High-level question

[Dave Peticolas]

Chris Bamford writes:
> Hi,
> 
> I realise that this is the developer's mailing list so I am aware
> that perhaps this isn't the ideal place to post my question
> (apologies!) - but I didn't find any alternatives.

There is a gnucash-users@lists.gnumatic.com for user questions,
but your question seems perfectly relevant to this development
list.


> I am looking for a piece of accounts software which can be driven in
> 'batch mode' by events generated from a web server.  Most accounting
> packages I have looked at are interactive only and only one has an
> API which does not interest me as it requires knowledge of VB/COM etc.
> 
> GNU Cash's modular architecture (www.gnucash.org/architecture.php3)
> however, caught my eye as it sounds like the engine can be driven 
> directly through an API ...  I have downloaded GNU Cash and played
> around with it and it seems to be very good indeed as an interactive
> tool.  I would really like to be able to know how I can use that power
> and functionality for my system.
> 
> The application is a simple web-shopping one where once the web server
> has performed the credit card transaction stuff it needs to hand off to
> the accounts and distribution systems to generate invoices, delivery
> notes, etc.
> 
> How feasible would/could it be to connect the web server to GNU cash in
> thisway?

Invoking GnuCash in batch mode is pretty simple. There is a Perl
API that does not involve the GUI or the main application at all.

There is also a scheme api, but using it in batch mode requires
the develoment version of GnuCash.

I should mention that there is currently no support in GnuCash
for automatically handling things like invoices, etc.

Please feel free to use this list for further questions.

thanks,
dave