Cloud options?

[Buddha Buck]

On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 10:08 AM, Mike or Penny Novack <
stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com> wrote:

> Correct. While gnucash allows consecutive multiple users it does not allow
> simultaneous multiple users.
>
> To provide THAT wouldn't be a simple matter for gnucash developers nor
> would it be simply a matter of changing gnucash itself. For an application
> to allow multiple simultaneous users requires a DBM (database manager) for
> the program to run under as well as a data being kept in a database that
> this manager handles. Well SQL qualifies for THAT but I don't know if there
> are any open source projects out there providing a DBM for that.
>

There are plenty.  MySQL, PostgreSQL, others.  MySQL is GPL2, PostgreSQL
uses it's own modified MIT license.  Both are in heavy use, and would meet
the "multiple simultaneous user" requirement handily.

Asking the gnucash developers to roll their own DBM is too much. A DBM
> wouldn't be specific to an application (though all applications using it
> would need adjustment to run under its control). So THAT is the question we
> need to ask, IS there a project to provide a "free" DBM"?
>

As above, a "free" DMBS isn't the problem.  The problem is the "would need
adjustment to run under its control" aspect.  This is probably getting a
bit far afield for the gnucash-USER list, but as I understand it GnuCash
keeps all data in memory, loading it in when the application starts and
writing it out when saving (or autosaving) the data.  It does not read the
data from the file when opening a register, viewing an invoice, generating
a report, etc.  It does not write the data to the file when saving a
transaction, editing an invoice, creating an account, etc. In order to do
true multi-user, it would have to be modified to do so (or at least, to use
a data abstraction layer that could be configured to do so). That is a lot
of work that goes right at the heart of how GnuCash manages data.

Buddha Buck (somebody who should be writing software running under control
of a DBM instead of reading email)