ofx and generic import: GUI, callbacks

[Chris Lyttle]

On Thu, 2002-11-21 at 14:42, Benoit Gr=E9goire wrote:=20
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> Ok, that would technically work.  But the user would be presented with th=
e=20
> exact same list of transactions twice.  This just duplicates work for the=
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> user.  He would have to first select or double check the auto-selection o=
f=20
> the destination account (possibly by finding his sales receipt for severa=
l of=20
> the transactions) for every transaction.  Then once done he would have to=
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> start again (again possibly refering again to paper receipts) to see if t=
he=20
> transactions have to clear an existing transaction or be added.
>=20
> Even worse, if he decides to user CLEAR on a significant fraction of the=
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> transaction, a significant portion of his previous work is completely was=
ted.=20
>=20
> In short, I completely disagree that destination acount matching is a sep=
arate=20
> process from transaction matching for the user.  There both part of the=
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> intellectual process "Here's is a downloaded transaction, what should I d=
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> with it".=20=20=20
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> I'll send my proposed GUI in an other email.
>=20
You bring up a good point here, logically in the users mind when
manually comparing an online account to a GnuCash one they would want to
add the name of the destination account first then fill in the amount
they have (this goes right to left in adding a transaction in GnuCash).
If I was adding a transaction I had on paper (ie not in an app like
GnuCash)and also comparing it to what was in an account statement (paper
or online) Then I would first choose the account to add it to, then
write out the transaction amount then destination account and lastly
fill in the info in the destination account itself.=20
With that in mind, the two separated panes you have for the transaction
matcher would also to me cause a lot of confusion if you had, for
example, a lot of transactions on the left that are being imported and a
lot of matches on the right. You could easily get confused initially
about what you were looking at. In other words, I feel that the 'one
line per transaction' paradigm here would server to increase user
confusion, at least initially or if they were looking at it for the
first time. I believe druids are an attempt to make what you are looking
at a lot more certain, by limiting the amount of information you need to
deal with at any one time.=20
Now having said all this, I have to say that in my time of using MS
Money, I particularly liked how they implemented online transaction
matching and downloading (in spite of some bugs it had). It was
separated into two distinct phases and didn't involve a wizard at all.=20
The first phase was when you downloaded the file from a website, somehow
it sees that you are downloading a file associated with Money and pops
up an import dialog. This just asks what account you wish to use and
once it is done Money goes automatically to a page that lists accounts
that use online importing and tells you if there are imports that need
review. This part I dont care so much about=20

What they did was to implement it like this (my comments in
parentheses);=20

Num Date   Payee          Amount Category        Status
02/21/2002 ATM Withdrawal $200                   Match (or postpone,new)

o Matches the following transaction in my register:=20
02/21/2002 Cash           $200   Cash Withdrawal (notice its lined up)
   Choose Transaction from Register (pops up dialog below)=20
o This is a new transaction, add it to my register=20
(selecting this will allow you to either accept the=20
transaction as downloaded or edit it in a popup dialog)=20
o Review transaction later=20
(just changes match to postpone)=20


The transaction choosing dialog is like this;=20

Match Transaction=20
02/21/2002 ATM Withdrawal $200=20

(Listbox)=20
+ 02/21/2002 Cash $200 (actually its a tick not a plus)=20
(list of other transactions in register)=20

Done Cancel Edit Transaction=20

I dont like the dialog so much, but I do like how they have basically
the whole of the transaction match process in an easy to read list of
transactions. This way I can go down a page of imported transactions and
look quickly at if it matched anything and what it matched to.=20

What I think might work is a dialog sort of like this;=20

Status Date      Description    Amount  Dest Account
Clear 02/21/2002 ATM Withdrawal $200=20

o This matches the following transaction;
      02/21/2002 Cash           $200    Expenses:Cash Withdrawal
o This is a new transaction
o Postpone this transaction
o Replace this transaction

And have the above for each transaction being imported. The right pane
could still list other possible matches (Though I would make it somewhat
smaller). The user is then certain what match has been picked, the top
line could be directly edited to create a new transaction (if This is a
new transaction is selected). It also gives a visual indication to the
user with the radio button selection of what exactly will happen to the
transaction. The Status can be used for the clear/reconcile decision.

I hope you'll consider this
Chris
--=20
RedHat Certified Engineer #807302549405490.
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