How to use API key with Yahoo's YQL?

Question

I'm using this YQL command to access stock quote information in an XML format. The problem is it keeps timing out and rejecting after a bunch of hits. I think I need to plug in my API key so it doesn't think it's bots.

I'm using SharePoint to process the XML.

http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?q=select%20*%20from%20yahoo.finance.quotes%20where%20symbol%20in%20(%22AAPL%22)&env=store://datatables.org/alltableswithkeys

This is what it says for limits.

Per application limit (identified by your Access Key): 100,000 calls per day.
Per IP limits: /v1/public/: 1,000 calls per hour; /v1/yql/: 10,000 calls per hour.

I'm trying to get that per application limit of 100,000 calls per day. Or I guess that 10,000 calls per hour is also good. Any suggestions? Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

You need to use OAuth and go through the complicated procedure of exchanging tokens. Once you have an access_token and a token_secret, you can use them to make authenticated requests until they expire.

The full workflow is summarized here.

You'll need to go through the step-by-step procedure outlined in the link above, but essentially what you'll be doing is:

1. Get a request_token from here.
2. Redirect user to a Yahoo authorization page.
3. Retrieve the oauth_verifier that comes in the query string when the user is redirected back to your page.
4. Exchange the request_token and oauth_verifier for an access_token and token_secret.
5. You can then use the access_token and token_secret to make authenticated requests.

Since you're using .Net, you can make your life easier by using this sample code posted here.