Gnucash reports using php and mysql

[Pedro Abel]

Hello developers,

Donald, I followed your suggestion and read the thread "Scripting API" on
the list archives. To be honest, it was kind of difficult to understand it,
at least for me that do not know so much of programing yet. But despite
that, I saw someone mentioning that there are Python bindings and you also
mentioned that you used Python to create your own reports. Did you use
those bindings for your script? Do you believe Python is a better a way to
get custom reports?

I saw also that many people creates custom scripts to get the reports
according to each one needs. I would like to ask if you guys share those
scripts somewhere in the internet? It will be nice to check this and maybe
stop using php as I'm doing right now. I'm just using it because it seemed
to me the easiest language to learn.

Besides, as mentioned by Christian, I created a github with the php files.
While I do not find a better way to do it, I will try to continue using php
to get the reports I need:
https://github.com/pedroabel/gnucashreports

Thank you all and wish you all a nice Christmas.

Best regards,

Pedro

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Donald Allen <donaldcallen at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:11 PM, Pedro Abel <pedroabel at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello friends, greetings from Brazil,
> >
> > My name is Pedro and this is the first time I send an e-mail to this
> list.
> >
> > First, thank you all for such a great software. I'm using it for years.
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone is working on some reports for Gnucash not
> using
> > of the standard language (Scheme) Gnucash reports uses right now. I'm
> > asking that because since there is the mysql option I started writing
> some
> > custom reports for my personal finances using PHP. Nothing really new,
> just
> > the same reports in a way that I prefer to see it (basically with each
> > period organized into columns, for comparison, and with a quick way to
> > group the values in broader periods, like quarters and years). The PHP
> also
> > allow me to check my reports quickly from any other computer in my
> network.
> >
> > So, I would like to know if someone is doing the same, and maybe share
> some
> > codes.
> >
> > If you want, I could send to list what I have so far (does this list
> > accepts attachments?). If so, please do not expect nothing exactly good,
> as
> > I'm not really a programmer. I'm just a regular user that wanted some
> > custom reports and decided to do what I need instead of bothering you
> with
> > requests.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Pedro
>
> Pedro --
>
> A few years ago, I did something similar, though at the time, the
> gnucash database option was not available. My motivation was the same
> as yours -- I could not get what I wanted from the built-in reports
> and I felt that the cost of trying to learn to work within gnucash (in
> spite of the fact that I am a *very* experienced Scheme programmer)
> was higher than the approach I took. I wrote a python program that
> processes the gnucash xml file (the python library xml parser was very
> useful for this). The program produces reports and charts by
> generating latex and gnuplot files. It has served me well. While I now
> do use the database capability (postgres), I have not yet taken the
> time to convert my program to query the database rather than parsing
> the xml file.
>
> Christian's response about using the C API makes sense to me if you
> are modifying your gnucash data with an external program. Writing to
> the database without using gnucash as an intermediary is a great way
> to corrupt your data. But, if you restrict yourself to read-only
> access to the data, then corruption is not an issue (I would still be
> careful to back up your data in case you make an error and write to
> the database accidentally -- unlikely, but possible). Then it becomes
> a matter of which requires less effort on your part to get what you
> want. I chose the same route you took on this basis. I'd suggest
> having a look at an interesting thread, "Scripting API", on
> gnucash-devel started by Hendrik Boom in November. It discusses
> similar issues and the subject of the fairly new python bindings
> capability comes up, something I have not investigated myself (only
> because I already have something that serves my purpose, developed
> before the python bindings capability became available) but is
> probably worth looking at if you are actively developing reports for
> yourself.
>
> /Don Allen
>
>
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>