PostgreSQL & Freecoins

Matthew Vanecek mevanecek@yahoo.com
05 Nov 2002 21:13:23 -0600


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On Tue, 2002-11-05 at 10:34, Linas Vepstas wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 04, 2002 at 07:19:30PM -0600, John F Meinel Jr was heard to r=
emark:
> > Once again I'm here to ask a question for freecoins, the palm record=20
> > keeping software (http://freecoins.sourceforge.net)...
> > Someone believed that gnucash supported a SQL backend instead of using=
=20
> > an XML file.  Is that true?  The reason is that the author and lead=20
> > developer of freecoins would like to see it connected with a SQL db as=
=20
> > a generic conduit.  And then have gnucash connect to the same db.
> > So were they right?  Or is that an old, unused feature that isn't=20
> > supported anymore?
>=20
> Uhhh...
> The SQL backend in gnucash doesn't support some of the newer
> features.  It was designed to be robust and reliable in a multi-user
> environment.  Unfortunately, that means that its a bit on the
> complicated side, and is kind-of hard to extend to add new features.
> It seems that no one is clamoring for SQL, not really, not enough
> to do much about it.

It will be extremely useful in a business environment, and I have a
twisted penchant for database design. :(  So, yes, we're doing something
about it.  The plan is to make the database backend more extensible.=20
That would allow, e.g., the addition of business objects, or budgeting,
etc.

I've been working on a redesign, and am currently finishing up the data
model, with only one or two entities remaining.  That said, however,
it's never a good idea to access the data store directly, not when
there's a good API to go through.

>=20
> But I think the core gnucash sql tables (account, transaction, etc)
> are in fine shape, and should be usable by others, if so desired.
>=20

These will likely not maintain the exact current structure.  The backend
should be accessed via the Engine API.

> > I believe his thought was that since it is already in database format=
=20
> > (palm db), it is easier to convert it to another database format, then=
=20
>=20
> palm "db's" are nothing at all like sql.=20=20
>=20

Hear! Hear!  However, it should be easy enough, given a Conduit SDK, to
transform the Palm records into a Gnucash Query, and store it via the
engine to whatever backend is available and configured for use.  I was
working halfheartedly on that, myself (but not with Freecoins), but got
side-tracked into the database backend.

Anyhow, early 1.8, or perhaps 1.9, the database backend should be a more
usable part of gnucash.

--=20
Matthew Vanecek
perl -e 'print
$i=3Dpack(c5,(41*2),sqrt(7056),(unpack(c,H)-2),oct(115),10);'
***************************************************************************=
*****
For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow
except me.
I'm always getting in the way of something...

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