PDF invoices, Account Reconciliation, GUI

[David L. <dl...@eg...>]

Summary: 
1.  We are developing an Latex -> PDF invoice capability and an XML ->
PDF one as well.
2.  We are very interested in the proposed Account Reconciliation
functionality.
3.  Depending on how much work has been done on a perl/TK interface, we
respectfully suggest considering a terminal based UI like curses (i.e.
keyboard driven and lightweight) and/or or another crossplatform GUI
system like Qt (perl or pyQt) or wxWindows (wxPerl or wxPython)
interface as we believe they result in much more polished and visually
appealing apps.

PDF generation:

In response to the last message (quoted below), we are working on
generating PDF invoices from Late and will contribute those changes back
to the Sql-ledger project as soon as possible (i.e. as soon as it works
:o).

Due to our interest in shifting our company documentation into XML, we
have also decided to have a play with an XML to PDF conversion using XSL
and FOP to produce PDF.  We're also looking at ways to produce PS
output.  At this stage it works best to use a Java servlet engine (e.g.
Tomcat from the Jakarta project) for speed. We will also contribute
those changes back to the Sql-ledger project if anyone is interested.

If anyone else is working on either of these mechanisms actively, please
let us know so that we can avoid reinventing the wheel!  

Account Reconciliation:

Speaking of "what's ahead", we are very interested in the Account
Reconciliation functionality - has anyone made any progress on that?  If
so, please do tell!  We consider that to be on of two aspects of
Sql-ledger that is keeping us from wholeheartedly promoting it to our
clients.

Application interface - terminal based:

The other major issue concerning us is application speed and efficiency
- the web interface is very useful (and vital) for distributed
businesses (as many in New Zealand are) and there appears to be no other
fully functional client-server accounting system with a realistic price
tag.  Despite that, however, for grinding through invoices as some of
our clients do, you have to have a very responsive, 100% keyboard driven
interface.  Has anyone considered a terminal based interface (sorry I
haven't found a way to search the Sql-ledger mailing list archives...)? 
There are perl-curses bindings
(http://www.perl.com/doc/FAQs/FAQ/oldfaq-html/Q3.8.html).  Such an
interface could be used effectively from a Linux server on Win32 clients
on a LAN.  

Most of our clients are currently using a locally (New Zealand) produced
app that recently switched from a DOS (terminal style) interface to a
Win32 interface, and despite the latter looking much snazzier, given a
few days of working with it, most prefer the speed and efficiency of the
earlier DOS version...

Application interface - X/Win32 based:

If the planned GUI interface is like the standard X TK GUI, then we'd be
much more enthusiastic about a perlQt (http://www.surf.org.uk/vperlqt/)
or pyQt (http://www.thekompany.com/projects/pykde/) interface to
Sql-ledger (from my experience, Qt - www.trolltech.com - is an extremely
complete and efficient open source C++ GUI library with perl and python
bindings that runs natively on Win32, Unix, MacOS, and embedded systems
that produces *very* polished interfaces)...  We're looking at that
ourselves.  Although we'll have to carefully examine the licensing
implications, we have a commercial development license for Qt (Unix and
Win32) and would be (barring licensing issues) willing in principle to
build Win32 binaries if no one else has that capability.  

Another viable option for an interface would be wxPerl
(wxperl.sourceforge.net) or even wxPython (www.wxpython.org) which have
sprung from the impressive wxWindows (C++) open source cross-platform
development project....   Note, both Qt
(www.thekompany.com/projects/pykde/tools.php3) and wxWindows
(wwww.roebling.de) have GUI builder applications.

We think that Sql-ledger is an inspiring project, and hope that we can
contribute to its development so that the open source community has a
real contender for the small business accounting market!  Great work to
everyone who has contributed.

Regards,

Dave Lane 

On Tue, 2002-02-12 at 03:09, M R wrote:
> On http://sql-ledger.org/misc/ahead.html it mentions:
> 
> Native GUI interface  (perl/TK)
> PDF / Latex for generation of reports
> 
> Is there anyone actually working on these?
> 
> (my 1st code efforts will be to generate history reports of invoices.  I think  
> I can use some of the command-line web tools to import billing/export 
> HTML that I can then fax/print/save to disk)
> 
> 
-- 
** David Lane, Director - Egressive Limited * dl...@eg... **
** PO Box 24162, Christchurch, NZ * www.egressive.com * 025 229 8147 ** 
** Open Source: software for the discerning palate * www.openz.org **