchange
Add support for AlphaVantage.co empty response {} reported for Australian Exchange by @blockathon

0.2.1 (20180923)

Improve: statuses and messages in fetch log
Improve: Make Force Fetch to wait between each symbol fetch regarding to the API Tier
Improve: Remove duplicate symbols on settings update
Simplify: Merge 3 settings sections to single register_settings
Improve: Move routine to extract symbol to fetch to self method get_symbol_to_fetch()
Improve: Move stock data to DB to self method data_to_db()
Change: Make method get_stock_from_db() public so user can access Stock data in DB from custom functions
Change: Move method sanitize_symbols() to main class and make it public static so user can access it from custom functions
Add Alpha Vantage Tier option for better fetch timeout control
Add to settings page list of stock exchanges supported by AlphaVantage
Switch to GLOBAL_QUOTE API mode and eliminate requirement to calculate change amount from TIME_SERIES_DAILY and TIME_SERIES_INTRADAY
Fix: Allow dash character in symbols (eg. STO:ERIC-B) (thanks to @iarwain)
(20180609) Readme: add How It Works
Readme: Update FAQ with stuck quote question

0.2.0.5 (20180901)

Fix: Netagive spelling error (thanks to @eigood)

0.2.0.4 (20180604)

Fix: workaround for stuck skipping
Add: URL request to unlock fetch

0.2.0.3 (20180219)

Add: shortcode parameter raw
Add: template keywords %raw_price%, %raw_change%, %raw_changep% and %raw_volume%

0.2.0.2 (20180204)

Fix: price amount was taken from last_open instead of proper last_close

0.2.0.1 (20171229)

Fix: on PHP 5.x – PHP Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context
Test: PHP 5.6.31 and 7.1.12

0.2.0 (20171222)

(20171224)
- Add: front-end updater AJAX call
(20171222)
Move: method sanitize_symbols to main plugin class
Add: on shortcode renderer part to check is current symbol already in All Symbols list and append if it’s not (method add_to_all_symbols)
Add: fetching system to settings page
Fix: Fatal exceptions caused by classes, methods and variables renaming
Fix: Settings page
Fix: Admin settings symbol
(20171217) Add: plugin update script with database creation and legacy settings migration
Add: All Symbols settings field
Add: AlphaVantage parser and DB updater
Add: get_stock_from_db
(20171212) Start AlphaVantage.co version based on v0.1.7.1

0.1.7.1 (20170524)

Fix: when changep is empty – PHP Warning: number_format() expects parameter 1 to be float, string given in wp-content/plugins/stock-quote/stock-quote.php on line 436

0.1.7 (20170521)

Add: decimals, number_format and template as shortcode parameters
Add: Error check on fetching data from Google
Cleanup: Remove unused constant WPAU_STOCK_QUOTE_CACHE_TIMEOUT
Cleanup: Improve variable names (like sq_transient_id to transient_id)
Remove: unused Stock Quote element ID
Update: help for shortcode and parameters
Update: readme file

0.1.6 (20170118)

Add: options to choose number format and amount of decimal places
Optimize: Remove enqueing stylesheet and move inline CSS from footer to HEAD. Converted images to single inline data:image to reduce HTTP requests.
Simplify: remove shortcode parameters zero, minus and plus, because webmaster can tweak colours by custom class
Simplify: convert main CSS to SASS and inject to HEAD instead link to small file
Change: improve settings page layout.

0.1.5 (20160523)

Fix: Complete support for localization
Add: Localization to Serbian Cyrillic

0.1.4 (20151016)

Fix: Quote stuck and never change
Change: Made name of transient cache key name human readable

0.1.3 (20150809)

Change: Item ID length reduced fro 8 to 4 characters
Change: Move all core methods inside class
Make code fully compliant to WordPress Coding Standard
Update FAQ

0.1.2 (20150723)

Add: Option to purge cache by providing parameter stockquote_purge_cache in page URL
Add: Option on plugin settings page to set fetch timeout in seconds (2 is default). Usefull for websites hosted on shared hosting.
Change: Timeout fields to HTML5 number

0.1.1 (20150607)

Fix: Make available to work with our Stock Ticker plugin

0.1.0 (20150408)

Initial release