On Monday 04 July 2005 6:09 pm, Derek Atkins wrote: > Hi, > > I think it would be a lot of work to implement a web interface > frontend for Gnucash.
Personally, I think it would be more reasonable to implement a data access interface in HTML/PHP/Perl than to replicate the entire program. QSF could help here - much like I'm planning on doing with Palm / Psion applications - create an interface that can handle GnuCash data as QSF XML or just handle certain elements, like creating invoices or transactions. This would parse XML exported from GnuCash and then output modified XML that GnuCash could merge back into the main data file(s). It's important that the data is merged rather than simply hacked into the existing storage. The user must have control over how any conflicts are handled. This kind of abstraction / separation is useful because it frees each program to do what they do best without artificial restrictions on "it must do X this way because that's the way GnuCash does it" which would inevitably result if you tried to access GnuCash storage directly. The reality is that a www front-end for GnuCash cannot work as GnuCash works. It must work within the confines of the www interface itself. This sounds obvious but the effects percolate down through the entire design. The more you think about the design, the more you realise the subtlety of the changes. QOF-generator is a start in this direction. There will be a Perl parser for QSF XML and a PHP one will follow. That should allow any PHP script to accept GnuCash data. Probably use some form of MySQL database for temporary storage and cookies, sessions, etc., for data processing and then write out more QSF XML. http://qof-gen.sourceforge.net/ This is purely theoretical at this stage, it's a nice idea and I'd support anyone who wants to give it a go! :-) Derek is spot on, it could be a huge amount of work, depending on how *much* of current GnuCash functionality is supported in the www data interface. With the Palm applications, I'm planning on supporting existing open source finance applications for the Palm and providing a QOF/QSF conduit via pilot-link. The logic is already implemented and therefore my task is considerably easier. Even so, there is virtually 0% chance that any of this will be supported by the time G2 is released - more likely it will develop to it's own timetable once G2 is out and my time becomes my own again! :-) > There is a lot of business logic in the UI. > The "database" has no logic at all, it's just a data storage system. This is the real challenge - handling complex GnuCash data within the relatively simplistic handling methods available over www. Parsing and exporting QSF XML would be the easy part. The particular difficulties relate to how one object (like a transaction) is related to another (like an account). This can be difficult to replicate outside C/Scheme. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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