[GNC] Database backend for gnucash?

Sat Oct 12 14:38:58 EDT 2024

Chapter 12 of the book "GnuCash 2.4 Small Business Accounting" section 
on Application Integration and Other Advanced Topics SQLite discusses 
OpenOffice Base, SQLite3 and ODBC drivers. It also goes a little bit 
into reporting using MS Excel with SQLite3 ODBC drivers.I haven't messed 
around with this section yet, but it looked pretty interesting.

At this point in my GnuCash journey, I'd just be happy to get income, 
expense, liabilities and assets figured out, and maybe stocks.

On 10/12/24 14:08, Ross Reedstrom wrote:
> Derek has the right package names, for ubuntu BTW: I just installed
> libdbd-sqlite3 and libdbd-pgsql and both options now appear in the drop
> down for "Save As ...".
> I went ahead and set up an account and DB in my local postgresql server,
> and it "just worked" to save my existing set of accounts into that. Didn't
> test sqlite3.
>
> Ross
>
> On Sat, Oct 12, 2024 at 12:38 PM sunfish62--- via gnucash-user <
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>
>> Indeed, there does appear to be a (large) gap in terms of instruction
>> regarding the database back ends. Having been around for a long time (back
>> to 2006 or so), I remember the implementation.
>>
>> There has been a lot of instruction on this topic in the lists over the
>> years, and I seem to recall some discussion about the procedures involved,
>> but I don't find them now. I'll note that limitations with some of the
>> Windows versions prevented many users from using the database back ends.
>> That, combined with the minimal gains that the db back ends provide, has
>> meant that most Windows users have stayed with the default xml, I believe.
>>
>> That said, all the documentation is volunteer-generated, so this is an
>> opportunity for you to improve that documentation.
>>
>> ⁣David T. 
>>
>> On Oct 12, 2024, 5:46 PM, at 5:46 PM, Gere Kiss Zsolt <
>> zsolt.gkiss at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi Richard and all,
>>>
>>> Thank you for your prompt response. You and Derek were correct; it was
>>> sufficient to install some additional packages to support the database
>>> backend. Specifically: libdbd-mysql for mysql, libdbd-sqlite3 for
>>> sqlite
>>> and a similar one for postgres. I installed *libdbd-mysql* and the
>>> option
>>> to save and open from the database appeared - great news!
>>>
>>> So I have to revisit my earlier thought regarding the publication of a
>>> binary that supports only one file format. I believe "omission" would
>>> be a
>>> more accurate term than "discrimination." However, I could not find any
>>> mention of the need to install additional packages for database
>>> backends,
>>> not to mention the specific package names, in any of the resources I
>>> consulted. The SQL <https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/SQL> documentation
>>> states:
>>>
>>> *Since version 2.4 GnuCash supports SQL via the DBI backend. That again
>>>> supports PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite3 databases. This page contains
>>>> details about the SQL backend of GnuCash.*
>>>
>>> This, like many other documents and applications, suggests that GnuCash
>>> has
>>> supported SQL since version 2.4. Given that many users operate on
>>> Windows,
>>> I suspect they may be unaware that there is a version of GnuCash that
>>> does
>>> not include SQL support. This oversight was quite frustrating during my
>>> search. Therefore, it seems that this is not a case of discrimination,
>>> but
>>> rather an omission in the documentation.
>>>
>>> My next step is to find an interface that I can easily integrate with -
>>> ideally, a REST API. I explored the Gnucash Rest
>>> <https://github.com/loftx/gnucash-rest> by loftx, but I was unable to
>>> get
>>> it to work. If anyone has experience with something similar, I would
>>> greatly appreciate your insights.
>>>
>>> Thank you once again for your assistance.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>     Zsolt
>>>
>>> On Thu, 10 Oct 2024 at 23:44, R Losey <rlosey at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It may be that you merely need to install some other packages to
>>> support
>>>> the other options.
>>>>
>>>> It *IS* discrimination that the major distributors "discriminate"
>>> (that
>>>> is, "choose") what they do and don't include in their distributions.
>>> Most
>>>> people probably use the XML file, which I believe is the default, so
>>> they
>>>> just didn't include those other packages. But if you want them, you
>>> can get
>>>> them, which seems to me quite fair for those special few who want
>>> other
>>>> options.
>>>>
>>>> One could also claim that it is "discrimination" that the Stock Quote
>>>> feature works on Linux, but needs additional items on Mac and Windows
>>> to
>>>> work (specifically, Perl distributions).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 10, 2024 at 1:52 PM Gere Kiss Zsolt
>>> <zsolt.gkiss at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you for your assistance. I have identified the key issue: it
>>> is
>>>>> related to the platform package. On Linux, GnuCash is preinstalled
>>> on the
>>>>> major distributions. However, the packages provide a binary that
>>> supports
>>>>> only the XML file format. As a result, when saving, there is only
>>> one
>>>>> format option available: XML, despite the presence of a selection
>>> box.
>>>>> This
>>>>> appears to be the case in Ubuntu, and it seems that this limitation
>>> is not
>>>>> widely communicated.
>>>>>
>>>>> I believe this situation could be considered a form of
>>> discrimination. If
>>>>> I
>>>>> wish to use a database backend, I will likely need to compile a
>>> GnuCash
>>>>> binary myself. While this is not a significant problem for me, it
>>> would be
>>>>> beneficial for others if this information were included on the
>>> download
>>>>> page or in the documentation.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you once again for your support.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>>      Zsolt
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> „We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only
>>> have
>>>>> one.”
>>>>> -- Confucius
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> gnucash-user mailing list
>>>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> _________________________________
>>>> Richard Losey
>>>> rlosey at gmail.com
>>>> Micah 6:8
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Üdvözlettel,
>>>
>>>    Zsolt
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> „We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have
>>> one.”
>>> -- Confucius
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