[GNC] AutoHotKey: Date Arithmetic Example

[Glenn Fowler]

Hi,

Automating the GUI is certainly possible (basically it's just RPA). I did
it using PowerShell:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GnuCash/comments/mugurm/automatically_scan_ocr_receipts_invoices/

Just adding that if you are looking into Selenium I would recommend
UI.Vision: https://ui.vision/  It runs all of the important selenium
commands but is much easier to use and more powerful.



On Sun, Aug 14, 2022 at 9:44 PM Geoff <cleanoutmyshed at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Tom
>
> Yes, AutoHotKey is quite a powerful scripting language and has some
> basic date handling functionality built in.  Here is a trivial example
> as a demonstration, but note that it fails for cases where the day of
> the month is greater than 28.  This is easy to fix, but I don't know the
> specific rules imposed by your bank.
>
> See attached screenshot before reading any further.
>
> =====
> Loop, 12 {
>      start_date := 2022 . SubStr(0 . A_Index, -1, 2) . 15
>
>      month := SubStr(start_date, 5, 2) - 16
>
>      prior_date := SubStr(start_date, 1, 4)
>          + floor((month - 1) / 12)
>          . SubStr(0 . (month < 0
>                  ? mod(month, 12) + 12
>                  : mod(month - 1, 12) + 1)
>              , -1 ,2)
>          . SubStr(start_date, 7)
>
>      FormatTime, show_start, %start_date%, ddd dd-MMM-yyyy
>      FormatTime, show_prior, %prior_date%, ddd dd-MMM-yyyy
>      results := results
>          . "Start: " . show_start
>          . "`nPrior: " . show_prior
>          . "`n`n"
> }
> MsgBox,, AutoHotKey: Subtract 16 Months Example for Tom, %results%
> =====
>
> The syntax is a bit quirky at first, but the documentation is good and
> if you can drive Raku you can certainly drive AHK ;--)
>
>
> HOWEVER, as it seems that you are bank scraping, you should consider
> Selenium which is a very useful and extremely powerful tool for web
> browser automation: https://www.selenium.dev/, *plus* it can be driven
> from a variety of languages including Python, Perl, and (according to
> Google) Raku:
> https://raku.land/github:azawawi/Selenium::WebDriver
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Regards
>
> Geoff
> =====
>
> On 15/08/2022 12:50 am, Tom Browder wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 14, 2022 at 00:40 Geoff <cleanoutmyshed at gmail.com
> > <mailto:cleanoutmyshed at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     Hi Jim
> >
> >     I don't have any experience manipulating GnuCash XML files, but in
> >     principle what you want to do should work, although it does void your
> >     GnuCash warranty.
> >
> >     However, if you are going to all this effort you may find it more
> >     worthwhile to invest your time in learning how to use a general
> purpose
> >     automation tool.  This approach has two advantages over data
> >     manipulation:
> >     (1) Automation drives the GnuCash GUI and thus protects you from
> >     accidental data corruption.
> >     (2) You will be able to use your new automation skills to automate
> any
> >     subsequent GnuCash tasks, for example loading historical
> >     transactions to
> >     your 130 securities.
> >
> >     For Windows, check out:
> >     AutoHotKey https://www.autohotkey.com/ <https://www.autohotkey.com/>
> >
> >
> > Geoff, that looks very interesting, thanks for the link. I do most of my
> > work on Linux, but I do have to do some things on Windows (TL;DR), so
> > this is very useful.
> >
> > One of the things I'm not sure about is how powerful the script is. For
> > instance, can it determine the date for 16 months before the current
> > date? That's one of the requirements for one of my banks earliest date
> > of data retrieval. And one has to start over again for each different
> > account.
> >
> > If it can't, then I will use the power of Raku to regenerate the
> > autohotkey script for the current date.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > -Tom
> >
> > P.S. Is there a spot on the Wiki to list things like Geoff's suggestion
> > and flycatcher's program? If not, I will be glad to start
> > one--suggestions welcomed._______________________________________________
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