If you're a C# developer interested in developing a personal finance accounting software, just drop us a line or comment here.

I am collecting interest in this application and wouldn't mind sharing the source code with suitable parties.

Maybe creating a sourceforge project and posting the code there for a start if there is interest.

Let me know what you think.

Mantis is the bug trackign system I will be using for MoneyMan.

Installing Mantis is not too hard, once you figure out the requirements and security settings to allow you to install.

Here's a step by step guide on how to install Mantis along with its required software.

1. Install MySQL which can be downloaded from http://www.mysql.com/
2. Install PHP which can be downloaded from http://www.php.net/
3. Download the latest MySQL components for PHP from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/php/
4. Extract the MySQL PHP components with the name php_*.dll to the PHP install extension directory
5. Extract the MySQL PHP driver libmysql.dll to the PHP install directory
6. Edit the PHP.ini file, usually installed in your Windows system directory and uncomment the MySQL extension or add them if not there
   • extension=php_mysql.dll
   • extension=php_mysqli.dll
7. Downloadand extract the Mantis BT to your webserver directory, usually C:\InetPub\WWWRoot, to end up with Mantis installed in the following direcotry C:\InetPub\WWWRoot\Mantis
8. Open your browser and type http://localhost/mantis in the address and follow the screens to install Mantis
9. Delete the Admin directory from the Mantis web directory for security reasons

Make sure you enter the proper MySQL username and password with DB creation rights (e.g. root) when prompted by the Mantis installer.

Now you should have Mantis running on your system.

Note 1: When installing Mantis on my laptop, I had a few directory problems with it. What I had done was extract Mantis to my desktop and then copy the folder to C:\InetPub\WWWRoot, which basically copied the security settings of the directory along with it. All I had to do then was create another directory in C:\InetPub\WWWRoot and copy the files to it from Mantis. This worked for me.

Note 2: After installing Mantis you might be propmpted to manually copy the configuration settings to one of the php file. Follow the screen prompts, it's quite simple.

Note 3: The administrator user password for Mantis is root. Change it the first time you login.

Here's what I have done so far with Money Man.

I am using data binding. So far, I'm quite happy with what .NET 2.0 data binding offers. I will share some of my programing experience with data binding in a later post.

The login screen:

Overview:

Suggestions anyone?

In my endeavour to develop a simple to use, feature rich personal finance software, I had to trawl through the internet in search of the most convenient development tools, and here's my story.

After spending more than a couple of days searching, I eventually found what I'm looking for.

First I wanted a database to store the data in. With too many on the list to pick from, which would you have choosen? I have decided to settle on Firebird for a few reasons.

• Can be embedded with my application
• Has a small footprint
• Mostly SQL compliant
• Has .NET client library

Database: Firebird

Now that we've solved the data issue, let's move on to the next of kin, ORM.

Object-Relational Mapping is a requirement nowadays. The choices here are no lesser than the database arena. I have taken the easy solution approach to picking this one, dOOdads. dOOdads comes with the MyGeneration, code generation tool.

Other ORM options I have looked at include, Hibernate.NET and Gentle.NET. I personally prefer the Gentle.NET approach. Gentle.NET 2.0 is still in an early stage of development to be used with .NET 2.0.

ORM: dOOdads

A couple of main features I liked about the unit testing tools I've chosen, namely, VS.NET integration and perfornmance statistics on tests.

Unit Test: Zanebug

To integrate Zanebug with VS .NET, I had to use TestDriven.NET. One caveat, though, is that you cannot run VS.NET using a regular user account and get the VS.NET integration for Zanebug. You will have run VS.NET with a user account belonging to the Administrators of the machine to allow TestDriven.NET to start an external process.

Next comes the source control requirements. SVN was my choice. I haven't created the tree for MoneyMan yet, but will surely use SVN.

Source Control: Subversion (SVN)

It's a fact, software programs will have problems, unless you spend big $$$$$....$$$$ on development and especially QA. How long it will take to uncover an issue in a piece of software is, based on statistics, a matter of time and user engenuity. Our project is no exception, but I hope to keep bugs under control. To help manage this part of the development process, I picked BugNET for issue management.

Issue Management: Mantis

Check our the post on Installing Mantis.

TO DO: Look for a continuous integration engine. I'm in two minds between CruiseControl.NET and NANT.

What would you have picked?

I've looked around for a decent personal finance software, which is free and simple to use, but couldn't find one.

I have started working on an application which I have called "Money Man". Once I finish the first cut of code, I will publish on this site for grabs.

The architecture I have devised will have the following constituents:

• .NET 2.0
• Firebird embedded

I do not expect the final package to be bigger than 4 MB.

Stay in touch for more...