Transaction Entry Dates

[Lance Edgar]

On 07/20/2014 08:15 PM, Lance Edgar wrote:
> I understand your points but the last one makes me think I wasn't clear
> in my suggestion?  When I mentioned "time" above I really did mean a
> proper date+time+TZ value (as is used currently), so e.g. implementation
> would look something like:
>
> When user enters a new transaction, along with it are stored:
>
> * full timestamp with TZ / offset
> * date portion of this timestamp local to current TZ
>
> My understanding based on reading the bug reports etc. is that currently
> the first bullet above is what is happening now, except the "wall time"
> is set to midnight.  I just tested this also (on Linux with GnuCash
> 2.4.10) and since I'm in California my new transaction got:
>
>    <trn:date-posted>
>      <ts:date>2014-07-20 00:00:00 -0700</ts:date>
>    </trn:date-posted>
>
> So as Peter Selinger has suggested previously, I'm suggesting keeping
> that and adding a second field which captures the date portion only.  He
> chose "calendar-date" for the name, and I don't have a reason to change
> that, so e.g. my transaction would have looked like:
>
>    <trn:date-posted>
>      <ts:date>2014-07-20 00:00:00 -0700</ts:date>
>      <ts:calendar-date>2014-07-20</ts:calendar-date>
>    </trn:date-posted>
>
> Then if I decide to globe-trot, my transaction now has an
> "authoritative" and "sticky" date value to be displayed regardless of
> time zone issues.  And more exposure could be given to the actual time
> value (i.e. the field named "date" above) for those who needed it.

Hm, so I just compiled GnuCash from git HEAD and did the same test 
(figured it wasn't safe to assume much about what "current" code did 
given that I run 2.4 normally) and I see there already is such a "date" 
field added for new transactions, a la:

   <trn:date-posted>
     <ts:date>2014-07-20 00:00:00 -0700</ts:date>
   </trn:date-posted>
   <trn:slots>
     <slot>
       <slot:key>date-posted</slot:key>
       <slot:value type="gdate">
         <gdate>2014-07-20</gdate>
       </slot:value>
     </slot>
   </trn:slots>

So I'm not sure what (if anything) that changes, e.g. not sure what the 
purpose of that field is currently.  Still curious if such a date field 
could be used to solve the TZ display problem, and yet still allow the 
full date-time-TZ value stored for those who needed time data (with the 
understanding that the two would be used differently).

Lance