OFX Note Propagation

[David T.]

John,

I understand fully the idea that the accuracy of my data is ultimately my own responsibility. However, I disagree with your laying responsibility at the feet of the user on this. 

There has been quite a bit of discussion over the years about the unintended propagation of unique information in auto-filled transactions*. It clearly has problems from the end user perspective.

The fact is that the software, through autofill, is inserting data into a user’s file and then fails to clearly communicate this fact back to the user, and I don’t think that follows good software design principles. Your answer implies that users have to watch over the software to ensure that *the software* doesn’t decide to add hidden information to the user’s data. How exactly is a new user even to know where and when to check for these additions, given that the additional data is in fields that are not visible under default viewing circumstances?

I know that there have been discussions about this without a clear solution, but to leave this in this state undermines a user’s confidence in GnuCash. 

There are potentially many ways to alleviate the problem. Some ideas that come to mind:

* When autofill adds hidden information, GnuCash could alert the user to this with a popup that either noted generically the existence of additional data, or more detailed information.
* When autofill triggers, the register would automatically expand the current transaction to Double-Line Split view, thus showing all information, and then change back after committing the transaction.
* Autofill could be set by the user to omit Notes and memo fields (and potentially other fields?).
* Autofill could be disabled altogether.

In each case, the user should be able to configure this behavior on a book basis in program settings to meet their expectations.

David

* E.g.:
https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2015-January/057950.html <https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2015-January/057950.html>
http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2015-December/062979.html <http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2015-December/062979.html>
http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2012-September/045975.html <http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2012-September/045975.html>

Not to mention:
https://gnucash.uservoice.com/forums/101223-feature-request/suggestions/1568131-provide-per-transaction-cancel-of-autofill-with-e <https://gnucash.uservoice.com/forums/101223-feature-request/suggestions/1568131-provide-per-transaction-cancel-of-autofill-with-e>

And a number of related bugs in bugzilla.

> On Jan 25, 2016, at 11:28 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Jan 25, 2016, at 9:57 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I was just looking at year end tax information in my GnuCash data file, and I noticed that a large number of transactions had OFX notes in them, despite the fact that I am sure I entered these transactions manually. I suspect that the autofill feature is propagating these OFX notes for me. I think this is probably not a good idea, for a number of reasons:
>> 1) the OFX note is only visible in Double-Line view mode, which is not the default. Adding especially-well hidden data to a transaction is IMHO not good.
>> 2) while the OFX notes I examined were rather generic (e.g., "OFX ext. info: |Trans type:Deposit”) I understand that these notes often include a unique FITID, and copying one from one transaction to another would not be right.
>> 
>> Should I file a bug for this?
> 
> Maybe. 
> 
> There's nothing OFX-y about the Notes field, and it's not GnuCash's job to figure out where entries in fields came from. If you're creating manual transactions that get duplicated from OFX-imported ones by autocomplete then it's your job to look at the whole thing and make sure that it has exactly what you want, including the Notes field. That doesn't deserve a bug report.
> 
> OTOH, FITID is stored in the transaction's "online-id" KVP slot which is invisible to the user unless you look in the data file. If *that's* getting duplicated by autocomplete then you should file a bug about it.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls