Python reporting and scripting engine

[Christian Stimming]

Dear Zuhao,

Am Mittwoch, 23. März 2011 schrieb Zuhao Wan:
> I'm also interested in this idea! :)

that is good to hear. Again, as a first step, we suggest you should checkout 
the gnucash sources from SVN and build it yourself (on some Linux/Unix 
computer), see http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Building

> Just like to clarify, is the task to rewrite the scheme scripts in
> src/report/ using python/c, or are there new scripts/functionalities to be
> implemented?

That is up to you. If you're interested in python scripting, I would suggest 
two things: 

* First, you should read through the example scripts in src/optional/python-
bindings/example_scripts and run those as, well, examples. 

* Secondly, you can check out the brand new SVN (r20472 or higher), then 
modify the file src/python/init.py in the end to say "if True:", then play 
around with the python console that opens upon next gnucash start (if your 
python path includes $prefix/lib/python). From my understanding, every action 
that you can invoke from that console should also be easy to add as a menu 
item anywhere inside gnucash. Feel free to come up with interesting ideas that 
can easily be added through python, but might have been very difficult in non-
python before. Examples that come to mind are: Import from or export to 
various file formats, e.g. http://gnucash.uservoice.com/forums/101223-feature-
request/suggestions/1470567-import-export-client-supplier-details?ref=title or 
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=637004

Also, all the ideas from the uservoice page are useful suggestions for a 
project.

Best Regards,

Christian