GSoC2012

Google Summer of Code 2012

GnuCash applies as a mentoring organization in the 2012 Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program. See our org application here: GSoC2012/OrgApplication

The following are the proposed ideas from the GnuCash developers for student projects. If you are interested in applying as a student for the Google Summer of Code, first contact the GnuCash developers through the Mailing List gnucash-devel@gnucash.org to discuss your ideas, then follow the link above and apply at Google.

Timeline

The timeline is copied from here:

• March 16: List of accepted mentoring organizations published
• April 6: Student application deadline.
• April 23: Accepted student proposals published
• May 21 - August 20: Students work on their GSoC projects.

Proposed Projects

Here we collect projects which are proposed for students interested in the 2012 GSoC.

Other lists of feature proposals are here:

• http://gnucash.uservoice.com/ , ranked by user's votes
• https://bugzilla.gnome.org/browse.cgi?product=GnuCash , then click on "enhancements" in the middle of the right column

In particular, the GnuCash developers think the following ideas would make good GSoC projects:

GnuCash Expense Tracker Android application

GnuCash is a desktop application. It will make the life of users easier, if they can capture expenses closer to where they incur expenses using a mobile phone. This will be more accurate and save them time when later entering the transactions.

• Allow users to enter expenses.
• Make a selection for each expense as to the mode of payment - cash, credit card, debit/ATM card or check.
• Allow the expense entries to be exported in QIF/CSV format for import into GnuCash.
• Mark those entries exported with a flag to avoid duplicate export.

Prerequisites: Software engineering knowledge; Android SDK, Java, C knowledge to understand GnuCash code.

You will learn: You will have the time to evaluate the required and optional fields that need to be populated for importing expenses into GnuCash. You will also learn how to allow users to configure multiple credit cards and bank accounts into the Android application. You will get an insight into GnuCash data model and business logic, while advancing in Java and Android development.

You can achieve: The result of your project would be an Android application readily used by thousands of users for their personal and business financial transactions.

Mentor: Muslim Chochlov

Core libraries unit testing

Many parts of Gnucash's core libraries are not well covered by unit tests. In some cases the programming interface isn't well documented. In this task, the student can use GnuCash as a real-life example for software engineering, working his/her way through the code and documenting and/or adding unit tests. Many of the classes exhibit poor object-oriented design and don't fully or correctly implement the desired GObject framework. This task involves achieving 100% unit test coverage (using GLib Testing) on functions in one or more compilation units (the number of modules and which ones can be determined by the student based on his/her experience and interests).

Prerequisites: Software engineering knowledge including basics of unit testing with XUnit and object-oriented design; you'll need to be fairly proficient in C programming on a Unix platform.

You will learn: Real-life software engineering with legacy code: Refactoring complex functions to get test access to different branches, writing comprehensive unit tests, memory management in a reference-counted (as opposed to garbage collected) environment.

You can achieve: You will see how some more fragile parts of GnuCash can be refactored into much better code by using your newly introduced unit tests. Eventually new user features will become possible only because your unit tests lay the foundation for major architecture changes.

Mentor: John Ralls and others

Others

If you have other ideas yourself, do not hesitate to propose them on the gnucash-devel mailing list. We have several mentors available which could mentor projects proposed by yourself as well.

However, first please read this mailing list reply and follow its instructions. Then, explain your progress on the mailing list and discuss your project ideas in some more detail there. Announce your idea on the list, and you will quickly receive some feedback on whether this sounds like a viable project within GSoC or not. We are looking for your ideas.

Student Participants Application

If you're a student who is interested in any of the ideas above, please perform the following steps:

• Subscribe to our mailing list gnucash-devel and send a message to the list, announcing your interest and starting a discussion on how to work on this project. The idea is to find out from members if your idea is feasible in the timescales of Google Summer of Code.
• You will then need to turn your ideas into a proposal for a project and apply at google for your project. We are proposing a template for student proposals as shown below.

Prerequisites

• Before you complete the application, you have to get to know the GnuCash source code and accomplish these two tasks:
  • You have to build GnuCash from source code before you complete the application. You have to note the command line commands that you had to use in your application.
  • You have to get to know the GnuCash source code before you complete this application, at least a little bit. You have to name at least one function inside the GnuCash C code that you are going to use or modify.

Student Application Template

Basic Information

• Student name:
• Location (Home town, state, country):
• School (Name, location, candidate for what degree):

Contact Information

• Email:
• Instant messaging contact details (Skype or similar):
• Phone number (our mentors may ask for a few phone conversations, especially in the beginning):

Background/Programming Information

• What programming experience do you have so far (languages, operating systems, version control systems)?
• Describe some programming projects you've already undertaken and their outcomes. If possible, include links to commits in public source code repositories:
• You have to build GnuCash from source code before you complete this application. How did you succeed in building from source, i.e. which command line commands did you have to use?

Project Proposal

• What is your goal?
• How will that improve GnuCash, or what known GnuCash problems or limitations will it fix?
• How do you intend to accomplish the goal and what obstacles do you anticipate? Be sure to address in some detail what functions you intend to add or modify, how it will integrate with existing code, and how you plan to test your code.
• You have to get to know the GnuCash source code before you complete this application. Please name at least one function inside the GnuCash C code that you are going to use or modify.

Source code exchange

If you're accepted you will need to open a free account on Github and to clone the Gnucash/gnucash repository. You and your mentor will use this for coordinating your work, and your mentor will pull your code from here and commit it.

Previous Years

See SoC2007 and SoC2010 and GSoC2011 for our previous ideas and accepted students who worked on gnucash projects in the GSoC 2007 and 2011. Our 2011 Mentoring organization application was successful.