User:Fleminra

Robert Fleming.

Not a GnuCash developer.

flеmіng⊚ҫѕ∙wаѕhіngtоn∙еdu (transcribe, don't copy+paste)

Personal wish list

• Get GnuCash Wiki to Interwiki with Wikipedia to facilitate links like [[Wikipedia:remote procedure call]]
• Viable database back-end. XML's strength is data exchange among heterogenous platforms, which is not really what this part of GnuCash is doing.
• A way to suck in external, repetetive data with minimum of hassle. Requires extensibility and/or non-file-based external software interface. Would like to bypass the (practically) non-deterministic Bayesian import mechanism because in this case the data is consistent and well defined.

What's wrong with deactivating the checkbox "use bayesian importer" in properties -> Online banking/Importing? Also, I've heard several requests about regexp/rule-based importers but so far nobody bothered to actually implement any of those, so that's why we still don't have anything else.

• • Would like to do this without downloading/compiling GnuCash or dependent source code.

Huh? I don't understand this part. What do you mean here? To use gnucash you have to download and compile it. If you don't want to do that, where's the connection to gnucash? Again, that qof project http://qof.sourceforge.net might already be what you are looking for (but its maintainer has just announced he'll be out of town for a few days/weeks)

• • I'm not planning on waiting for my bank/employer's consent before making (my copy of) GnuCash suck in my bank/employer's data.
  • (weekly!) paystub data from employer, including several tax and other deductions. This can be scraped from one of the company's intranet web sites.
  • (weekly!) 401k contributions, spread across several funds. Can be scraped from netbenefits.fidelity.com.

As for these requests: Do you mean your wish is that gnucash should "retrieve paystub data from employers (web) server" and "retrieve 401k contribution statements from some other (web) server"? In that case, a necessary condition for that wish is that this data is made available by that server through an openly documented protocol, like a http download file, or a ofx direct connect access, or a HBCI online banking server (the last one only exists in Germany). If that is the case, then it's a question of whether gnucash implements that particular online banking/statement retrieval protocol. --Cstim 08:01, 23 February 2006 (EST)

• • utility bills: how much goes to electricy, gas, tax?
• A way to link GnuCash data to/from arbitrary other data, like my relational database that tracks all those electronics rebates, link to e-mails pertinent to a particular account/transaction/split, link to locally archived PDF receipts, link to related photographs, etc. I already link into the GnuCash file using GUIDs and XPath (for the rebate-tracking application), but parsing XML documents on the order of 10 MB is unhealthy for application responsiveness. (see Semantic Web, GNOME Storage.)