Python module for parsing and writing BAI2 files.

The library is not production ready at the moment as we don't have enough data to test against, please help us improve it.

Only Python 3.7+ is supported.

pip install bai2

To use bai2 in a project

from bai2 import bai2

# parse from a file
with open(<file-path>) as f:
    bai2_file = bai2.parse_from_file(f)

# parse from a string
bai2_file = bai2.parse_from_string(<bai2_as_string>)

# parse from lines
bai2_file = bai2.parse_from_lines(<bai2_as_lines>)

The parse_from_* methods return a bai2.models.Bai2File object which can be used to inspect the parsed data.

To write a BAI2 file:

from bai2 import bai2
from bai2 import models

bai2_file = models.Bai2File()
bai2_file.header.sender_id = 'EGBANK'

bai2_file.children.append(models.Group())

transactions = [models.TransactionDetail(amount=100)]
bai2_file.children[0].children.append(models.Account(children=transactions))

# write to string
output = bai2.write(bai2_file)

Models structure:

Bai2File
    Bai2FileHeader
    Group
        GroupHeader
        Account
            AccountIdentifier
            TransactionDetail
            AccountTrailer
        GroupTrailer
    Bai2FileTrailer

Section models define a header, a trailer and a list of children whilst single models define properties matching the bai2 fields.

Each Model has a rows property with the original rows from the BAI2 file.

The parse method might raise 3 exceptions:

1. ParsingException: when the file contains an error and the library can't interpret the data
2. NotSupportedYetException: when the library doesn't support the feature yet
3. IntegrityException: when the control totals or the number of objects reported in the trailers don't match the ones in the file.

We've noticed that different banks implement the specs in slightly different ways and the parse method might therefore raise an ParsingException. It is expected to work correctly with files produced by NatWest, RBS, and JP Morgan.

We don't know yet how to deal with these cases as we don't have access to many bai2 files so we can't test it as we would like.

Please let me know if this happens to you.

Please report bugs and open pull requests on GitHub.

Use python setup.py test or tox to run all tests.

Distribute a new version to PyPI by updating the VERSION tuple in bai2/__init__.py and publishing a release in GitHub (this triggers a GitHub Actions workflow to automatically upload it). Alternatively, run python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel upload locally. Remember to update History.

0.11.0 (2023-02-17)

Adds support for Real Time Payment detail codes 158 and 458 (thanks @LSakey).

0.10.0 (2023-02-16)

Improve parsing of account identifier records with respect to varying number of commas used by different banks (thanks @forforeach).

0.9.2 (2023-01-13)

Maintenance release, no library changes.

0.9.1 (2022-12-22)

Add support for 829 ‘SEPA Payments’ type code (thanks @podj).

0.9.0 (2022-12-21)

More lenient parsing where integers are expected (thanks @daniel-butler). Add support for 827 & 828 ‘SEPA Payments’ type codes (thanks @podj). Remove testing for python versions below 3.7 (the library is still likely to work with 3.6). Add testing for python 3.11.

0.8.2 (2022-01-26)

No library changes. Add testing for python 3.9 and 3.10.

0.8.0 (2020-11-11)

Remove support for python versions below 3.6.

0.7.0 (2019-10-03)

rows no longer required in BAI2 models (c.f. issue 12 and PR 13).

0.6.0 (2019-09-18)

Fix regular expression escaping. Add python 3.7 testing.

0.5.0 (2018-03-05)

Updated packaging details and improved python version compatibility.

0.1.0 (2015-08-06)

Original release.

Copyright (C) 2023 HM Government (Ministry of Justice Digital & Technology). See LICENSE.txt for further details.