Custom reports / [ I'd like to create an applet for gnucash ]

[Jeroen Nijhof]

Hello,

Reading the gnucash-devel archive, I recognised the following problem:

> I might not use gnucash the way it is wanted...
> 
> When I open gnucash it opens also about 6 reports and the data is
> inserted since 1.1.06, where I have also many private things, like many
> entries for supermarket (simple imported from my online banking export
> ofx).  So there is many data processed and open gnucash takes more than
> a minute on my 1400 MHz Notebook with 1.2 GB RAM.
> 
> So my suggestion was a way to simple insert _one_ (or three, but not
> many) transactions into gnucash at a time where I don't want to see all
> the reports and avoid the long start time just for inserting one
> transaction.

I think what Martin wants is not so much an applet, but gnucash starting
quicker -- and like me, he has a few reports that are calculated every time,
so that starting gnucash takes forever.
And if he is like me, then I suspect that he doesn't really want to
calculate those reports everytime:
some of them I only want to view only once a month or so,
but I had them always included, because closing the report loses the
options (and e.g. with the balance sheet selecting the same accounts
to include and exclude every time is nigh on impossible).

I guess the actual problem that Martin has is: custom reports are too
obscure! I've found out how to do them now: generate the report as usual,
rename the report (report options/general/Report Name:), and press Ok
or Apply; now the 'Add Report' toolbar button becomes active. Click
'Add Report', and the next time you start gnucash the report will appear
under the Reports/Custom menu. So then you can close the report window,
and the next time you start gnucash it will not be generated, so gnucash
will start up more quickly -- you can regenerate it wen you want from the
custom reports menu (and probably close it again before quitting gnucash,
or gnucash would still start slowly).

So -- (1) the manual does not mention the possibility to save custom reports,
it would be nice if it does (in the section about reports)
(2) Even when I had figured out that it was possible to save custom reports,
I still could not find how to: because having to rename the report before
you are offered the opportunity to save it is counter-intuitive.
What would probably be a better user experience is that the 'Add Report'
button is always active, but that for a report that is not renamed
it brings up a pop-up window asking you for a name to save the report under.
And on a related matter: 
if you rename a report, and then rename it back, then the 'Add Report'
button is still active. Should it be?

Best regards,

Jeroen Nijhof