[Linux, command line] Importing transactions from bank account data file, into a gnucash account

[Edward Doolittle]

I had a quick look at Expect and related tools this evening. As far as I
can tell, Expect is frozen in 1995 and still can only deal with
command-line oriented applications for the most part. Expect lookalikes in
Perl, Java, Python, etc., have similar limitations.

There are some tools for sending input (keystrokes or mouse clicks) to
graphical applications, but the open source-type tools seem to be limited
in their ability to parse the application's output. If you find a way to do
what you want by always playing the same sequence of keystrokes to GnuCash,
it looks like xdotool or a similar application may work.


On 19 March 2015 at 18:33, Edward Doolittle <edward.doolittle at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm sure others on this list will make better suggestions, but in the past
> I've had some success with "Expect", which would simulate user actions. I
> used it as a last resort on some occasions, to great effect, when
> appropriate scripting languages were not available. It's something like "an
> external scripting language". The thing I really hated about Expect was
> Tcl, which ranks only slightly ahead of INTERCAL in the programming
> language pantheon. (At least, that's the way it was when I last used it a
> decade ago.) I think there's a port of Expect to Perl; that might be worth
> looking into.
>
>
> On 19 March 2015 at 16:58, geo909 <geo909.fora at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I would like to write a linux script that imports the transactions from a
>> bank account data file to an existing gnucash account.
>>
>> The bank account data file can be a quicken, quickbooks, excel, ms money,
>> simply accounting, ascii, or qif file.
>>
>> I don't mind if the imported transactions show as "Imbalanced", as long as
>> everything is done from the command line, and without running the gnucash
>> gui.
>>
>> I don't have the words to describe how convenient that would be! I'd
>> appreciate any suggestions.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> George
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
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>> Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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>
>
>
> --
> Edward Doolittle
> Associate Professor of Mathematics
> First Nations University of Canada
> 1 First Nations Way, Regina SK S4S 7K2
>
> « Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents
> et un ingrat. »
> -- Louis XIV, dans Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV, Chap. XXVI
>



-- 
Edward Doolittle
Associate Professor of Mathematics
First Nations University of Canada
1 First Nations Way, Regina SK S4S 7K2

« Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents
et un ingrat. »
-- Louis XIV, dans Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV, Chap. XXVI