GnuCash Android v1.6.0 pre-beta

Wm wm+gnc at tarrcity.demon.co.uk
Wed Apr 29 18:04:22 EDT 2015


Sat, 25 Apr 2015 02:23:06 
<CAE0QbAWQUk_UyXrTHjJQfS_DbAj-mfw737botPL9Ss7dyhSuAQ at mail.gmail.com> 
Ngewi Fet <ngewif at gmail.com>

>Hello everyone,
>We are kinda feature complete for the 1.6.0 release and would like to enter
>the testing phase. I am releasing first to the developer mailing list, then
>to the beta group and then a rolling release to the general public. Of
>course while fixing any issues that arise in-between the different phases.
>
>Attached to this email is a properly signed apk file which you can install
>on your device. You can just download the attachment and install or build
>your own from the sources in the develop branch (very easy to do with
>Android studio).

My env is:
Android-x86-4.4-r2 guest
VirtualBox 4.3.26
Win 8.1 host

Caveats:

the android-x86 vm is a bit rough around the edges (e.g. I can't get it 
to use guest additions) but surprisingly stable

I do not own a physical android device and my PC doesn't have a touch 
screen so some of the interface stuff is classic common language but no 
effective communication for me

I can't make sense of the android directory structure in spite of the 
fact that I put it on an ext2 file system that I can mount and have a 
look at under standard Linux

As a result I used google drive for file xfer between my android and the 
rest of the world, that was in itself confusing until I got the sync 
right.

Given the above anything below could be me being wrong rather than the 
app.

Onwards:

I installed the google play version and then the .apk over that but it 
reverted to the google play version.  So I got rid of the google play 
one and installed the apk bare, we (the vm and I) were both happier with 
that.


Suggestion: before I figured things out it wasn't clear to me whether I 
was using the pre-beta or the google play version.  I missed the 
equivalent of Help / About or similar which I looked for on the menu off 
to the left that has
Accounts
   Open
   ...
Transactions
   Scheduled
   ...
Settings

Maybe it is somewhere else on an Android and I just don't know where to 
look

Similarly I don't know which file I am working with on android, in 
desktop I can see whether I'm using ABC.gnca or ABC.xml or XYZ.gnucash. 
Once again it is possible this is very obvious to people more familiar 
with androids and I'm just not seeing it.

>This is a pre-beta release so please **BACK UP YOUR DATA** before
>installing it.

No risk here, I'm in the position of being able to throw my android 
against the wall as often as I like :)

>Notable highlights in this release include:
>- Improved recurrence options for scheduled transactions
didn't get that far

>- Basic reports generation (with bar, pie and line charts)
they are looking very sweet, a case where I think this sort of device 
may be better

>- Scheduled export to SD Card, DropBox or Google Drive
Didn't try the scheduled.  I went for Drive for storage and it worked 
out OK once I got the android to sync, see above about not understanding 
android directory structure, what dirs am I syncing? Where is gnca 
actually storing files?

>- Improved creation of backups and restoring of backups
again, I couldn't work out where the files were

>- Improved reliability of account imports and db migrations
I fed it a non-trivial test db in xml (complicated structure, not many 
transactions) and it managed OK from my quick overview.

>This release also adds automatic logging of crashes and errors to
>Crashlytics which helps detect errors and improve the stability of the app.
>This logging is enabled by default in pre-release builds but will be turned
>off in production releases (with an option to enable it later).

I don't think it has crashed on me, maybe the clunky android-x86 vm is 
actually better for something?  Confused the heck out of me, sure, but 
crashed?  Not as far as I can tell.

>Also, GnuCash Android now produces GnuCash XML which can be read by GnuCash
>on the desktop (YAAAY!!) - There is a new XML export UI option and also as
>backup format .gnca
>
>*NOTE: *please remember that this is NOT a two-way synchronization*.*
>However, the compatibility now enables you to start working on a file on
>GnuCash desktop, open it in the mobile app, edit and save (to DropBox etc)
>and then resume editing on the desktop.

Coming to this fresh (I've just glanced at gnca stuff before) I was 
aware that there were previously some workflow issues.  What you say 
above seems a lot more likely to get people using it.  However in 
practice I found it a bit confusing.

I would appreciate a workflow example along the lines of

Use existing desktop file
xfer to android
do stuff on android
xfer back
pick up with new transactions

saying where the files were at each stage.

>Each time you save, a new file is
>created but the workflow is possible.

I don't have a Save or Save As, if everyone else has one would they mind 
telling me where to find it?

>GnuCash Android also registers itself
>to open .gnucash files.

Are you sure about that? Once again it is possible I don't speak android 
well enough but do you perhaps mean .gnca rather than .gnucash ?  I'm 
also not sure what happens with compressed files, it is possible my vm 
doesn't have auto unzip and real android devices do.

>Accounts, transactions and scheduled transactions are the only features
>supported at the moment. If your desktop file contains more features
>(budgets, customers etc), these will be ignored completely.

That fits well with the file I'm testing.

>All the same, I am excited that we have arrived this point and continue to
>look forward to new features and further integration with GnuCash desktop!
>
>So please try out this pre-release and tell me what you think.

I think I wasn't designed for Android :)

-- 
Wm...


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