Setting Up On-Line Banking with the AqHCBI wizard

[David Reiser]

On 26 Aug 2007, at 6:02:14 PM, Derek Tattersall wrote:

> I am trying to set up on-line banking in Gnucash 2.0.5.  
> aqofxconnect is
> version 2.1.0. I cannot get it to work.
>
> So I have a couple of questions:
>
> I ran the getfidata.sh script, and got the OFX information for my  
> bank.
> The information was in a file named 5916.xml. I assume that 5916  
> number
> that goes in the FID field correct?

Nope, as you noticed in the file, 5916= FIPID (which apparently is an  
external identifier not directly specified by the OFX spec), but  
which is used to identify the xml file that contains the rest of the  
information about the Financial Institution.
>
> It almost works at this point. I have filled out the ABA number, my
> username, the URL, all that stuff. I then press the get accounts  
> button,
> and I am prompted for my password. It looks like I am getting  
> logged in
> correctly, but ...
>
> I get this error:
>
> 6:2007/08/26 17-39-14:(null)(25976):qbanking.cpp:  414: 02: OFX:  
> General
> error (Invalid FID sent in Request)
>
> So, looking more closely at the file 5916.xml, it says that the FID is
>
> <FID>253177832</FID>
>
> Which is the ABA routing number. If I put this number into the
> aqofxconnect wizard's FID field, it chokes. aqofxconnect doesn't like
> FID fields greater than 5 characters apparently
>
> ALso, there are 2 fields in the xml file:
>
> <FIPID>5916</FIPID>
> <FID>253177832</FID>
>
> What is the difference between a FID and a FIPID?
The FID is spec'd in the OFX spec and is a unique ID within a  
specific <ORG>. That means that if  financial organizations each only  
had one internal unit, everybody's FID could be the same number  
(probably not what you were expecting...). The OFX spec allows the  
FID to be 32 alphanumeric characters. As far as OFX is concerned, the  
institutional identifier is <ORG> + <FID>.

Usually the ABN number goes in the <BANKID> field, since the ABN is  
an externally identifiable number, whereas FID only has to be  
traceable by the FI <ORG> internally. In addition, many banks have  
several ABN's (acquisitions, anyone?), but frequently only one OFX  
server.

>
>
> Any ideas?

The current version of both aqbanking and aqofxconnect is something  
like 2.2.9. Some of the earlier ofx efforts did have problems. I'd  
suggest upgrading aqbanking first.

If upgrading does work, please let me know -- I'll change the wiki,  
which says the aqbanking 2.0.0 should be enough.

If it still doesn't work, then post to the aqbanking-devel mailing  
list. Even though most of the traffic lately is in German, the main  
author and the next most active developer both will respond to  
English queries.
>
> Thanks.
>
> -- 
> Derek Tattersall                    lizzard at newsguy.com
>
Dave
--
David Reiser
dbreiser at earthlink.net