mobile gnucash

[James Basilio]

I think Benoit's idea about using QIF is probably my
best option after thinking about it some more.  The
advantage is that in theory any financial app could be
be used on the other end (that accepts QIF obviously).

My next questions in thinking about the problem:

- is there a way to import QIF data through GnuCash
automatically with a command line argument?  this way,
assuming a sync just places a file in a location,
GnuCash could import this automatically upon startup
and dispose of the file if the user requests it
- if QIF doesn't specify a correct account etc, does
GnuCash prompt the user for locations of ambiguous
transactions?  i can test this myself so you can also
just not answer this and i'll figure it out
eventually.

thanks.  i've opened a project on sourceforge and i'll
u/l what i have eventually.  hopefully something will
turn out from this eventually.

thanks.
jim


--- Matthew Vanecek <mevanecek at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-08-13 at 21:25, Benoit Grégoire wrote:
> > On Wednesday 13 August 2003 19:39, you wrote:
> > > Hi:
> > >
> > > I've written an application in java for my sharp
> > > zaurus (and in theory any PDA that supports
> java) that
> > > i'm calling mobile gnucash.  It's not at a point
> > > that's finished but the UI and class model are
> mostly
> > > done.
> > >
> > > The next piece I'd like to tackle is the XML
> storage
> > > of transactions.  I'm keeping it light (in the
> spirit
> > > of a temporary holding of transactions for
> gnucash
> > > upon a sync).
> > >
> > > ANyway, my question is if there is any type of
> schema
> > > or DTD available for the gnucash xml file
> format?  I
> > > can deduce some things from the XML format on my
> local
> > > machine but I wanted to know if there was a
> better
> > > way.
> > >
> > > Any info appreciated.  
> > 
> > Writing to the gnucash xml format is neither
> supported nor encouraged.  It is 
> > not meant for data exchange.  If you want an XML
> based format, write it in 
> > OFX 2.0.  Specs and a DTD are available at
> www.ofx.net.  They are 
> > intimidating, but you should be able to manage
> just with the examples.  It's 
> > unlikely there is anything you want to do that
> isn't covered by that spec.  
> > I'll be happy to help you if you get stuck.
> > 
> > If you want something really simple, you can
> always output QIF.
> 
> Actually, I disagree just a little about the output
> format.  The Gnucash
> DTDs are in the source tree, if you really must use
> them (Benoit is
> right about them, though).  However, since it's a
> PDA app used for
> TEMPORARY storage of transaction, a cleaner (or
> perhaps more convenient,
> from a user perspective) is to create an interface
> between the Gnucash
> Engine and your PDA app, like a sync point or
> something.  That way, you
> can store it more efficiently on the PDA, and you
> don't have to worry
> about the Gnucash data storage format.
> 
> That is certainly more work that outputting an OFX
> file, of course. ;)
> 
> To be honest, my original reason for getting
> involved with Gnucash was
> to learn enough about the engine to be able to sync
> my Handspring Visor
> Expense (or to-be-developed custom Expense) app with
> it  Somehow, I just
> got sucked in...
> 
> 
> -- 
> Matthew Vanecek
> perl -e 'print
>
$i=pack(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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