Format implementations

Bruin, Bolke de B.deBruin@tijdbeursmedia.nl
Mon, 11 Dec 2000 16:05:03 +0100 

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It has been a while since I have been coding any
C/C++, but I will be glad to provide information
and to collaborate with you (the developers) to
make things work, maybe even contribute some code.
Btw the Quicken-OFX implemenation is very similiar
to html (it is actually a derivative of sgml)
, except for the tags being used and its 
format is somewhat clearer.

Unfortunately I do not have any *client* code,
but I do have log files which should make it 
pretty much as easy as possible to implement it.
For your conveniance I have attached some log
file. The whole correspondance between server-client
is included.

I do have the request/response mechanism document,
but only in printed form. I should have it in PDF
somewhere, but I dont know where at the moment :-)

-- about the format

Most important is that the (quicken-)client always
wants to know the content-length and the content-type
should be application/ofx (protocol being used is http/1.1) 
When something goes wrong at the server side 
the server returns a "400 Bad Request" content-type: text/plain
with a response body describing the error.
When the server is unavailable a "500s Server error" is returned

I am even able to provide you with information how
to validate against a validation server.

Please have a look at the PHP4 server I wrote
which should be self-explanatory.
http://www.smooc.org/projects/quicken

Let me know what information you need. Maybe I'll try to write
some skeleton code, but I am very busy at the moment
so please dont get your hopes up too much.

Bolke

N.B. I can deliver different formats of QIX files (although
I am not sure if they are all that different). Please also
remember that the American Quicken-OFX format differs from the
European one and I do not have access to that information
(it's not that different though)

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: grib@gnumatic.com [mailto:grib@gnumatic.com]
Verzonden: Monday, December 11, 2000 3:30 PM
Aan: Bruin, Bolke de
CC: 'gnucash-devel@lists.gnumatic.com'
Onderwerp: Re: Format implementations


On Mon, Dec 11, 2000 at 02:00:03PM +0100, Bruin, Bolke de wrote:
> I am not totally confident that what I am going to write applies to
> gnucash as I am not *really* familiar with the program.  (no flames
> please, I will have a better look into it) Currently I am working
> for a company which delivers stockquotes to third-parties. Part of
> this is a Quicken-server implementation.  You might have seen
> "Quicken OFX server" passing along somewhere (freshmeat), I wrote
> this server.

I think that you have been sent to gnucash-devel as an early Christmas
gift :) We have been looking for someone with OFX experience for a
long time, but haven't found anyone.  I hope you will have some time
to contribute your experience and code to gnucash.

> I would like to know if there is a kind of plug-in system for
> importing formats into gnucash. Not only for the quicken format (I
> know you can import the qix files; btw are they *american* only?),
> but a lot of banks are using different formats too.

The QIF files aren't just American, though I don't have enough
examples of German and French-language files to have the correct
translations for all the investment transaction type tags.  The main
restriction on the Gnucash QIF importer right now is that it can't
handle multiple-currency QIFs.

We do not have a generic infrastructure for importing 'alien' file
formats, but all the necessary support is there to write importers for
any particular format.  Our architecture has a 'financial engine' with
a public API, so any importer just needs to interpret the contents of
the file, make any necessary translations to gnucash's financial
model, and use the public engine API to add the information to gnucash
accounts.

> Also I am able to provide a fully working ofx-server setup, with
> 15min delayed stock-quotes. I don't know if this is already being
> done, but let me know if one is needed.

That is a very nice thing to have available!  I look forward to the
time when gnucash's has enough OFX client support to use it!

Do you have some skeleton OFX client code, or could you consider 
writing some for gnucash?

Thanks,
Bill Gribble

_______________________________________________
gnucash-devel mailing list
gnucash-devel@lists.gnumatic.com
http://www.gnumatic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel

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RE: Format implementations




It has been a while since I have been coding any

C/C++, but I will be glad to provide information

and to collaborate with you (the developers) to

make things work, maybe even contribute some code.

Btw the Quicken-OFX implemenation is very similiar

to html (it is actually a derivative of sgml)

, except for the tags being used and its 

format is somewhat clearer.




Unfortunately I do not have any *client* code,

but I do have log files which should make it 

pretty much as easy as possible to implement it.

For your conveniance I have attached some log

file. The whole correspondance between server-client

is included.




I do have the request/response mechanism document,

but only in printed form. I should have it in PDF

somewhere, but I dont know where at the moment :-)




-- about the format




Most important is that the (quicken-)client always

wants to know the content-length and the content-type

should be application/ofx (protocol being used is http/1.1) 

When something goes wrong at the server side 

the server returns a "400 Bad Request" content-type: text/plain

with a response body describing the error.

When the server is unavailable a "500s Server error" is returned




I am even able to provide you with information how

to validate against a validation server.




Please have a look at the PHP4 server I wrote

which should be self-explanatory.

http://www.smooc.org/projects/quicken




Let me know what information you need. Maybe I'll try to write

some skeleton code, but I am very busy at the moment

so please dont get your hopes up too much.




Bolke




N.B. I can deliver different formats of QIX files (although

I am not sure if they are all that different). Please also

remember that the American Quicken-OFX format differs from the

European one and I do not have access to that information

(it's not that different though)




-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----

Van: grib@gnumatic.com [mailto:grib@gnumatic.com]

Verzonden: Monday, December 11, 2000 3:30 PM

Aan: Bruin, Bolke de

CC: 'gnucash-devel@lists.gnumatic.com'

Onderwerp: Re: Format implementations






On Mon, Dec 11, 2000 at 02:00:03PM +0100, Bruin, Bolke de wrote:

> I am not totally confident that what I am going to write applies to

> gnucash as I am not *really* familiar with the program.  (no flames

> please, I will have a better look into it) Currently I am working

> for a company which delivers stockquotes to third-parties. Part of

> this is a Quicken-server implementation.  You might have seen

> "Quicken OFX server" passing along somewhere (freshmeat), I wrote

> this server.




I think that you have been sent to gnucash-devel as an early Christmas

gift :) We have been looking for someone with OFX experience for a

long time, but haven't found anyone.  I hope you will have some time

to contribute your experience and code to gnucash.




> I would like to know if there is a kind of plug-in system for

> importing formats into gnucash. Not only for the quicken format (I

> know you can import the qix files; btw are they *american* only?),

> but a lot of banks are using different formats too.




The QIF files aren't just American, though I don't have enough

examples of German and French-language files to have the correct

translations for all the investment transaction type tags.  The main

restriction on the Gnucash QIF importer right now is that it can't

handle multiple-currency QIFs.




We do not have a generic infrastructure for importing 'alien' file

formats, but all the necessary support is there to write importers for

any particular format.  Our architecture has a 'financial engine' with

a public API, so any importer just needs to interpret the contents of

the file, make any necessary translations to gnucash's financial

model, and use the public engine API to add the information to gnucash

accounts.




> Also I am able to provide a fully working ofx-server setup, with

> 15min delayed stock-quotes. I don't know if this is already being

> done, but let me know if one is needed.




That is a very nice thing to have available!  I look forward to the

time when gnucash's has enough OFX client support to use it!




Do you have some skeleton OFX client code, or could you consider 

writing some for gnucash?




Thanks,

Bill Gribble




_______________________________________________

gnucash-devel mailing list

gnucash-devel@lists.gnumatic.com

http://www.gnumatic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel




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