bounty for online banking idea for GnuCash

[Dave (DavesTechShop.net)]

For me, the first version of this could be as simple as altering the
existing wasabe Firefox add-on so it additionally saves the downloaded files
to my local disk. It would need to name the files appropriately and place
them into a designated directory. That's it. The wasabe Firefox add-on
already does everything else required, afaik.

BTW, the wesabe firefox add-on has scheduling -- it only requires firefox be
open. It does not require user intervention.

(I suppose GnuCash development skills are not required for this first step,
but if the project starts here there are probably more possibilities for
later integration.)

Importing the downloaded files into GnuCash would be a manual process using
the existing QIF importer. Maybe making that automated could be something
for the next version?

If no one is interested in this, maybe I'll use the iOpus iMacros Firefox
add-on and record the macros to download everything. This free add-on lacks
the scheduling features of the wesabe add-on, and I think security is not as
robust. (But my HDD's are fully encrypted, so this is not such a concern for
me.) But I can also record macros to download all the eStatements too.

My list of financial institutions contains about 100 entries, so automation
is important.


On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 5:18 AM, <marcus.wolschon at googlemail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:53:05 -0400, "Dave (DavesTechShop.net)"
> <dave at davestechshop.net> wrote:
> > I was suggesting that a Firefox macro be used (in the Firefox browser,
> not
> > as part of GnuCash) to extend to GnuCash the same benefits that such an
> > approach extends to wesabe. For example, the ease with which a user can
> add
> > their own bank. Users are empowered to support themselves (add their own
> > banks) with this approach, which is unique among all the online banking
> > packages (AFAIK).
>
> A firefox-plugin would mean that such an import cannot be run
> autonomously at night because it needs a screen and a user.
>
> I agree that it should not be a part of Gnucash as it's way
> outside the scope of this program. I can do a lot in jGnucashlib
> but nothing of that scale too.
>
> Is anyone actually thinking of implementing this or are we just talking
> about the details of a proposal that noone wants to do (yet)?
>
> Marcus
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