[GNC] Difficulty with online price retrieval

[Samantha Payn]

   John, thank you for your continued support.

   Before I try this can I just clarify two points:

   I have a choice of Windows Powershell and Windows Powershell (Admin):
   which should I choose?

   And in the middle of your email I presume you mean "Powershell" (not
   Poweshell as typed)?

   Finally, in response to your question I have no securities in my
   Gnucash accounts. I am a freelance translator with a home currency of
   GBP and clients who pay me (and a very occasional purchase) in EUR and
   USD and use Gnucash for my business accounts. These are the currency
   rates I am trying to access.

   Best wishes

   Samantha

   On 25 July 2020 17:12 John Ralls < [1]jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

   Samantha,

   Next, some command-line testing. You can use CMD if you like, but I
   find Powershell to be a bit friendlier and easier to get to: Just
   right-click in the Start menu and it's in the middle. Once you have a
   shell, cd to C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucash\bin.

   First you'll need to set your ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY in the environment:

   CMD

   set ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY xxx...

   Poweshell

   $Env:ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY = xxx...

   Now test that you can retrieve an arbitrary currency pair:

   perl 'c:\Program Files (x86)\gnucash\bin\gnc-fq-dump currency USD GBP

   If that works then Finance::Quote is working correctly and something
   else is going on. So far you've mentioned only currency rates, but the
   usual reason for a system error message from online price retrieval is
   trying to get a stock price from one of the dicontinued Yahoo! price
   sources. Do you have any securities in your book? If you're unsure use
   Tools>Security Editor to show a list of them.

   Regards,

   John Ralls

   On Jul 25, 2020, at 5:22 AM, Samantha Payn <
   [2]samantha at boorertranslations.com> wrote:

   Thank you for your help John.

   I have done as you instruct (including restarting Gnucash after the
   install) but there is now a different problem.

   The Gnucash about info now does show version 1.49 for Finance::Quote

   The Get Quotes button does light up, but when I click it I get an error
   window that says: "There was a system error while retrieving the price
   quotes".

   I have tried restarting my computer to see if that helps but it made no
   difference.

   The last two lines of the installing text in the CPAN window, before
   the cpan prompt reappeared were *slightly* different to what you showed
   in your email. As far as I can recall they said:

   Appending installation info to C:\strawberry\perl\lib/perllocal.pod

   ECOCODE/Finance-Quote-1.49.tar.gz

   C:\STRAWB\c\bin\gmake.exe install UNINST=1 -- OK

   Can you please give me guidance on what to do now?

   Very many thanks!

   Samantha

   On 24 July 2020 21:12 John Ralls < [3]jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

   On Jul 24, 2020, at 4:33 AM, Samantha Payn <
   [4]samantha at boorertranslations.com> wrote:

   Sorry to repeat myself but can anyone help me or shall I have to rely

   on manual input of foreign exchange rates for the foreseeable future? I

   think that Windows has put the online price retrieval somewhere where

   Gnucash cannot "see" it and I am not sufficiently computer literate to

   correct this.

   My problem is that when I go to post an invoice in a "foreign" currency

   the "fetch rate" button is greyed out so I cannot use the online

   currency rate retrieval that I used to be able to before I upgraded my

   hardware.

   After installing the current version of gnucash on my new PC, I clicked

   on "Install Online Price Retrieval" from the Gnucash list in my start

   menu and I have entered the Alfa Vantage API key in my gnucash

   preferences.

   I have checked for the presence of the perl software using the

   Troubleshooting method John Ralls directed me to and received the

   response that I should install the Finance::Quote. The only way I have

   done this in the past is by clicking on "Install Online Price

   Retrieval" from the Gnucash list in my start menu and this is what I

   have done. So I have done this again and after a run of code in the cmd

   window the final lines are:

   "C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe" -MExtUtils::Command -e cp - -

   examples/dm_zdump blib\script\dm_zdump pl2bat.bat blib\script\dm_dump

   SBECK/Date-Manip-6.82.tar.gz

   C:\STRAWB~1\c\bin\gmake.exe - -OK

   Does this mean that online price retrieval has been installed?

   When I look in the Windows list of apps installed it says I have

   installed Strawberry Perl on 3rd July (when I first tried installing it

   on my new PC).

   I am running the latest version of Gnucash and I find that in the help

   window it says

   "Version: 4.0

   Build ID: 4.0+(2020-06-27)

   Finance::Quote: -"

   Please let me know what other information you need in order to be able

   to help me. I am stepping way out of my comfort zone when I enter the

   cmd window but willing to give it a go.

   It looks like Finance::Quote is not getting installed. Try this:

   Find the Strawberry Perl group in the Start menu (windows logo at the
   bottom left of the screen). Open it and start CPAN Client. You'll get
   something that looks sort of like a CMD window. At the prompt there
   type

   install Finance::Quote

   It will probably take a while and should eventually finish with

   Appending installation info to C:\strawberry\perl\lib/perllocal.pod

   ECOCODE/Finance-Quote-1.49.tar.gz

   C:\strawberry\c\bin\dmake.exe install UNINST=1 -- OK

   If GnuCash is running restart it, after which it should report version
   1.49 for Finance::Quote and light up the Get Quotes button.

   Regards,

   John Ralls

References

   1. mailto:jralls at ceridwen.us
   2. mailto:samantha at boorertranslations.com
   3. mailto:jralls at ceridwen.us
   4. mailto:samantha at boorertranslations.com