[GNC-dev] Multi-account actions

[John Ralls]

Michael,

Accounts, not transactions, but I suppose your question is equivalent regardless. GnuCash will prevent some changes on single account edits--commodity and type being the major ones--when there are splits in the account because changing those parameters will also change the meaning of the splits and so corrupt the book. Since GnuCash doesn't have anything resembling undo, iterating over the selection creates a problem: What do you do if the last account isn't eligible for the change? If the user wanted an all-or-nothing operation, too bad, it's already done. If they're using the XML backend and had the good sense to save right before trying the bulk op then they can at least quit without saving and get back to where they started, but that option isn't available to SQL users and not everyone is going to remember. Better to block upfront.

Regards,
John Ralls

> On Aug 31, 2020, at 4:38 AM, Fross, Michael <michael at fross.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi John. If I can go to 10 transactions and change them 1 by 1, what’s the difference if can be iterated through, making the same change in each? I must be missing something.
> 
> I’m not a gnucash dev, but thought I would ask as I like Jean’s idea.
> 
> Michael
> 
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 10:40 PM John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > On Aug 30, 2020, at 10:32 AM, jean laroche <ripngo at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > 
> 
> > Devs,
> 
> > 
> 
> > I have 2 PRs that I submitted for multi-account actions.
> 
> > With these PRs, the user can select multiple accounts in the main account view, then:
> 
> > - Delete multiple accounts in one shot,
> 
> > - Edit multiple accounts in one shot (change the notes, the flags, the color, the currency, or move them to a different parent).
> 
> > 
> 
> > I also want to add a "duplicate" action where the user can duplicate the selected account(s).
> 
> > 
> 
> > All this of course isn't very useful if you already have your account tree and you never change it. But it's very useful, in my view if you need to setup your account tree or if you regularly need to add accounts.
> 
> > Also, it's part of an effort to make GC more user friendly, offering features that are common in nearly all software (select multiple, then do something).
> 
> > 
> 
> > I'm afraid that these PR will just be ignored, because some of the devs just don't look favorably upon them (John for example).
> 
> > 
> 
> > I'd like to ask devs to chime in on that. My argument is that
> 
> > - It makes the user's life easier.
> 
> > - It adds a feature to GC that is expected in most software (of any kind), select multiple then do something.
> 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> I don't have a problem with cosmetic changes like colors, notes, or names. Anything like currency or parents that can affect the accounting logic shouldn't be permitted unless all of the accounts have no splits. IOW the use case you proposed on the PR, shuffling things around when setting up a book, is fine. Doing any of that after creating splits can change the meaning of the splits and can't be permitted.
> 
> 
> 
> GnuCash is not like "all other software". Just because spreadsheets let you jump off the bridge doesn't mean that GnuCash should. ;-)
> 
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> John Ralls
> 
> 
> 
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