Default account structure for different locales

[John Ralls]

On Jan 30, 2014, at 1:25 AM, Ngewi Fet <ngewif at gmail.com> wrote:

> Oh that's a bummer. :(
> I want to have the GUIDS and in addition, the import functionality
> currently built into the app handles only actual Gnucash account structure
> files.
> 
> That means I need people to actually export the Gnucash account files and
> send to me after all. Right? Gnucash seems locked down to my computer
> locale, so I cannot generate all the files myself for different locales.
> 
> Would everyone be so kind as to do this (as described in the first mail in
> this thread) and send me the file together with your country and language?
> 
> Please I need the files to be in the actual locale language and currency,
> so if, for example, you are in Germany and using Gnucash in English then
> you don't need to send it.

Ngewi,

I think you're missing that GnuCash generates a *new* GUID *when it creates the account*. Any GUIDs are valid only for the account file from which they came. Try this yourself: Turn off compression or use SQLite and make two new files using the default "common accounts" template, then compare the account entries: Everything will be the same except the GUIDs.

If I send you an exported accounts structure, the GUIDs will apply only to the file from which I exported it.

There's more: The example files in the accounts directories do have GUIDs: They need them in order to have a hierarchy. The only difference aside from the actual GUID is that the act:id type element is "new" in the XEA file and "guid" in the exported file. I've illustrated this below.

Unless you're on a Mac, you can change the locale of your Gnucash instance by uncommenting and then changing the "LANG" entry in etc/gnucash/environment (on Windows that's c:\Program Files (x86)\gnucash\etc\gnucash\environment).

Regards,
John Ralls

Account Export
<gnc:account version="2.0.0">
  <act:name>Assets</act:name>
  <act:id type="guid">b2c27b8aa3c89ea4c6d4843530f0c23f</act:id>
  <act:type>ASSET</act:type>
  <act:commodity>
    <cmdty:space>ISO4217</cmdty:space>
    <cmdty:id>USD</cmdty:id>
  </act:commodity>
  <act:commodity-scu>100</act:commodity-scu>
  <act:description>Assets</act:description>
  <act:slots>
    <slot>
      <slot:key>placeholder</slot:key>
      <slot:value type="string">true</slot:value>
    </slot>
  </act:slots>
  <act:parent type="guid">f70a1d3a15cb57738bec7fdb9dffd78e</act:parent>
</gnc:account>

Account XEA
<gnc:account version="2.0.0">
  <act:name>Assets</act:name>
  <act:id type="new">98f262dfab9a2b99ac42919dcf58d304</act:id>
  <act:type>ASSET</act:type>
  <act:commodity>
    <cmdty:space>ISO4217</cmdty:space>
    <cmdty:id>USD</cmdty:id>
  </act:commodity>
  <act:description>Assets</act:description>
  <act:parent type="new">1972cce2e2364f95b2b0bc014502661d</act:parent>
  <act:slots>
    <slot>
      <slot:key>placeholder</slot:key>
      <slot:value type="string">true</slot:value>
    </slot>
  </act:slots>
</gnc:account>