Bloomberg Python API

This directory contains an interface for interacting with Bloomberg API services using the Python programming language. This package is the source installer, and requires a C/C++ compilation environment compatible with Python's setuptools package.

Users are encouraged to install using pip directly, as documented in https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/support/api-library

Dependencies

This SDK requires the following products:

CPython version 2.7 or higher
Bloomberg C++ SDK same major and minor version as the Python SDK
Optionally, C/C++ compiler for your CPython installation
On Windows, the VC redistributable package for the Python install

The C/C++ compilers are only needed for building the binary part of the module. We provide pre-built binaries for different versions of CPython on Windows, but you may need to have the compiler to build on other operating systems or unsupported versions of CPython.

On Windows, the VS redistributable package for the compiler used in the target CPython installation is needed. You can find the compiler version for a CPython version here and the VC redistributable package here.

Installation from sources

Installation using pip is strongly recommended, and can handle installing from sources by building the Python SDK binaries locally. The C++ SDK and setting the BLPAPI_ROOT environment is still needed to build with pip, but the rest of the steps are equivalent to a normal installation.

Note that installation requires a working C compiler and the C headers distributed as part of the Bloomberg C++ SDK.

Set the BLPAPI_ROOT environment variable to the location at which the Bloomberg C++ SDK is installed. (This is the directory containing the include directory. On linux this may be of the form $HOME/blpapi_cpp_3.x.y.z; on Windows, this location may be of the form C:\blp\API\APIv3\C++API\v3.x.y.z\.) Note that this is environment variable is required only for installing the blpapi package, not for running blpapi python applications.
To compile and install the blpapi Python package for all users, run
```
> python setup.py install
```
To compile and install the blpapi Python package for only the current user, run
```
> python setup.py install --user
```
(Note that the former command requires root/administrator access, while the latter does not.)

Documentation on additional build and installation options is available by running
```
> python setup.py --help
```
(optional) Copy the C++ SDK shared library/DLL to a standard library location (e.g. /usr/lib on Linux), or update the system-wide library path (configured by /etc/ld.so.conf on Linux and by setting the PATH environment variable on Windows) to include the directory containing the C++ SDK library. Note that this step is not necessary for users who already have a system-wide installation of the C++ SDK with the same or newer version, including Windows users who have the Bloomberg Terminal software installed.

Writing Bloomberg API Programs in Python

In order for python scripts to call Bloomberg API functions, the libraries distributed as part of the Bloomberg C++ SDK must be available to the Python interpreter. Step 3 of installation, above, provides system-wide installation of this library. Linux/Solaris/*nix users without system-wide installations must set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on Darwin/MacOS X) environment variable to include the directory containing the blpapi3 shared libraries. Windows users may need to set the PATH variable to the directory containing blpapi3_32.dll or blpapi3_64.dll. (Note that Windows users with the Bloomberg Terminal software installed already have versions of these libraries in their PATH.)

After installation, the blpapi module can be imported by a Python script or within the CPython interpreter:

>>> import blpapi
>>> options = blpapi.SessionOptions()
>>> options.setServerHost('localhost')
>>> options.setServerPort(8194)
>>> session = blpapi.Session(options)
>>> session.start()

Note that many Python installations add the current directory to the module search path. If the Python interpreter is invoked from the installer directory, such a configuration will attempt to use the (incomplete) local blpapi directory as a module. If the above import line fails with the message Import Error: No module named _internals, move to a different directory before invoking python.

Documentation for individual Bloomberg API classes and functions is provided through Python's built-in help system.

Further documentation on programming the Bloomberg API is available in the Developer's Guide, available at http://www.bloomberg.com/professional/api-library.

Examples

A collection of complete Python programs covering a wide range of typical API usage is available in the examples directory, located in the same directory as this README file. Note that many examples make use of command-line arguments to specify server and authentication configuration; in most cases usage information can be obtained by passing the --help option on the command line.

Implementation Notes

The Bloomberg SDK for Python 2 does not provide direct support for Python unicode objects. Clients can pass unicode data to SDK functions accepting strings by calling u.encode('utf-8') for an appropriate unicode object u; a string s received from an SDK function can be converted to a unicode object by calling s.decode('utf-8').
Python Bloomberg SDK types do not provide support for the Python copy or pickle modules.

Copyright and License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this proprietary software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to use, publish, or distribute copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.

Any other use, including modifying, adapting, reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling, is not permitted.

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.