GnuCash Android v1.6.0 pre-beta

[Wm]

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 00:40:59 
<CAE0QbAUsQPXS1R4CZnH5phdEd8tvRgq0w7zCGekJigihUKymdQ at mail.gmail.com> 
Ngewi Fet <ngewif at gmail.com>

>Thanks for the comprehensive feedback :D 
>I made some responses inline below:
>
>On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 12:04 AM, Wm <wm+gnc at tarrcity.demon.co.uk>
>wrote:
>  Sat, 25 Apr 2015 02:23:06 <  CAE0QbAWQUk_UyXrTHjJQfS_DbAj-mfw737botPL9Ss7dyhSuAQ at mail.gmail.com>
>  Ngewi Fet <ngewif at gmail.com>
>  My env is:
>  Android-x86-4.4-r2 guest
>  VirtualBox 4.3.26
>  Win 8.1 host
>  I can't make sense of the android directory structure in spite of
>  the fact that I put it on an ext2 file system that I can mount and
>  have a look at under standard Linux
>
>The external storage should be somewhere under sdcard/0 or /mnt/sdcard
>depending on your device. It may be different for the emulator you use
>as well. 

Not your issue, the vm can't use the guest additions meaning it can't 
talk to attached drives, shared folders and so on.

I'm guessing in file system terms my gnc file is somewhere in a ramfs or 
similar, irritating but not insurmountable given some curiosity, what I 
wanted to do was xfer files between my native disk and the android vm. 
I'll probably figure it out in a day or so, meanwhile via GDrive is 
ok-ish for testing.

>  Onwards:
>
>  I installed the google play version and then the .apk over that but
>  it reverted to the google play version.  So I got rid of the google
>  play one and installed the apk bare, we (the vm and I) were both
>  happier with that.
>
>What do you mean reverted? The install of the new apk did not complete,
>or what exactly happens? I'm also very interested in upgrade
>experiences especially ones with existing data in the database.

I didn't have any data on the android at all when I started.

By reverted I mean after I installed the apk over the play version and 
*then* rebooted or shut down and restarted, etc I was back where I was 
with the google play version not your new apk

>  Suggestion: before I figured things out it wasn't clear to me
>  whether I was using the pre-beta or the google play version.  I
>  missed the equivalent of Help / About or similar which I looked for
>  on the menu off to the left that has
>  Accounts
>    Open
>    ...
>  Transactions
>    Scheduled
>    ...
>  Settings
>  Maybe it is somewhere else on an Android and I just don't know where
>  to look

>It is found in the Settings -> About. But we will consider adding it to
>the navigation drawer menu in the next version.

You are correct.

three-bar-on-the-top-left / settings / [and then it waits a minute or 
more] / About / Build Version.  Is it possible something else on that 
menu is calling home and the menu doesn't get displayed until the remote 
master has been contacted?  I'm guessing but does the google-master 
check app validity or something?  Clue: my connection to the internet 
was broken for a while this afternoon and I presumed an app like gnca 
was self contained.  Am I wrong?  That could explain why I couldn't see 
the About then but can now.

>  Similarly I don't know which file I am working with on android, in
>  desktop I can see whether I'm using ABC.gnca or ABC.xml or
>  XYZ.gnucash. Once again it is possible this is very obvious to
>  people more familiar with androids and I'm just not seeing it.

>No, this information is actually not present and is planned for the
>next release. But I will see what I can do to improve display of what
>file is in use for this release (at least for files gotten from the SD
>card). 

I think small things like that may encourage acceptance and use 
particularly amongst testers who are likely to have more than one file 
to play with.  Perversely, if you get it right the workflow will be more 
obvious later on.

At the moment I am creating a dummy a/c in Equity so I can check which 
file I am using.

Which reminds me, how do I get to the top of the accounts tree after I 
have moved away from it?

If I open a file I see my top level accounts.  Problem is once I choose 
a top level account I can't get back to the top of the account tree.  I 
can navigate up and down but never regain the top.  I'm guessing on a 
real android you sacrifice your first born child and drip their blood in 
a hand waving way to get it back.  I'm too old for that.

>    - Scheduled export to SD Card, DropBox or Google Drive
>  Didn't try the scheduled.  I went for Drive for storage and it
>  worked out OK once I got the android to sync, see above about not
>  understanding android directory structure, what dirs am I syncing?
>  Where is gnca actually storing files?
>
>GncA creates a directory in your Google Drive with the name of the app
>and puts all its files into that folder.

Not here it doesn't. Is it possible you are presuming everyone is using 
Chrome?

>Similarly, DropBox also puts
>the files into Apps -> GnuCash Android
>You are not syncing a directory, but rather individual files. 
>I think we should do something to make the export destination known to
>the user. Thanks for highlighting this.

I'm not getting this at all, TBH.  My dropbox account puts stuff where I 
tell it to.  Is the fact that the files are coming from an android 
suddenly going to make it different?

>>    - Improved creation of backups and restoring of backups
>  again, I couldn't work out where the files were
>GnuCash Android files are here: /sdcard/0/org.gnucash.android/
>But for restoring backups, you do not need to know the path because a
>dialog is shown to you listing the files.

*IF* you have an SD Card that is nice.  Where are they otherwise?

>  Coming to this fresh (I've just glanced at gnca stuff before) I was
>  aware that there were previously some workflow issues.  What you say
>  above seems a lot more likely to get people using it.  However in
>  practice I found it a bit confusing.

>Duly noted. I only highlighted this because it is the developer mailing
>list. For normal users, it will be the same as before, just that they
>now have an option to explicitly export to XML (a requested feature),
>and to schedule regular backups to Google Drive or DropBox.

I'd very much like to see how people integrate the transactions, a 
theoretical example would be fine.

>  I would appreciate a workflow example along the lines of
>  Use existing desktop file
>  xfer to android
>  do stuff on android
>  xfer back
>  pick up with new transactions
>  saying where the files were at each stage.
>    Each time you save, a new file is
>>    created but the workflow is possible.
>  I don't have a Save or Save As, if everyone else has one would they
>  mind telling me where to find it?

>An improved workflow is planned for the next release and that should
>improve the sync feature's usefulness for most users. For now there is
>no Save, or Save As... Just import/export as has always been. 

OK, maybe I've misunderstood altogether.

>    GnuCash Android also registers itself
>>    to open .gnucash files.
>  Are you sure about that? Once again it is possible I don't speak
>  android well enough but do you perhaps mean .gnca rather than
>  .gnucash ?  I'm also not sure what happens with compressed files, it
>  is possible my vm doesn't have auto unzip and real android devices
>  do.

>Yes, GnuCash should be in the list of possible apps to open those files
>with, when you try to open such a file from, say, Google Drive by
>clicking on it. The app registers for both .gnca and .gnucash.
>The app handles both compressed and uncompressed XML files just fine.
>You don't need to do anything extra.

.gnucash files are greyed out here, if I rename them I can open them and 
choose the application.

>    All the same, I am excited that we have arrived this point and
>>    continue to
>>    look forward to new features and further integration with GnuCash
>>    desktop!
>    So please try out this pre-release and tell me what you think.
>  I think I wasn't designed for Android :)

>Keep using it and it will grow on you!
>Thanks for taking the time to test and write up your experiences.

You are most welcome, I'm not sure I'm a good candidate in general as 
typing and pointing and clicking is more natural to me than swiping and 
waving.

Is the decimal set to "," ? I'm used to "." for decimal.  As someone who 
has used calculating machines I am used to using either 23[spot] or 
23[00] but not being forced to type to the least significant decimal 
when dealing with whole numbers.

-- 
Wm...