GNUCash Import QIF - Help Please!

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

GT-I9070 H <gti9070h at gmail.com> writes:

> 2015-06-24 9:16 GMT-04:00 Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu>:
>
>     Dear GTI,
>    
>     "Atkins" is my family name, my given name is "Derek".  This is, for
>     example, why I sign my messages "-derek" at the end every time.
>
> Ok Derek, excuse me.
>
> I do not know how to refer to people from another country, each country has
> its own customs, I tried to be respectful not calling you by your first name.

Personally, whenever I respond to an email I always try to use whatever
signature they used.  You sign your messages GTI, so I use that when
addressing you back.

>     This is a volunteer, open source project.  If you want to see a feature
>     you're welcome to add it yourself, and if you think it's useful you're
>     welcome to even submit it back for inclusion.  However that would be a
>     message for gnucash-devel, not gnucash-user.
>
> I know, people tell me that all the time. This intimidates people to suggest
> something for projects.

It's not a question of whether something suggests something; that is
always welcome.  Rather, the issue is setting the expectation of whether
that suggestion will ever be implemented by the developers.  In this
case, the answer is a strong "very very unlikely".

So yes, I always encourage people to roll up their sleeves and get
dirty.  Some people can, some people can't.  For those that can't (for
one reason or another) there are other ways to be involved in the
community, like working on documentation, translations, or just helping
other users.

> I do not write code in C and even though I write, I imagine that I would have
> to submit my modifications the approval of others and this can not be
> approved. There is a problem that seems to be eternal, the migration of a SW
> to the other.

The wonders of GPL is that you're welcome to make changes for yourself
without submitting them to anyone.  You're also welcome to submit them
back to us.  In this case, there's no C code involved; the QIF importer
is written in Scheme.

Yes, if you decided to share your code changes then yes, it would need
to be approved by others, and yes, there is a chance it wouldn't be
approved.

>
>     As far as I know, there is no space in the QIF import format for an
>     exchange rate.  If you could show us how Quicken would create such a
>     transaction (which would imply there *is* space in QIF for it) then we
>     could update the QIF importer to accept it.  But right now, there's just
>     no field in QIF that supplies an exchange rate for currency transactions
>     and re-using one would be wrong (as would be creating one out of thin
>
>     air).
>
> I studied a little QIF format and as far as I know, which is not a lot, there
> isn't a field for exchange rate and I never used Quicken.
>
> The fact GnuCash not import exchange rates of any file format is a major
> problem that must be solved someday and that day may be coming.
>
> My suggestion is to create a field in the QIF file that does not affect
> existing and pass the call this QIF format changed to another name as Eg QIG
> (QIF to GnuCash Exchange rate import) and enable the import of this new field
> in GnuCash importer for QIG format.

And what, pray tell, would actually generate QIF with this random, non
standard field?  Quicken wont.  Banks wont.  Other QIF-emitting
applications wont.   Basically, nothing will actually create a QIF with
this proprietary custom field, so it seems silly to spend time on it.

Honestly, it would probably be better to update the CSV importer to add
that feature.  At least CSV is an open format.  This, however, would
require working in C code, but it's more likely to be acceptable
en-masse.

> So you will have already created an entryway for off-line exchange rate data!

I don't see the point.

> What do you think?
>  
>
>     Perhaps you might be better off just starting over?  Keep your
>     historical records where they are, and enter new data directly into
>     gnucash instead of trying to import them?
>
> I'm already with my data well fragmented and would not want to create another
> fragment.

If you've already fragmented then what's another fragment?  :)

> Regards
> GTI

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available