This currency converter was built for a module called Advanced Topics in Web Development to teach the basics of building REST based applications. While I find rest a fairly wishy-washy concept (which I will likely blog about soon), this currency converter was a very interesting project as it allowed me to explore some areas of PHP that I hadn’t used before, namely SimpleXML and caching.

The converter uses a web service to keep the currency values up to date with a database on the back end that stores the currency codes, full country names and the locations in which the currency is used. It is outputted in an XML format (best viewed in Firefox as it structures XML automatically) which enables the converter to be manipulated and used by other applications which can then add some GUI.

The service can be viewed here.