Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure whether to post this is this forum or the API development forum, so I posted it here figuring more people will read it. If its more appropriate for that forum, sorry.

So I know there are threads out there helping people construct spreadsheets with links to current prices. The problem is I don’t really understand the conversation. To a degree its like someone who doesn’t really know how to swim going into the open ocean.
In any event though, I’m motivated to learn. I just want to make a simple spreadsheet to monitor the profitability of the dozen or so recipes I like to craft, or material promotions I like to do. I know such thing already exist, but I want to have it tweaked to just the way I want it. Plus I guess I just want to do it for interest’s sake.
So I guess I’m asking where to start. Are there resources out there that can teach me how to do this that don’t assume much starting knowledge? Excel for dummies is no help. I need help with the linking, not the spreadsheet part of it.
also, is it easier to work with google docs vs Microsoft? Seems like it might be, but I’ve only ever really used excel.
any help you can send to this desperate soul is much appreciated.

I don’t really understand how API works, but pls check this thread if there’s any site that you can use. Posting on API subtopic also will be helpful for you.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/api/List-of-apps-websites-using-the-API

There’s also a website that you can use to monitor marketprice gw2spidy.com
I hope it helps

I’m comfortable with the API. I’ve written one of the wrappers for it, too.
Although I don’t understand spreadsheets, I can point you to the right API elements, which may or may not be useful.

Obviously, to do the tweaks you need to set your spreadsheet formulas to your own taste. The data itself you can access through the GW2 API (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API). If you prefer to code rather than fiddle with spreadsheets, I recommend grabbing one of the wrappers and making a little application of your own (it’s not rocket science, even if you have never coded) (give me a shout if you need help).

What you need:
TP Prices - this endpoint is the most useful – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:2/commerce/prices – see how it’s used; it returns the current top buy and bottom sell prices. You need to know the id of your item. Get that through the items endpoint (v2), or through some nifty online source!

If you want the complete set of listings, for coding purposes, see this: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:2/commerce/listings

Recipe Ids - this will help you get your ids easier, if you don’t have them. Use the recipe search endpoint. Here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:2/recipes/search

All of these endpoints and fancy terms simply mean that you visit the URL you constructed from the things you need, and you get the data. It’s structured to be somewhat human-readable and I don’t know how you’d cater to that representation in a spreadsheet, but if you want to delve into it, the GW2 API uses json encoding for all the data it passes to you.

That’s everything you need!

What remains is for you to find out how your spreadsheets will make sense of the data you get and what you want them spreadsheets to do for you. Give me a shout if you need help with coding, or an explanation about the endpoints!

Bonus:
Icons: If you want a fancy spreadsheet, you can also get item icons from the GW2 Render Service. There’s more about the service at the API wiki. What you need is an item, accessed through the items endpoint; the data of that item contains an Icon URL, and that URL points directly to the icon resource online.

Vendor Prices: If you want your spredsheet to include vendor prices, you get that from the items endpoint. The data has a special field for that – look it up!

Don’t be afraid to give me a poke if you need more help!
Happy holidays!

Believe it or not, I’ve made a bit of progress. I have no problem with the spreadsheet, and using this guys example
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79348276/GW2Spidy%20API%20Google%20Drive.pdf
I am able to bring in his example price of gossamer bolt. So I’m going to fiddle with it for a bit. Seal, I will PM you if I get stuck. Thanks for the offer.

You can also just go to the following and copy it into a spreadsheet:

http://api.gw2tp.com/1/bulk/items.csv

This is what I’m currently doing as I’m rarely monitoring prices nowadays and have no need for a sheet that automatically updates.

there are examples that people have posted that you can download. I recommend starting with one that works, and exploring it to see how it works, then either editing it to do what you are looking for, or making your own.
one recommendation: there are 2 ways to get prices. one at a time as you need them, and all at once. unless you’re only using like 10 prices, I recommend getting all of them at once. I’ve seen some ugly scripts where someone would go through the entire list of items and retrieve each price individually. I think he was complaining about how it took 4 hours to update. updating prices should take a few seconds (I made a website instead of spreadsheet, but the idea is the same, and updating it takes ~1 second to download the prices and ~4 seconds to sort through them).