linking gnucash to data in postgres

[Derek Atkins]

Joseph Mack <mack.joseph at epa.gov> writes:

> Derek Atkins wrote:
>> 
>
>> It sounds like what you want is something very similar to what ISPs
>> use to keep track of their monthly (or otherwise recurring) customers.
>> I have no idea what billing system(s) they use.  Maybe someone else
>> does.
>
> I expect any business software would have to do this, eg the 
> database that has the inventory of widgets you're selling would have 
> to connect to the financial database. I'm not in business, so 
> I don't know how this is handled, but I expect it's got to
> be handled by some integrated software system.

An inventory subsystem is not an arbitrary set of tables..  And once
(if?) gnucash gains an inventory system it'll probably require some
changes to the existing invoicing system to properly handle it.

> In principle can I SQL read/write (select * where field "foo" = "bar" from 
> table="baz") the gnucash database with a postgress client? Are the table 
> names etc all known to the outside world? I understand the gnucash entries
> are all xmlified. Presumably I could de-xmlify the entries after reading and
> xmlify before writing?

When gnucash uses SQL the data is not XML; XML is the (current) file
format.  SQL is a completely different storage format.  Yes, you can
just SELECT on the gnucash tables..  But you're not "allowed" to
UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE.  I.e., only gnucash is allowed to
manipulate its data, you're not allowed to modify it outside the
gnucash interfaces -- you may break the invariants.

The gnucash schema is, however, semi-private..  You can
reverse-engineer from the database, but don't expect that it wont
change over time.

> Thanks Joe

-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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