1.5 code-freeze for 2.0? Need a better general QIF importer

[Derek Atkins]

Robert Graham Merkel <rgmerk@mira.net> writes:

> However, we might be able to look at adding your code to the next
> 1.4.x release, if we make another one (1.4.x is getting to the
> "ancient" stage, and we are heading towards a 1.5.x code freeze in
> preparation for a 2.0 stable release in a couple months time
> hopefully).

One piece of functionality which I would hope would make it into a
code-freeze would be the ability to load (read: merge) Bank-generated
QIF files into already-existing accounts.  Most of the code is there
now; the only issue is that there is no way to check a QIF import
against the current account tree for duplicate transactions.

I would hope that this functionality would take a higher priority
that, say, SQL (or even client-server).  I say this because I believe
more people are interested in syncing their accounts with NetBank,
Vanguard, ChaseOnline, E*Trade, and other online bank systems than
they are in using a DB to store their transactions or client-server or
multiple users.

Previous discussions led me to believe that this was in the works.  If
I was wrong, I suppose that I should spend the time to tear apart the
QIF importer and generalize it.  My personal view is that the current
functionality of the QIF importer is really a misnomer.  It does not
really import QIF, it initializes an account tree based upon a set of
QIF files.  Moreover, this functionality is really iseful only once,
to move your data from Quicken to GnuCash.

I'd like to change the functionality (including menu options).  I want
to add a new menu option, "Initilize from QIF" that basically runs the
current importer, and then change the existing "QIF Import" button so
that it performs a QIF load-and-merge-into-existing-accounts.

The hardest part I can see is determining how to notice a duplicate
transaction.  For example, if I'm making a transfer from e.g. NetBank
to Vanguard, the transaction might appear in my NetBank account on a
different day than it appears in my Vanguard account.  So, how would
GnuCash tell that these are the same transaction instead of a repeated
transaction on different days?

Before I delve into the code, do people think that I'm going down the
right track here?  Is there someone actually working on this at the
moment to make the upcoming code freeze?

-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@MIT.EDU                        PGP key available