Re: Gnucash reports using php and mysql
On Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:00:01 + (UTC) Hendrik Boom hend...@topoi.pooq.com wrote: I still intend to get back to this. I still thiink that the primary problem with the report-writing tools is not that they are unusable, but that no one knows how to use them. Thank you very much. It would be, imho, great ROI allowing (potential) GC users to fully embrace GC. At least, to me it seems much nicer to use GC for everything than to have to fiddle with PHP Web invoicing apps just to easily tweak/create decent invoice. Sincerely, Gour -- In the material world, one who is unaffected by whatever good or evil he may obtain, neither praising it nor despising it, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge. http://atmarama.net | Hlapicina (Croatia) | GPG: 52B5C810 signature.asc Description: PGP signature ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
Re: Gnucash reports using php and mysql
On Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:10:39 -0500 Donald Allen donaldcal...@gmail.com wrote: My motivation was the same as yours -- I could not get what I wanted from the built-in reports and I felt that the cost of trying to learn to work within gnucash (in spite of the fact that I am a *very* experienced Scheme programmer) was higher than the approach I took. Huh...this does not sound optimistic for potential GC users wanting to customize their invoices/reports... Is there any plan to improve reporting system in 2.6 or we cannot expect anything before 3.0? I'd suggest having a look at an interesting thread, Scripting API, on gnucash-devel started by Hendrik Boom in November. It discusses similar issues and the subject of the fairly new python bindings capability comes up, something I have not investigated myself (only because I already have something that serves my purpose, developed before the python bindings capability became available) but is probably worth looking at if you are actively developing reports for yourself. Is it now possible to use those Python bindings to more easily create/tweak reports/invocies? Sincerely, Gour -- As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence. http://atmarama.net | Hlapicina (Croatia) | GPG: 52B5C810 signature.asc Description: PGP signature ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
Re: Gnucash reports using php and mysql
On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:44:31 +0100, Gour wrote: On Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:10:39 -0500 Donald Allen donaldcal...@gmail.com wrote: My motivation was the same as yours -- I could not get what I wanted from the built-in reports and I felt that the cost of trying to learn to work within gnucash (in spite of the fact that I am a *very* experienced Scheme programmer) was higher than the approach I took. Huh...this does not sound optimistic for potential GC users wanting to customize their invoices/reports... Is there any plan to improve reporting system in 2.6 or we cannot expect anything before 3.0? I'd suggest having a look at an interesting thread, Scripting API, on gnucash-devel started by Hendrik Boom in November. It discusses similar issues and the subject of the fairly new python bindings capability comes up, something I have not investigated myself (only because I already have something that serves my purpose, developed before the python bindings capability became available) but is probably worth looking at if you are actively developing reports for yourself. It's still on my personal TODO list, but family and other matters have severely diverted me from writing the necessary documentation, and possibly any code the documentation will suggest to me as necessary. I still intend to get back to this. I still thiink that the primary problem with the report-writing tools is not that they are unusable, but that no one knows how to use them. -- hendrik ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
Re: Gnucash reports using php and mysql
Hello developers, Donald, I followed your suggestion and read the thread Scripting API on the list archives. To be honest, it was kind of difficult to understand it, at least for me that do not know so much of programing yet. But despite that, I saw someone mentioning that there are Python bindings and you also mentioned that you used Python to create your own reports. Did you use those bindings for your script? Do you believe Python is a better a way to get custom reports? I saw also that many people creates custom scripts to get the reports according to each one needs. I would like to ask if you guys share those scripts somewhere in the internet? It will be nice to check this and maybe stop using php as I'm doing right now. I'm just using it because it seemed to me the easiest language to learn. Besides, as mentioned by Christian, I created a github with the php files. While I do not find a better way to do it, I will try to continue using php to get the reports I need: https://github.com/pedroabel/gnucashreports Thank you all and wish you all a nice Christmas. Best regards, Pedro On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Donald Allen donaldcal...@gmail.comwrote: On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:11 PM, Pedro Abel pedroa...@gmail.com wrote: Hello friends, greetings from Brazil, My name is Pedro and this is the first time I send an e-mail to this list. First, thank you all for such a great software. I'm using it for years. I was wondering if anyone is working on some reports for Gnucash not using of the standard language (Scheme) Gnucash reports uses right now. I'm asking that because since there is the mysql option I started writing some custom reports for my personal finances using PHP. Nothing really new, just the same reports in a way that I prefer to see it (basically with each period organized into columns, for comparison, and with a quick way to group the values in broader periods, like quarters and years). The PHP also allow me to check my reports quickly from any other computer in my network. So, I would like to know if someone is doing the same, and maybe share some codes. If you want, I could send to list what I have so far (does this list accepts attachments?). If so, please do not expect nothing exactly good, as I'm not really a programmer. I'm just a regular user that wanted some custom reports and decided to do what I need instead of bothering you with requests. Best regards, Pedro Pedro -- A few years ago, I did something similar, though at the time, the gnucash database option was not available. My motivation was the same as yours -- I could not get what I wanted from the built-in reports and I felt that the cost of trying to learn to work within gnucash (in spite of the fact that I am a *very* experienced Scheme programmer) was higher than the approach I took. I wrote a python program that processes the gnucash xml file (the python library xml parser was very useful for this). The program produces reports and charts by generating latex and gnuplot files. It has served me well. While I now do use the database capability (postgres), I have not yet taken the time to convert my program to query the database rather than parsing the xml file. Christian's response about using the C API makes sense to me if you are modifying your gnucash data with an external program. Writing to the database without using gnucash as an intermediary is a great way to corrupt your data. But, if you restrict yourself to read-only access to the data, then corruption is not an issue (I would still be careful to back up your data in case you make an error and write to the database accidentally -- unlikely, but possible). Then it becomes a matter of which requires less effort on your part to get what you want. I chose the same route you took on this basis. I'd suggest having a look at an interesting thread, Scripting API, on gnucash-devel started by Hendrik Boom in November. It discusses similar issues and the subject of the fairly new python bindings capability comes up, something I have not investigated myself (only because I already have something that serves my purpose, developed before the python bindings capability became available) but is probably worth looking at if you are actively developing reports for yourself. /Don Allen ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
Re: Gnucash reports using php and mysql
On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 12:53 PM, Pedro Abel pedroa...@gmail.com wrote: Hello developers, Donald, I followed your suggestion and read the thread Scripting API on the list archives. To be honest, it was kind of difficult to understand it, at least for me that do not know so much of programing yet. But despite that, I saw someone mentioning that there are Python bindings and you also mentioned that you used Python to create your own reports. Did you use those bindings for your script? Do you believe Python is a better a way to get custom reports? I don't know PHP, so I'm in no position to offer an opinion about its value as a programming language vs. Python. I do think Python is quite good. Python programs tend to be concise and easy to read, a test of whether the language designer has found something close to a minimal basis set. It's well documented, and it has a rich library from which to draw. And Paul Graham loves it (if you've never read any of his essays, I recommend them; here's one on Python: http://www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html ; Graham is the person who said that Perl programs look like a cartoon character cursing, which amused me greatly, because there's so much truth to it). I did not use the Python bindings in my own report generator, because they did not exist when I wrote it. If I were doing that work now, I would certainly investigate this facility. Have a good holiday! /Don I saw also that many people creates custom scripts to get the reports according to each one needs. I would like to ask if you guys share those scripts somewhere in the internet? It will be nice to check this and maybe stop using php as I'm doing right now. I'm just using it because it seemed to me the easiest language to learn. Besides, as mentioned by Christian, I created a github with the php files. While I do not find a better way to do it, I will try to continue using php to get the reports I need: https://github.com/pedroabel/gnucashreports Thank you all and wish you all a nice Christmas. Best regards, Pedro On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Donald Allen donaldcal...@gmail.comwrote: On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:11 PM, Pedro Abel pedroa...@gmail.com wrote: Hello friends, greetings from Brazil, My name is Pedro and this is the first time I send an e-mail to this list. First, thank you all for such a great software. I'm using it for years. I was wondering if anyone is working on some reports for Gnucash not using of the standard language (Scheme) Gnucash reports uses right now. I'm asking that because since there is the mysql option I started writing some custom reports for my personal finances using PHP. Nothing really new, just the same reports in a way that I prefer to see it (basically with each period organized into columns, for comparison, and with a quick way to group the values in broader periods, like quarters and years). The PHP also allow me to check my reports quickly from any other computer in my network. So, I would like to know if someone is doing the same, and maybe share some codes. If you want, I could send to list what I have so far (does this list accepts attachments?). If so, please do not expect nothing exactly good, as I'm not really a programmer. I'm just a regular user that wanted some custom reports and decided to do what I need instead of bothering you with requests. Best regards, Pedro Pedro -- A few years ago, I did something similar, though at the time, the gnucash database option was not available. My motivation was the same as yours -- I could not get what I wanted from the built-in reports and I felt that the cost of trying to learn to work within gnucash (in spite of the fact that I am a *very* experienced Scheme programmer) was higher than the approach I took. I wrote a python program that processes the gnucash xml file (the python library xml parser was very useful for this). The program produces reports and charts by generating latex and gnuplot files. It has served me well. While I now do use the database capability (postgres), I have not yet taken the time to convert my program to query the database rather than parsing the xml file. Christian's response about using the C API makes sense to me if you are modifying your gnucash data with an external program. Writing to the database without using gnucash as an intermediary is a great way to corrupt your data. But, if you restrict yourself to read-only access to the data, then corruption is not an issue (I would still be careful to back up your data in case you make an error and write to the database accidentally -- unlikely, but possible). Then it becomes a matter of which requires less effort on your part to get what you want. I chose the same route you took on this basis. I'd suggest having a look at an interesting thread, Scripting API, on gnucash-devel started by Hendrik Boom in November. It discusses
Gnucash reports using php and mysql
Hello friends, greetings from Brazil, My name is Pedro and this is the first time I send an e-mail to this list. First, thank you all for such a great software. I'm using it for years. I was wondering if anyone is working on some reports for Gnucash not using of the standard language (Scheme) Gnucash reports uses right now. I'm asking that because since there is the mysql option I started writing some custom reports for my personal finances using PHP. Nothing really new, just the same reports in a way that I prefer to see it (basically with each period organized into columns, for comparison, and with a quick way to group the values in broader periods, like quarters and years). The PHP also allow me to check my reports quickly from any other computer in my network. So, I would like to know if someone is doing the same, and maybe share some codes. If you want, I could send to list what I have so far (does this list accepts attachments?). If so, please do not expect nothing exactly good, as I'm not really a programmer. I'm just a regular user that wanted some custom reports and decided to do what I need instead of bothering you with requests. Best regards, Pedro ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
Re: Gnucash reports using php and mysql
Dear Pedro, thanks for sharing your experience with gnucash so far. Do I understand correctly: You are storing your gnucash data in a MySQL database, and you have written PHP code that accesses that MySQL database to show some reports? This would be an interesting other usage of the gnucash data. It does not (yet) fit into the way the developers intended to use the data, as we still strongly recommend to access the gnucash data only through the C API of gnucash instead of directly reading from the SQL database or XML file. On the other hand, this is Open Source and you're free to do what you want with your data. :-) I guess it would be interesting to send your php code here as an attachment, or put it somewhere on the web (e.g. on github.com) so that others can have a look. Best Regards, Christian Zitat von Pedro Abel pedroa...@gmail.com: Hello friends, greetings from Brazil, My name is Pedro and this is the first time I send an e-mail to this list. First, thank you all for such a great software. I'm using it for years. I was wondering if anyone is working on some reports for Gnucash not using of the standard language (Scheme) Gnucash reports uses right now. I'm asking that because since there is the mysql option I started writing some custom reports for my personal finances using PHP. Nothing really new, just the same reports in a way that I prefer to see it (basically with each period organized into columns, for comparison, and with a quick way to group the values in broader periods, like quarters and years). The PHP also allow me to check my reports quickly from any other computer in my network. So, I would like to know if someone is doing the same, and maybe share some codes. If you want, I could send to list what I have so far (does this list accepts attachments?). If so, please do not expect nothing exactly good, as I'm not really a programmer. I'm just a regular user that wanted some custom reports and decided to do what I need instead of bothering you with requests. Best regards, Pedro ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
Re: Gnucash reports using php and mysql
On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:11 PM, Pedro Abel pedroa...@gmail.com wrote: Hello friends, greetings from Brazil, My name is Pedro and this is the first time I send an e-mail to this list. First, thank you all for such a great software. I'm using it for years. I was wondering if anyone is working on some reports for Gnucash not using of the standard language (Scheme) Gnucash reports uses right now. I'm asking that because since there is the mysql option I started writing some custom reports for my personal finances using PHP. Nothing really new, just the same reports in a way that I prefer to see it (basically with each period organized into columns, for comparison, and with a quick way to group the values in broader periods, like quarters and years). The PHP also allow me to check my reports quickly from any other computer in my network. So, I would like to know if someone is doing the same, and maybe share some codes. If you want, I could send to list what I have so far (does this list accepts attachments?). If so, please do not expect nothing exactly good, as I'm not really a programmer. I'm just a regular user that wanted some custom reports and decided to do what I need instead of bothering you with requests. Best regards, Pedro Pedro -- A few years ago, I did something similar, though at the time, the gnucash database option was not available. My motivation was the same as yours -- I could not get what I wanted from the built-in reports and I felt that the cost of trying to learn to work within gnucash (in spite of the fact that I am a *very* experienced Scheme programmer) was higher than the approach I took. I wrote a python program that processes the gnucash xml file (the python library xml parser was very useful for this). The program produces reports and charts by generating latex and gnuplot files. It has served me well. While I now do use the database capability (postgres), I have not yet taken the time to convert my program to query the database rather than parsing the xml file. Christian's response about using the C API makes sense to me if you are modifying your gnucash data with an external program. Writing to the database without using gnucash as an intermediary is a great way to corrupt your data. But, if you restrict yourself to read-only access to the data, then corruption is not an issue (I would still be careful to back up your data in case you make an error and write to the database accidentally -- unlikely, but possible). Then it becomes a matter of which requires less effort on your part to get what you want. I chose the same route you took on this basis. I'd suggest having a look at an interesting thread, Scripting API, on gnucash-devel started by Hendrik Boom in November. It discusses similar issues and the subject of the fairly new python bindings capability comes up, something I have not investigated myself (only because I already have something that serves my purpose, developed before the python bindings capability became available) but is probably worth looking at if you are actively developing reports for yourself. /Don Allen ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel ___ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
