writing and ofx plugin

[Derek Atkins]

Greg,

greg nwosu <greg.nwosu at gmail.com> writes:

> I would like to write a plugin to enable ofx support with natwest bank, im
> thinking of writing a simple web crawler that will login to internet
> banking and request an ofx export of accounts.
>
> I would prefer to write it in python or java but I'm happy enough to write
> it in C .
>
> Can anyone suggest an area of the code where i can plug this in?
> Is the code already "pluggable" or will i have to hack my way in.
> Any suggestions or templates of code that can be changed slightly would be
> greatly appreciated.
> Any resources for beginning to code for gnucash would be greatly
> appreciated.

It sounds like you don't necessarily need an "OFX" plugin per-se but
instead want to implement "OFX WebConnect" (or more generally an
automated means to download an OFX file from a website).  I see three
reasonable options for you:

1) Write a standalone script that downloads the OFX file. From there you
   can just use File -> Import -> Import OFX/QFX

2) Integrate said script so that that it then jumps over to the existing
   Import OFX/QFX importer.

3) Integrate said script into AqBanking similar to OFX DirectConnect

I think #1 is probably the easiest for you to do; between #2 and #3 I
suspect that #3 will be easier, but I've never actually worked in the
AqB code so cannot really comment.  However I definitely think that you
should NOT work on a new "importer" per se.

Also note that you'll need to keep the script "up to date" as your bank
website changes over time (which happens more frequently than you'd
think).

> Thanks

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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