using mysql/postgresql through TCP/IP for sharing financial date?

[John Ralls]

On Jun 27, 2011, at 5:31 PM, Zhang Weiwu, Beijing wrote:

> Hello. We have a need for 3 people to work on the same gnucash document.
> The chance two people uses the same file is zero and if really happened,
> it's no problem if one wait another. Would we better off starting with
> sql database on the network than to use a network file system to share
> the .gnucash file?
> 
> And what about our old .gnucash file, is the migration to database mature?

The migration is pretty solid, but there are still some gaps in what the SQL backend saves because the Gnucash internals are not fully transactional. (IOW, some things depend upon Gnucash doing a full save at the end of the session, and the SQL backend doesn't do that on its own, nor does it make it easy for you to do it manually.) No, I don't have an exhaustive list of what doesn't save transactionally, but AFAIK it's all peripheral stuff like the imported transaction account matching data.

All the backends have a lock feature that will prevent multiple access to the same dataset. Aside from the saving issue, which will work best for you depends on what you've got set up. If you already use either a Postgresql or MySql server for something else, then that's probably a more robust solution for you; if you don't, Gnucash is probably not what you want to use for someone in your office to learn to be a Database Administrator, so the shared directory would be the better choice.

Regards,
John Ralls