Python Bindings

Python bindings have been recently added to gnucash. There is still very little documentation and probably few people would know how to use it. While not a manual, this page was created in the hope to provide information for those interested in gnucash and python.

setting things up

I use ipython for an interactive shell. If you prefer something else, let us know if there is any difference.

export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/export/gnucash/lib/python2.5/site-packages

This adds the gnucash python bindings to your PYTHONPATH assuming that your gnucash resides in /export/gnucash

gnucash-env
ipython

gnucash-env sets up the environment and ipython is the interactive python shell. All commands will be entered in that shell from now on. Of course you could just as well run any gnucash python script from this point on.

Documentation

As pointed out in the introductory paragraph, the documentation is rather slim at this point in time. Here are some sources where you might be able to find what you are looking for. Generally speaking, this is not yet end-user friendly stuff.

• example scripts from the source code
• inside ipython
  • big long list of stuff
    • import gnucash.gnucash_core_c
    • help(gnucash_core_c)
    • dir(gnucash_core_c)
  • higher abstraction level help
    • import gnucash.gnucash_core
    • import gnucash.gnucash_business
    • help(gnucash.gnucash_core)
    • help(gnucash.gnucash_business)