[GNC] Adding Transactions From Another Program

Thu Apr 30 10:18:32 EDT 2020

David, are the Python bindings not supported in Windows?  I don't see any
mention of Windows setup on this page:
https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Python_Bindings#Setting_things_up  I do have
Python 3.8 on my Win 10 system.

My second question is with regard to budgets.  If I don't see anything
regarding GC's budget module on these two pages:
https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MAINT/gnucash__core_8py.html
https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/tree/master/bindings/python/example_scripts

Does that absence of info on Python and budgets mean that bindings are not
available for the budget module at this time?

On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 6:07 PM Stu Perlman <sgperlman at gmail.com> wrote:

> David, I did look at the Python bindings info a while back but at the time
> did not feel like getting started with Python because I just wanted to get
> done what I wanted to get done.  I'm mostly a .NET & SQL guy so I stuck
> with what I knew.  Fast forward a few months and add in the bounty of extra
> time that the quarantine has afforded and I have since started dipping my
> toes into Python a bit.  I'm actually kind of excited now to take a fresh
> look at the Python bindings capabilities for GC.  I agree with you 100%
> that there may be no need for me nor for Hal to do our own things if there
> is an existing way!
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 5:59 PM David H <hellvee at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Have you checked out the GnuCash Python Bindings -
>> https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MAINT/python_bindings_page.html - no point
>> in re-inventing the wheel :-)
>>
>> Cheers David H.
>>
>> What can Python Bindings be used for ?
>>
>> The python bindings supply the ability to access a wide range of the core
>> functions of GnuCash. You can read and write Transactions, Commodities,
>> Lots, access the business stuff... You gain the ability to manipulate your
>> financial data with a flexible scripting language.
>>
>> Not everything GnuCash can is possible to access though. The bindings
>> focus on basic accounting functions. Have a look at the examples to get an
>> impression.
>>
>> Some functions are broken because they have not been wrapped properly.
>> They may crash the program or return unaccessible values. Please file a bug
>> report if you find one to help support the development process.
>>
>> On Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 07:44, Stu Perlman <sgperlman at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hal,
>>>
>>> I'm sort of doing a liter version of what you are describing. I do
>>> manipulate some GC data from outside of GC.  I have GC setup with the
>>> MySQL
>>> backend and while I don't create any new transactions from outside of GC
>>> I
>>> do manipulate them. I have some SQL routines that I created to clean up
>>> data points such as the Memo & Notes attributes that are part of each
>>> transaction. I have not run into any problems or data corruption after a
>>> few months of doing this.  I did put a circuit breaker into my bolt-on
>>> app
>>> that at startup the 1st thing it does it check the GC lock record and if
>>> it
>>> detects that GC may still be running it will not allow my SQL routines to
>>> do anything.
>>>
>>> INSERTING new transaction records using SQL on the surface appears like
>>> it
>>> should be simple enough but I would proceed with extreme caution and a
>>> lot
>>> of testing as you go.  I did not try creating any new transactions but I
>>> did try to create my own little routine  (and then abandoned the effort)
>>> to let me set monthly budget amounts. *The reasons for that attempt are
>>> not
>>> important to this thread but the outcome may be*.
>>>
>>> I gave up after spending time creating the logic that I needed to insert
>>> into and/or change records in the SQL table [budget_amounts].
>>> Everything I
>>> tested always looked perfect in the SQL backend until I went to work with
>>> that data in GC.  It was like I did not change anything behind the scenes
>>> once I opened up GC again.  I would go back to the SQL world and would
>>> sometimes notice that my changes to [budget_amounts] were either being a)
>>> ignored, b) wiped out or c) some other corruption.  Through trial and
>>> error, I discovered that the SQL table [slots] (and it's various
>>> pseudo-tables) also maintains budget amount data and that said data in
>>> [slots] will persist when GC is restarted after my changes from SQL were
>>> executed.  It was then that I decided that the amount of effort that I
>>> would spend reverse engineering the logic that GC is using with the
>>> [slots]
>>> table was never going to be worth the reward nor the risk.
>>>
>>> I don't know for a fact that for your particular use case that writing to
>>> [slots] will even be required because I never dug into the transactions
>>> that deeply.  Maybe [transactions] and [splits] are isolated from the
>>> apparently superior related data that GC maintains in [slots].  If you
>>> happen to know the languages that the GC engine is written in you might
>>> be
>>> able to get the answer with a little bit of code review instead of the
>>> time
>>> consumed doing a bunch of testing, observing, and evaluating.
>>>
>>> Good luck!  I'd love to know how it goes for you if you end up pursuing
>>> this idea.
>>>
>>> - Stu
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 3:15 PM Hal Vaughan <hal at hal.dance> wrote:
>>>
>>> > I’ve done some research on this issue and I’m trying to determine if
>>> it’s
>>> > worth doing more or if I’d just spend time on this topic and find it
>>> won’t
>>> > work.
>>> >
>>> > I have a situation I’ve been told GnuCash can’t handle, but I have a
>>> > Python library that can handle it.  (It has to do with calculating
>>> interest
>>> > on a credit line with a variable balance.)
>>> >
>>> > Years ago, I remember checking into GnuCash and reading the XML data
>>> files
>>> > and finding that each transaction seemed to have a UUID with it, but
>>> that
>>> > the other data in each entry would be easy to generate from my own
>>> library
>>> > written in Python.  I also know that now the data files can be in SQL,
>>> > using several different engines, and that if it’s an XML file, it’s in
>>> gzip
>>> > format.
>>> >
>>> > I do not need my program to run as a plug-in or anything like that.
>>> (Last
>>> > I looked, I had to install MacPorts for that, and last time I installed
>>> > MacPorts, it made a mess of the libraries for my old Perl scripts and
>>> some
>>> > Python ones.)
>>> >
>>> > But here’s what I’d like to do:
>>> > 1. Enter my transactions involving the credit line normally in GnuCash.
>>> > 2. Exit GnuCash
>>> > 3. Run my Python script that would read the GnuCash data file and find
>>> all
>>> > transactions with any credit lines.
>>> > 4. Do the interest calculations for my credit line
>>> > 5. Add a debit transaction for the interest amount before each new
>>> > transaction with the credit line
>>> > 6. Edit the comment field for each transaction involving the credit
>>> line
>>> > to include notes on interest and totals
>>> > 7. Save the ledger and exit my library script.
>>> > 8. Run GnuCash again and have the new transactions included and their
>>> > amounts included in any account totals.
>>> >
>>> > Is this even possible?  I don’t mind doing the research to find out
>>> how to
>>> > generate a transaction ID and all the rest.  I just want to know if I
>>> can
>>> > use my own library to add transactions to a file (or edit comments in a
>>> > transaction) and, when I’m done, for GnuCash to be able to read that
>>> file,
>>> > with my new transactions, in and to include the amounts in the added
>>> > transactions in account totals.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Hal
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>