Currency converter broken

[NickAnderegg]

I'm suddenly not able to do all the currency conversions I'm used it. I've used the currency converter several times a day for years now, and it's suddenly failing to recognize my most used conversion, USD to CAD.

[madsb]

Many cryptocurrencies are also broken. BTC/LTC works, ZEN/RLC/GUP etc. are broken.

[deanishe]

Not the same problem as the last issue? #28

[madsb]

Adding the APP_KEY fixed it for me - thanks!

[NickAnderegg]

Yup, I missed that issue. It might be helpful to have a notice or something when someone tries a conversion with the new version, because I'm guessing not everyone will check GitHub!

[deanishe]

It might be helpful to have a notice or something

I’ve thought about how best to do that. The way the workflow is currently built means it doesn’t know any currencies until they’re loaded from the cache … which doesn’t exist until APP_KEY is set.

Maybe add some extra logic to the “unknown unit” error that checks it against the currency list, and shows a different notice if the unit is a currency.

[NickAnderegg]

You could probably get away with hard coding a list of just a handful of the most common currencies to catch >95% of users. Like there's probably not a huge contingent of users who are converting New Zealand Dollars into Swiss Francs or South African Rand into Indian Rupees.

It'll probably be fine to just check something like:

• USD
• CAD
• GBP
• EUR
• AUD
• JPY
• CNY

I'd best the majority of exchange rate looks up will involve at least one of those currencies and cover most users.

[deanishe]

the most common currencies

I don’t think that would work: the workflow short circuits to failure if the first currency isn’t recognised.

It’s not a big deal: it already contains a list of all currencies, they just aren’t fed into the conversion library unless an exchange rate is available.