Enhancement request: 'Native' importing of '.CSV' files

[Derek Atkins]

<marcus.wolschon at googlemail.com> writes:

>> So I was wondering if there is any interest (both from user and
>> developer sides) to create a 'native' import-csv-into-gnucash feature,
>> preferably something where you can map fields of your csv file to
>> gnucash fields, and perhaps even save the mapping into some sort of
>> 'template' so that you can easily re-use the mapping when importing
>> the next batch from your bank ?
>
> I am not sure that gnucash is the right place for this.
> You may enhance the existing CSV-plugin in jGnucashLib where you have
> scripting and an infrastructure ment for bulk-imports at your
> disposal.

GnuCash is absolutely the right place for this.  We already have
the infrastructure for it, we already have a basic parser and
a basic GUI for it.  All the tools are there.  It's just buggy
and needs a little TLC to flush out the bugs.

External tools are ALWAYS worse than having it built-in.  For
one thing a novice user now needs to install a second program
which adds to the complexity.  For another thing a built-in
feature is future-proof whereas any external tool can easily
bitrot and fall behind if the maintainer doesn't diligently
keep up with GnuCash changes.

-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
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