gnc-register protocol?

D. R. Evans doc.evans at gmail.com
Mon Feb 9 22:27:02 EST 2009


Derek Atkins said the following at 02/09/2009 12:58 PM :
> Quoting "D. R. Evans" <doc.evans at gmail.com>:
> 
>> Derek Atkins said the following at 02/09/2009 10:10 AM :
>>
>>>> If that's not what I'm supposed to expect, what am I actually supposed to
>>>> do with this HTML file?
>>> Send it to somebody to view the numbers?
>>> Load it into a spreadsheet?
>> But then why is it a *hypertext* document? Hypertext means that it has
>> links that can be clicked to take me to a URL.
> 
> Because the HREFs aren't stripped by GtkHTML when the data is exported
> out of GnuCash.
> 
> GnuCash uses an embedded HTML viewer for reports, and it hooks the
> GnuCash-specific "protocols" in order to implement report-based
> actions.  So internally it's using hypertext to perform actions on
> the report like to open a register when you click on a report item.
> 

OK. At least I now understand why it happens.

From a user standpoint, though, it really doesn't make sense to do this for
exported HTML. It's just confusing, and makes the poor user (well, this
poor user anyway) think that he's missing that he's supposed to have installed.

> However, when you export the report those internal markings are not
> removed.   Why not?   Well, nobody complained about it before, and
> it was easier to just not do it.  Also, it makes it easier to test
> the report code when you can export and see what's being sent to
> GtkHTML.
> 
>> It seems to me that there's a ginormous conceptual disconnect if one puts
>> something that contains unusable-on-purpose links into a hypertext document.
> 
> They are not unusable-on-purpose..  They are 100% usable from within
> GnuCash!   The issue is the export mechanism not stripping it out.

OK. I retract the "unusable-on-purpose". I don't retract the statement
about the conceptual disconnect, though. Users expect to be able to click
on links.

> 
> Feel free to send in a patch to get the report exporter to strip
> out any HREFs.  I have no idea how hard adding that would be.

I looked at the code, and it all seems to be C, which I last used, IIRC, in
1989. And even though I looked in import-export, I couldn't see anything
about exporting to HTML. So is there somewhere I can file a wishlist item?

Now I understand the issue, I'll just not give my accountant HTML files in
future.

  Doc

PS Good grief! I just realised that 1989 is 20 years ago.

-- 
Web:  http://www.sff.net/people/N7DR

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