A stock monitorng system as a final year project

[Pamilerin]

Hey guys,
I am to do a final year project to monitor the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and my question is if I were to write an application what things should I consider. The application is supposed to be a stand alone but works when it connects to the internet just like Tweetdeck. My question is how can I connect to the server and then use the data from the server to build my application. My preferred language is VB.Net. How dos the whole idea work, like how does tweetdeck connect to the twitter server without the need for twitter.com, that is how my application is supposed to work.

Thanks very much for your help.

[griswolf]

I speak no VB, so in general terms:You open a connection to (some web service)
You provide your bona fides to that server
You make your request
You receive and parse the data
You close the connection
You massage the new data
You display the massaged data
Repeat

There are several places where this can be troublesome.Opening the connection: VB will have some way to do it
Providing your bona fides: Each service has its own requirements. Probably a username and password. You don't want to send that in the clear, so think about it first.
Sending requests and receiving data: You will need to understand the service requirements in both directions
Parsing: You have to handle what they send you. Probably XML or json. VB has parser tools, I'm sure.
Closing the connection: They are a scarce resource, so when you're done for the moment, close it.

[Pamilerin]

Thanks very much for that info but I want to ask, how do I get access to a web service

[griswolf]

Your question is not precise. You two kinds of access:You obtain permission to access the service, which may require some form of authorization, signing a EULA, or other legal issue.
You make a connection with the service
I am not able to give you details about this, partly because I simply don't know: What web service, how VB deals with internet connections; and partly because DaniWeb is a place where we HELP you do the work, not do it for you.

[Pamilerin]

Thanks, I appreciate it