Integrating RapidAPI with Excel VBA - Requesting guidance

Other Questions RapidAPI
1

I’m looking to connect my Excel VBA to RapidAPI to retrieve real-time sports scores, but I’m facing some challenges.

Here’s what I need help with:

  • I want to get live sports results through VBA in Excel.
  • There aren’t any VBA examples in RapidAPI documentation.
  • I’m exploring potential solutions to this issue.

Here’s what I’ve discovered:
I’ve read that I can use REST API endpoints even if my programming language isn’t listed. For example, here’s a setup they shared:

var requestDetails = {
  method: 'GET',
  url: API_URL,
  headers: {
    'cache-control': 'no-cache',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'X-RapidAPI-Key': API_KEY,
    'additional-header': 'header-value'
  },
  query: {
    param1: 'param-value'
  }
};

httpRequest(requestDetails, function (error, response, body) {
  if (error) console.error(error);
  console.log(body);
});

My questions are:

  1. Is there any way to view the JSON response directly in a web browser?
  2. If that’s not feasible, would running a local Node.js server help display the response?
  3. Do you have any other tips for integrating VBA with RapidAPI?

I appreciate any input you can provide!

2

For VBA with RapidAPI, use MSXML2.XMLHTTP60 instead of the standard XMLHttpRequest. It handles SSL way better, which most APIs need now. Make sure you set your headers right - especially X-RapidAPI-Key and Content-Type. Authentication timeouts got me at first, so don’t just check for 200 responses. Handle other codes too. RapidAPI endpoints often have rate limits, so catch those 429 errors. JSON parsing in VBA sucks without extra libraries, but you can work with the raw response using string functions if you have to.

3

yeah, u can view JSON responses directly in ur browser! just paste the API URL with ur key as a param in the address bar. way easier than setting up node.js just for testing. for VBA integration, use the XMLHttpRequest object - works gr8 with rapidAPI endpoints, just set the headers right.

4

I’ve used similar setups and WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1 beats XMLHTTP for API calls in VBA - way more reliable. With RapidAPI, headers are everything. Don’t forget the X-RapidAPI-Host header - people miss it all the time. Test with a basic GET request first to check your auth, then add parameters. For JSON parsing without extra libraries, I just use InStr and Mid functions. Not pretty, but it works. Watch out though - sports APIs love changing their response structure depending on whether games are live or finished. Build error handling for that mess.