exporting gnucash-data

[marthter]

Vasil Vasilev wrote  on 16/06/04 11:09 PM:

> 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.

Fair enough, but your statement that "you may not get the best of 
support" seemed to be saying just the opposite, namely that you were not 
impressed, which I thought was extremely unfair and ungrateful.  I 
certainly have been (and continue to be) amazed at the committment level 
of the developers here, and I am grateful, so I thought I'd better speak 
up with my counter point to your point.

It seems now that wasn't really your point, so either you wrote it 
poorly, or I read it poorly, or both.  I probably shouldn't have 
focussed on just a few words.  Anyway, the broken telephone is now fixed.

See you later.

Regards.

~Martin


> 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.


(Somehow I doubt your tax calculations are so different from the other 
millions of people in your jurisdiction, or the world in general.  But 
anyway, we'll leave it at that, as I expect you are no longer itchy.)