Downloading

Nigel Titley nigel@titley.com
13 Jan 2003 10:43:06 +0000


On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 14:26, Conrad Canterford wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 09:54, Ken Sieving wrote:
> > I currently download all my bank data into Quicken. Will GNUCASH
> > do the same??    If so I can ditch Win98.  I can't find any data on my
> > Bank's website that informs me of what format/protocol they use.
> > Ken
> 
> I don't believe this has been answered yet.
> 
> The short answer is: Gnucash cannot do the download process for you. If
> you download a file from your bank (in QIF or OFX/QFX format) to your
> harddisk, Gnucash can then import that file.
> 
> The longer explanation: The process which Quicken and MS-Money use to
> determine where and how to access your banks server to download the file
> is a proprietary one which no-one appears to have cracked yet. Because
> we can't access this information, Gnucash has no means of determining
> the location to download from, and therefore no-one has bothered to
> write the code for this process.
> If your bank doesn't have a web page available for you to access, hassle
> them about making one publicly available as its the only reliable way
> software like gnucash is going to be able to access it.

I have tasked an old friend, who is security manager for the Royal Bank
of Scotland, with finding out just what their bank's policy is on
downloads, and the interaction with free software. I'm hoping that this
might reveal some means of finding an entry into this problem. Might be
a long job though.

Nigel