Simple Order Protocol (sop). An imaginary protocol.

About SOP

This is a simple, text protocol for an imaginary stock exchange. I created it for my blog.

All message types follow the format HEADER|PAYLOAD|TRAILER (note that '|' is not included in the protocol).

The HEADER is very simple:

Field	Length	Type	Description
SOH	1	STRING	Start of header.
LEN	3	NUMERIC	Length of the payload (i.e. no header/trailer).

The TRAILER is even simpler:

Field	Length	Type	Description
ETX	1	STRING	End of text.

The message types are:

Type	Description	Payload Spec
NO	New Order	NO.csv
OC	Order Confirmation	OC.csv
TR	Trade	TR.csv
RJ	Rejection	RJ.csv
EN	Exchange News	EN.csv
BO	Best Bid and Offer	BO.csv
LO	Lough Out Loud (experimental)	LO.csv

The specs dir contains the specification for each message type in CSV format.

Trying it out

First, clone this repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/prontog/SOP
$ cd SOP

Vagrant preparation

The easiest way to try out this repo, is using Vagrant with VirtualBox. Skip this part if you already have them installed. Otherwise

1. Install VirtualBox. Make sure that VBoxManage is in the PATH.
2. Install Vagrant. Make sure that vagrant is in the PATH.
3. Install the following vagrant plugins:
   1. vagrant-hostmanager
   2. vagrant-vbguest
   3. vagrant-cachier
   4. vagrant-share
   5. vagrant-proxyconf (if you are behind a proxy)

See vagrant --help for more info on installing plugins. Also note that the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY env vars should be set if you are behind a proxy.

If you need to set a specific IP and/or you are behind a proxy, you can create the file Vagrantfile.local and setup the config.vm.network and config.proxy settings. You can also add extra "synced folders" of you wish. For example:

config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.7"

config.proxy.http     = "http://192.168.56.1:9928"
config.proxy.https    = "http://192.168.56.1:9928"
config.proxy.no_proxy = "localhost,127.0.0.1"

config.vm.synced_folder "~/data", "/home/ubuntu/data", type: "virtualbox"

Starting up the Vagrant box

1. vagrant up to start the box. Note that the first time you run this command, it will take a few minutes to download and provision the box.
2. vagrant ssh to ssh into the box.

Shutting down the Vagrant box

1. exit to logout from the box.
2. vagrant halt to shutdown the box.