solutions, not more problems - just not yet.

[Boyd Kelly (Coast Systems)]

Thanks Neil!

I wish I had the skills to do something here.  But even if I don`t, I
can still say that the work is really appreciated.  The day that gnome2
is available as a beta I`ll be trying it out.  Gnucash is great!  


Also -- I`m not an accountant and can get along just fine with
double-entry accounting;  No trouble to me, just feels solid!  


bk 

-----Original Message-----
From: gnucash-user-bounces at gnucash.org
[mailto:gnucash-user-bounces at gnucash.org] On Behalf Of Neil Williams
Sent: February 12, 2005 5:09 PM
To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: solutions, not more problems - just not yet.

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
=============
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