Pinging Google and reading from file

[chuvak]

Hi I am a C++ beginner, and I am wondering how it would be possible to program an android/web app.

For example, in the app a user would have an account established, and the his location and stats, all decided at runtime with user input.

What resources can I look into (or specific operations) that would allow me to ping google with a query, for example, "___ current weather" where blank is user's established location, say Toronto. And then, take the result, for example current weather in Toronto is 4 degrees, and output "Current weather in Toronto -- 4 degrees"

Is this even possible? Am I merging into API territory here?

Thanks!

[kbw]

Is this even possible? Am I merging into API territory here?

Yes and yes. An API is just an interface to another system or subsystem.

For example:
https://openweathermap.org/api

[chuvak]

Ah, I see.

On a more practical note, I just finished my intro to OOP course, and I want to create an app, compatible for Android and Web, (maybe iPhone if I ever learn Xcode or React haha).

Say Im interested in this: https://api.coinmarketcap.com/v1/ticker/

I want my C++ program to read from this API call, and in a loop create instances of a class. In my case, the constructor would be called like so,

Coins XRP("XRP", "Ripple", 1.72);

where the constructor is defined as,

	class Coins {
		string id;
		string fullName;
		double price;
		long long supply = 1000000000; //tentative
	  public:
			Coins(const char* _id, const char* _fullName, const double _price);
		        //other stuff
	}

        Coins::Coins(const char* _id, const char* _fullName, const double _price) {
                id = _id;
                fullName = _fullName;
                price = _price;
        }

Ideally, I would want to have those values generated for me.. I mean, I could use a CSV file, and then use std::getline but that is inefficient. How can I merge an API call, extract from the JSON file the ID, Name and Price elements, and afterwards construct the coins with the extracted data?

[kbw]

Webservices tend to use a REST API.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer

So, if you want to talk to it from C++, you need to use the REST protocol. Unfortunately, C++ really sucks when it comes to good libraries, which is odd given that C++ is a language for writing libraries. There's this REST client ( https://github.com/mrtazz/restclient-cpp.git ). But these things in C++ are never as easy to use as they are in other languages (like Ruby).

You can test the API with a REST plugin for your browser.

[chuvak]

I understand, that's the general tone Im getting when I read through API related programming. I see you've listed Ruby; are C# and Java feasible languages to do this in? Ill be studying those two in school this semester, but if Ruby is better I will study Ruby on my own time as well.

[kbw]

Java yes, because it's the native language of Android. C#? If you use Windows, then yes. But these are client side reasons.

On the server, you typically don't have these restraints, unless you've opted to use Windows to run your server.