Import Paypal

[Nick Smolinske]

Paul <p.matthews <at> inbox.com> writes:

> 
> Can it be done?
> 
> I tried the csv - after setting what looks to be the correct options and 
> setting columns gnucash proceeds to ALWAYS tell me that:
> 
> "There are problems with the import settings!
> The date format could be wrong or there are not enoughcolumns set..."
> 
> Or perhaps something else entirely... Or maybe the programmers cant be 
> arsed to throw exceptions in an ordely fashion. This message is 
> pathetic. I love gnucash but sometime it makes me angry. Like now. How 
> the f*** am I supposed go about fixing a possible error when I'm given 
> info like that?
> 
> Anyways, I also tried importing the paypal qif. Everything runs along 
> very smoothly and the process completes without a hitch and leaves 
> everything exactly as it was before it started its deceptive little 
> performance.
> 
> Do i really have to type it all in?
> 
> GnuCash 2.6.5
> 3.18.6-1-ARCH
> 
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Paul,

I figured it out!  I found the function that determines whether that 
message is thrown (preview_settings_valid) and there are two ways that 
error can be thrown:

1) If you did not set the date, either the description or notes, and either 
balance, deposit or withdrawal.

So for example, setting the date, description and deposit would be enough 
to satisfy this condition.  Setting the date, notes and balance would also 
be enough.

2) If the date parsing function throws an error when applied to the first 
date as a test.

So what happened for me is that the date parsing function failed, but not 
on a date, it failed on the column header in the CSV file (since the words 
"Sale Date" aren't a date!).  So I just had to not include the first row of 
the CSV file and it worked.

I tried to do this by electing to start the import at row 2 and I *swear* 
it didn't work, so I had to delete the first row of the CSV file.  But then 
I went back to double-check it and I was able to make it work with all of 
my original CSV files by starting the import at row 2.  So there *might* be 
a bug in there somewhere but I can't reproduce it.

Anyway, I hope this helps somebody!  I'm not sure whether this qualifies as 
a bug or not, but either way I would suggest that the error message include 
a helpful suggestion to exclude column header rows from your import - I 
suspect that's the cause of the vast majority of errors and user 
frustration with CSV imports.

Or maybe the function could be modified to automatically ignore column 
headers if they exist - since two numeric columns are required to be set 
(date and either balance/deposit/withdrawal), those columns could be tested 
and if they contain words instead the first row could be thrown out.

-Nick