Report wrapper to call python scripts?

[John Ralls]

> On Jan 3, 2015, at 2:44 AM, Christoph Holtermann <c.holtermann at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Having read this thread I wondered if there could be some sort
> of interface to export data from gnucash so that any kind of
> external report generator could work on it.
> Exporting the selected data to i.e. an xml file.
> The external program would then handle the data it's way and could
> be distributed separately.
> 
> To ease such process something like a plugin-system for gnucash
> could be introduced.
> Having the option to insert a button to start this program or
> preferences dialog in the gui.

The simplest "export" is to use the SQL backend. There are a variety of report generators available for SQL databases. Since the next release of GnuCash will be SQL-centric (replacing QOF for queries and providing record-level locking for simultaneous multi-user access), I think this is the way to go.

GnuCash already has a plugin system, though it's a bit cumbersome. You can find some examples in src/experimental.

Regards,
John RAlls