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The default currency type and formatting is determined by your web server's locale settings. This is located in the Regional settings in Control Panel. Applications version 2.0 and later, have a setting called gsMoneySymbol in the configuration files. This comes set to use the server's default value. If you want to over-ride the system default value, you can set this setting to the symbol(s) you need to use for currency.
You can override the server setting by adding a line like this to the top of your application configuration files:
<% Session.LCID=localenumber %>
See FAQ #316 for a list of localenumber settings. This will also change how the dates are displayed, as well.
Creating alternate currencies for your site can be done from the XUD Administrator's page by selecting Currency Conversions from the Maintain menu. This page allows you to maintain currency conversion rates so that users will be able to see the approximate prices for items posted within xcAuction in an alternate currency, which they may have selected in their registration. For a user to select their desired currency, they must edit their registration after they have logged in.
The Enabled column indicates whether or not you currently want to be using a particular conversion rate on your site.
The Source Currency column is used for the money symbol of the currency which will be converted. Currently, applications using XUD support using only one source currency throughout the application. This will be the main currency you are using to display fees and prices. All values in this column should be the same as the gsMoneySymbol setting, and can only be a single character or conversions will not occur properly.
The Dest Currency column is used to indicate the money symbol of the currency to which you will be converting to. This is also used to define the possible values that a user can define for their preferred currency.
Tip: If you are using two currencies that use the same symbol, such as $, you should distinguish them in some way- i.e. USD$ or CAD$ to avoid any possible confusion.
The Conversion Factor column is used to indicate the conversion rate. This value should be updated by the admin periodically or if there is a large fluctuation in the conversion rate that is defined. This number should be what you would use to multiply an amount from the source currency in order to get an equivalent value in the destination currency. Once you are satisfied that you are entering the correct values, then click on the Save or Add button to apply your changes.
To edit the values for any existing currency conversion rate, you can click on the Edit button at the end of the row. To delete a currency conversion rate, click on the Del button. For information about conversion rates, a good resource to consult is www.xe.com
Your site will always use the default currency everywhere. However, when users who are logged in and have selected an alternate currency type view an auction listing, they will see next to the bids something like this:
Current bid $1.00 approx. £0.53
This example assumes the site's default currency type is $, the user has selected £, and the conversion rate is $1=£0.5338 (which is the rate as of October 17, 2006).
All fees, balances, and bid histories and bidding will continue to display in the default currency type. The conversion is only shown next to the starting, current, and next-acceptable bids. The site continues to operate in the default currency, and the displayed conversion is simply a courtesy to users so when they see a listing in currency they are unfamilaiar with, they can equate it to something more familiar.
For instance, if a site was configured to use Japanese yen as the default currency type and an item's current bid was at 3,000 yen, then as a courtesy, the site might tell you that that is approximately 25.13 US dollars. However, if you were to bid on it, your bid would be in yen, and if you won, you would be expected to pay in yen, not dollars
Note: If you change the Dest Currency fields in the Administrative area, conversions will not show until users edit their registrations and select the new destination currency. For this reason, you should avoid changing the Dest Currency fields once you have set them.
You should set a conversion from your source currency to the same currency with a conversion factor of 1, so users who edit their registrations and do not wish to change the currency type have a selection they can use.
The Dest Currency type will always appear before the number, even if you have configured your site to display the money symbol after the number.
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