Johnathon, It is possible to host the data files but not the application on a cloud data storage. I use a dropbox so I can edit my files either at home, on my laptop when I am mobile or away etc. I have also used Google Drive for the same purpose In that case it is synchronised from the local machine I am editing on to the dropbox server and that is not instantaneous. GnuCash's customer data storage is not a general client information system and stores little more than the name, some contact details and a billing and shipping address. It is not as comprehensive as an ERP system for example.
One reason some people use the database backends for GnuCash is so they can access the GnuCash data from other applications using SQL queries. GnuCash also has bindings to a Python API which can be used to access the data. It is strictly an accounting system by design and as it is used in many countries there tends to be an emphasis on generic accounting features rather than being customized to a particular jurisdiction within the program. Any specific customization would have to be external. I would be inclined to keep clinical patient data in a separate system designed for that function e.g. https://www.openclinica.com/community-edition-open-source-edc/, https://openmrs.org/ and try to build or have someone develop a linking system to the accounting functionality. Other possible options are listed in https://blog.capterra.com/top-7-free-open-source-emr-software-products/. If they are database based it will depend largely on how much information is available on the database structure and how to access it as to how difficult that may be to achieve. This unfortunately is what you pay for in commercial products although they don't always deliver. The development and documentation teams for GnuCash are totally totally volunteer. New features are implemented, but usually after a fair bit of discussion and generally rely on one of the team members being interested in the feature or a significant demand from the user base. The main development effort is focussed on bug fixes and modernization of the code to stay up with libraries GnuCash is dependent upon. The critical thing with flexible access to data is database design to increase the ways in which data can be accessed. It is a highly specialized field in and of itself to optimally design a database for such a function. I don't know enough about the systems I referenced above to know whether thay are capable of meeting your needs. You will probably want to seriously look at the costs of customization of software. It can be quite expensive and difficult depending on how good the developer documentation is and the capabilities of any developer you would hire. Can't really comment on database courses. There is plenty of online material. I haven't had any experience with FileMaker as a relational dBMS. MySQL, PostGRES, SQLite3 are largely ecosystem (Windows, MacOS) independent and available for most major OS's around however Access and Filemaker may tie you to either the Windows or MacOS environments respectively. These questions are really out of scope for the GnuCash forum however. StackExchange and Tecmint may be more useful for more general info (among many others) David ----- David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
