Web Connect

[John Ralls]

> On Dec 13, 2015, at 3:00 PM, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 12/12/2015 9:07 PM, Robert Merrin wrote:
>> Have you considered supporting Web Connect which is used by Canadian Banks?
>> I know that Quicken and Mint are the only programs that support Web Connect
>> and that have been approved by the Canadian banks. I wont be shocked if you
>> say that we do not see this being supported by GNUCash in the foreseeable
>> future.
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> 
> I think Web Connect is owned by Intuit and is not available to others unless you pay for it.

This came up on IRC the other day. There’s actually a spec for web connect at https://fi.intuit.com/ofximplementation/dl/Web_Connect_Specification.pdf and other useful information at https://fi.intuit.com/ofximplementation/wcsteps/index.cfm. The difference between web connect and direct connect is in authenticating the user and setting up the OFX-over-https connection: Direct connect has the client set up the OFX session and authenticates inside of it while web connect authenticates in a regular https session and then the bank’s server initiates the OFX session. GnuCash already has WebKit built in and AQB knows how to handle the OFX session once it’s set up, so there’s no real reason we couldn’t implement it. It just requires someone who has a good handle on https and C to figure it out and code it up. Any volunteers?

Regards,
John Ralls