solutions, not more problems - just not yet.

[Neil Williams]

On Saturday 12 February 2005 10:50 pm, Rod Engelsman wrote:
> What I would like to see is 
> something like a report that would break down all my income and spending
> by month or week for a period of time and then at least give you the
> option of exporting

That is coming - but it's taking time. GnuCash will be able to:

1. Query nearly all objects using SQL select statements from within the GUI - 
that functionality exists now, it just isn't obvious or given directly to the 
user (because there's not a lot more that can be done with the results until 
they can be written out somehow).

2. Copy (or maybe move) all matching entities (or just a selection of entities 
formed some other way) to a separate file, written out in XML (QSF). It 
should then be practical to export the data behind any report in XML - 
allowing limited data mining.

3. Import and merge that data back into another GnuCash file - allowing users 
to freely exchange specific items from their data files.

4. Exchange and convert data between other QOF applications - pilot-link will 
be the first - and query that data in real-time using data streams in XML. 

5. All the results of those queries can be saved out as XML and/or merged back 
into a GnuCash file or become the basis of another query, forming a recursive 
query that could be very powerful. 

(SQL queries will be limited to 'select', although 'where' 'and' 'or' are also 
already supported. Insert and update MAY follow, create and delete are 
possible but a while off yet.)

All of this with collision handling, user intervention and various checks on 
data integrity at each stage.

pilot-link will also be able to import data from GnuCash - although that will 
not be in the first release.

Any arrangement of items will be stored - you can have the CoA (with balances 
at a specified date), you can have all your invoices between specified dates, 
all invoices for certain customer(s), transactions over a certain threshold 
amount, . . . . the possibilities are immense.

As with all ambitious plans, keeping the system generic and flexible enough to 
allow all these different options has meant that the code has taken me a year 
so far. I expect the first usable code in time for the first Gnome2 release 
and further developments beyond that.

There are other things that can be done with the XML that I won't have time to 
cover, like XSLT to convert to XHTML pages or even convert into SQL for 
importing via a database server, that could allow the data to be imported 
into other programs. There's lots going on and loads to get your teeth into.

This all started because I still need to be able to import GnuCash invoices 
from my Palm data that just has a calendar, expenses and contacts database.

It just shows what can happen when people offer to help.

(hint)

> to a spreadsheet format. Even csv would be better 
> than nothing.

You'll change your mind when you start dealing with CSV every day!!! CSV is a 
pig to use regularly.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.dcglug.org.uk/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/isbnsearch/
http://www.neil.williamsleesmill.me.uk/
http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3

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