exporting gnucash-data

[Vasil Vasilev]

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004, marthter wrote:

> Vasil Vasilev wrote  on 29/05/04 03:40 PM:
>
>> On Wed, 26 May 2004, Anders Vinjar wrote:
>> 
>>> Ive been searching around a bit without finding any obvious
>>> solutions: how can i get hold of my gnucash-file, or selected
>>> data in gnucash, say transaction-data from one account, and
>>> export it to work with it in other programs like for instance
>>> spread-sheets (fex. gnumeric)?
>>> 
>>> Ive tried using various Reports without luck.
>> 
>> 
>> I had exactly the same problem and found a work-around. It is not the best 
>> but works for me. I do a transaction report, then select the contents, and 
>> paste it into gnumeric. Works like a charm.
>> [You can, of course, choose which fields go into the report, that is, 
>> select what is exported.]
>> 
>> You can also export the report into an HTML file, give it to someone else, 
>> who can then use their favourite browser and copy and paste into their 
>> favourite spreasheet.
>> 
>> The only problem I had was that the subtotals had the wrong formatting for 
>> that, but I submitted a patch which one of the developer committed to CVS 
>> (and sorted out). So, if you need it get the CVS version, or I can tell 
>> you what I did to patch my version. If you do the patching yourself, you 
>> may not get the best of support from the developers here, so it is not 
>> quite recommended.
>
> "may not get the best of support..."  !!!???

Yes, for exactly the reasons you give below. You may do weird things, but then 
you don't get supported. Dough!

> In my opinion, the developers here (especially Derek) go waaay above and 
> beyond the call, responding patiently to thousands of questions (that's just 
> since September when I started reading).  Plus, I don't see why they should 
> go toooo far to help several people who want to go running off madly in all 
> directions, completely doing their own thing for their own one-of situations.

Yes, the response has been extremely fast and useful. I am rather impressed. 
Gnucash has gone a long way and the developers have been supporting all sorts 
of "features", which is great.

> That does not benefit the rest of the user community at all, so I think it is 
> only natural that folks here are more eager to be more helpful, if there is 
> some prospect that their effort will (combined with your effort) pay off to 
> more users than just you.

Yes, I did that. I submitted a patch for a useful, I think, feature, which as 
it happens I didn't need after all: help export transaction reports into 
spreadsheets. It is not the best way by no means, but is the fastest to 
implement I found and works, albeit a bit noddy.

>  That's why Derek's suggestions were steering you 
> towards methods that might have some bearing or usefulness for other users 
> too: to modify the existing reports or add new ones for your "various tax 
> calculations".

Actually, exactly right. No program, and I mean no program, can support 
everything, and that's why exporting data or just reports is extremely useful 
for that weird corner cases that only individual need, but then there are many 
individuals with their own corner case.

> By all means, scratch your own itches and expand on GnuCash.  But try to give 
> something back, not just take take take.

Was this e-mail specificly related to the previous e-mails or just a general 
comment? I couldn't find a disaggreement, although the tone suggests there is 
one. Anyway, I probably missed the point.

Cheers.

Vasil