Hello friends!
About 9 years ago, I welcomed my fifth child into the world and started a new job. As a result, I made the decision to slow down and take a step back from various aspects of my life. Unfortunately, this application suffered as a result.
Recently, however, things have changed. My youngest child has turned nine, and my older kids are becoming more independent. I find myself getting better sleep and waking up early to work on projects once again. Lately, my focus has been on this site. I've started by making significant internal system and configuration updates that enable smoother operation and deployment. You may not have noticed, but I recently migrated the application to a new server.
Additionally, I'm excited to announce the addition of a new public API.
Why did I decide to do this? Over the years, many banks have discontinued support for OFX direct connect, which has posed challenges for retrieving transaction data. In response, I have developed scripts that log in to my accounts and download transaction data using alternative methods. To facilitate the integration of this data into EnvelopeBudget, I needed a more streamlined and programmatic approach. Moreover, I wanted to provide an API endpoint for other developers who use the system.
How it works 🔗
To begin, log in to your EnvelopeBudget account and navigate to your profile settings. In the "API Key" tab, you can create a new API key by clicking "+ Add API Key". Provide a name for the key, which will serve as a reminder of its purpose. (You can delete keys later if you wish to revoke API access for a particular key.)
Once you have your API key, visit api.envelopebudget.com/docs to explore the available API endpoints. The documentation utilizes the OpenAPI spec, making it familiar to many developers. Use your newly created API key to authorize and test the endpoints on this page.
This is how I now import transactions from various banks into EnvelopeBudget.
Furthermore, I have developed a script that logs in to both my Amazon account and my wife's account, extracting information on our latest orders and automatically importing them into EnvelopeBudget. This has saved me a significant amount of time previously spent matching Amazon orders with transactions!
My hope is that this development will empower other developers to devise creative solutions. Together, as a community, we can share these solutions and support one another.
I have an extensive list of improvements planned for EnvelopeBudget, and this is just the beginning. So, stay tuned for more exciting updates!
Thank you for being a part of our journey.
Best regards,
Dustin