Alternative to setting up Alpha Vantage API

For those (like myself) who is still facing some 'technical difficulties' setting up the Alpha Vantage API, I have 'discovered' an alternative method which is more straightforward. Another reason has to be so far the tool is working fine, I have not encountered any "0" values for those API calls. This post is in reference to my previous post on Open Source API for Investment Tracking. 

Credits to LelandGrunt for his Excel Add- in tool found on GitHub. 

Linking Open Source API to Google Spreadsheets to Track Investment: GOOGLEFINANCE, IEX and Alpha Vantage

What is API

API stands for Application Programming Interface. According to Google, API is a set of functions and procedures that allow the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service. In simple terms, it means a specification of remote calls for a program to interact with another software. API calls are required to retrieve data from the sources, such that you do not have to manually key in the data from the source to update your investment tracker. The data is being refreshed via the feed, freeing up your time for analysis instead of doing data entry. 

In this article, I will share the basics of setting up simple API calls from GoogleFinance, IEX and Alpha Vantage.