Pulling Data from Bloomberg

[jkluchnik]

Does anyone have any experience in pulling data from Bloomberg into FileMaker? We currently download data into a spreadsheet. This data is then copied into our Bloomberg spreadsheets with the bloomberg formulas, which call the data through the DDE link.

What would be nice is if there is a way to get the data directly from Bloomberg into FileMaker.

Alternatively, if we could AT LEAST produce the bloomberg spreadsheets from FileMaker, where FileMaker can just export them directly and they then just need to be opened, this would be acceptable. I have not been able to implement solution 2 because Excel seems to interpret data from FileMaker as text rather than a formula. What I mean is the following:

Say that the Filemaker has three fields. currency1, currency2, and bloombergTicker. When exported, currency1 would end up in cell A2, currency2 in B2 and bloomberTicker in C2.

bloombergTicker is a calculation with a text result which is: "=" & currency1 & currency2 & " Curncy".

So, where the first two fields are USD and CHF respectively, bloomberTicker should be =USDCHF Curncy, which in fact it is. However, despite having the "=" sign at the beginning, Excel still interprets it as text rather than a formula. If you do a search and replace inside the Excel sheet and say Find "=" and replace with "=", then the formulas work. However, in order to have a search/replace run via a macro, I believe that macro would have to be part of the spreadsheet, which I obviously cannot create with the filemaker export.

Any help would be appreciated.

[comment]

You need to check their API for what they can provide. If you can get XML response to a HTTP GET request, then this can be handled entirely by Filemaker.

[jkluchnik]

Thanks comment. I will be talking to our Bloomberg rep in the next few days and trying to get some info from them. As of now, they have an ftp tool where you can deliver spreadsheets to them by dropping them via ftp and then some seconds later, a response sheet is available for download. However, the problem lies in what I said about excel and not being able to generate the excel sheet out of filemaker that is recognized by excel as formulas.

[comment]

not being able to generate the excel sheet out of filemaker that is recognized by excel as formulas.

There may be a workaround for that (depending on the exact Excel formats they will recognize). But the entire route is awkward.