[GNC] future of custom reports in 3.x

[Geert Janssens]

Op maandag 9 april 2018 07:12:29 CEST schreef Saša Janiška:
> John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> writes:
> > 3. Learn Python and use either the python bindings or PieCash (also
> > requires the SQL backend) to query the database and write custom
> > reports.
> 
> I'll take a closer look at this option.
> 
> > 2. Learn SQL and use a SQL backend to extract the data you want. The
> > results are generally amenable to import into a spreadsheet for
> > further processing; you could also install the appropriate ODBC module
> > for your SQL engine of choice and connect to it with Libre/OpenOffice,
> > Microsoft Access, or some similar tool with a custom report writer or
> > your favorite programming language’s SQL interface (e.g. DBAPI for
> > Python).
> 
> This one seems to be close to 2nd option...

It is similar but not the same. PieCash reimplements the gnucash business 
logic in python, where our python bindings use the gnucash built-in business 
logic.

> 
> > 1. Learn Scheme and qof-query to make custom reports for use inside
> > GnuCash.
> 
> This seems to be the most lucrative option enabling one to take
> advantage of GC's infrastructure, but just wonder if replacing qof-query
> with SQL query query would still allow using it along with Scheme since
> "make reports for use inside GnuCash" certainly has its adavantages?

That's the long term plan - replacing qof-query with sql query. And that's 
what John hinted at - we're still far away from that. And chances are scheme 
will be replaced as well, though we don't know yet by what (we recently came 
across the mustache template language that may be considered, but again we're 
still far away from that).

Geert