StockReader: White and Black Lists

As I mentioned in earlier blog posts, I want to have a black list and a white list for combinations of expected name and returned names. Now, I got that code working.

An XML file lists all valid combinations (white list) and invalid combinations (black list). When the program is started, that XML file is opened and the lists are read into two dictionaries.

When the program finds a new stock record, it will query the class nameChecker for the combination of the expected name and the returned name. The result will be one of the following:

• Found in white list: The record can be added to the database
• Found in black list: The record is faulty and will be discarded.
• Found in neither white or black list: The combination needs to be assessed by the user manually. The record won't be added to the database. Instead, a proposal xml string is printed to the console when the scanning of records is done.

One of the few methods that is properly commented.
I really need to refactor my code.

The output can be copied into the XML file for the next iteration:

This means that there will be a lot of manual work initially. Once the lists are updated, unknown mismatches will be less frequent.

The current version of the web scraper builds the list of stocks dynamically and mismatches should be very unlikely.

Side Note: I'm focusing more on programming tasks at work. Therefore, I'll have a slower pace on my spare time projects and sometimes, I'll update the blog every second week, instead of every week.