Associating Saved Reports and Preferences with Data File.

[David T.]

________________________________
 From: David Carlson <carlson.dl at sbcglobal.net>
To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org 
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 8:35 PM
Subject: Re: Associating Saved Reports and Preferences with Data File.
 
On 3/22/2012 5:28 PM, David T. wrote:
>> Derek--
>> In an ideal world, the report specifications would somehow be a *part* of the datafile. That, of course, would be problematic from the backward-compatibility >perspective, not to mention creating appropriate structures in the file formats (one in XML and one in the SQL files) to hold them.
>> 
>> A second idea would be to keep the reports file in the same folder as the data file, and name it according to the data file to which it applies. Thus, if I have a data file >MyAccountData.gnucash, there would be a corresponding MyAccountData.reports file in the same folder. While it doesn't guarantee that the reports would go with the >data, at least they're together in one folder, and the user has a better chance of seeing it. 
>> 
>> This would probably work better still if there were a setting to put backup files in a separate folder. That would result in the data folder containing only a couple of files >that clearly relate to one another. 
>> 
>> David
>As another user, your suggestion strikes me as being similar to the
>Quicken of olden days, which used to be divided up into five different
>sub-files.  I believe that there were good reasons for them to migrate
>away from that model.  The most obvious one is how to make sure all the
>files are always kept together.

As I noted, it was my second idea. And honestly, wouldn't it be an improvement to have them all in the same folder? It would simplify the explanations of how and what to back up. You wouldn't need a huge page of descriptions for the variety of OSes. You could simply say: "To make a backup of your current file and its reports, copy all the files that have the same base file name in the folder where you first saved your Gnucash file."

David

As a separate aside, I spent some time looking at the Gnucash documentation and online resources for information on the question of backing up data. It's really interesting that, for a program whose users group speaks so profusely and passionately in the lists about the importance of backing up financial data, there is a paltry amount of guidance in the docs or online resources for users on what precisely needs to be backed up. I just put in Bug 672668 in consideration of this. Perhaps, David, you could make some specific additions there to clarify things.

>There may be ways to begin preparing today for a future migration in the
>database specification to include custom report specifications, perhaps
>around the same time that GnuCash finally deprecates XML format.  Such
>topics are important to discuss today, but it will take a long time to
>see actual implementation of whatever decision is made.

>I would say that the best interim solution is to clearly document in the
>user guide how and where Gnucash presently stores this information so
>that users who care can find it and back it up, for every major OS,
>including how to figure out what %user% means to those of us who are not
>computer geeks.

>David C

_______________________________________________
gnucash-user mailing list
gnucash-user at gnucash.org
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
-----
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.