[GNC] How to bulk import about 130 Securities entries?

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Kalpesh:

Thank you for the advice.

 > …see if your broker provides transactions in OFX format instead of CSV.

But remember, I am trying to import Securities, not transactions. I am 
trying to automate what is done manually in Tools -- Security Editor, 
and pressing the Add button.

Best regards,
      —Jim DeLaHunt

On 2022-08-14 17:34, Kalpesh Patel wrote:
> Jim,
>
>   
>
> Not sure if anyone has mentioned or not but see if your broker provides
> transactions in OFX format instead of CSV. With CSV I imagine that you will
> have to perform some pre-processing before importing into GNC.
>
>   
>
> You will have much better success in minimizing import clicks and errors
> with importation.
>
>   
>
>   
>
> ------------------------------
>
>   
>
> Message: 8
>
> Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2022 18:28:22 -0700
>
> From: Jim DeLaHunt <list+gnucash at jdlh.com <mailto:list+gnucash at jdlh.com> >
>
> To: Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> <mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org> >
>
> Subject: [GNC] How to bulk import about 130 Securities entries?
>
> Message-ID: <c70b6819-fef8-511e-28ac-350b49e3b8b8 at jdlh.com
> <mailto:c70b6819-fef8-511e-28ac-350b49e3b8b8 at jdlh.com> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
>   
>
> Hello, folks:
>
>   
>
> I am a long-time GnuCash user, and for all those years I have pretty
>
> much not attempted to track my investments in GnuCash. But now I want to
>
> start.? My first goal is to import many years of past activity.
>
>   
>
> I have downloaded the transactions from my brokerage account as a CSV
>
> file. The first thing I get out of this is the name and symbol of about
>
> 130 securities. I am wondering if there is a practical way to bulk
>
> import these into GnuCash. That is, instead of visiting Tools --
>
> Security Editor, and pressing the Add button 130 times, and filling out
>
> the "New security" dialogue 130 times, is there a more efficient path?
>
>   
>
> Looking at the File? Import menu, I do not see an option to import
>
> Securities. Looking at the documentation, wiki, and list archives, I
>
> don't see a mention of this. Is there some bulk import mechanism I am
>
> overlooking?
>
>   
>
> I took a look at the uncompressed XML contents of a new, simple .gnucash
>
> book file. It appears that the data entered in the "New security"
>
> dialogue gets stored as <gnc:commodity> entities. There appears to be a
>
> pretty simple relationship between the fields of the dialogue and the
>
> text within the <gnc:commodity> entity. The entities are stored in a
>
> certain order, sorted by <cmdty:space> then <cmdty:id>. There is a
>
> <gnc:count-data cd:type="commodity"> entity which seems to contain a
>
> text count of the non-CURRENCY gnc:commodity entries.
>
>   
>
> This makes me wonder if I could transform my list of 130 security names
>
> and symbols into <gnc:commodity> entities, and insert them into the
>
> GnuCash XML of my book.
>
>   
>
> Are there complexities or pitfalls about this approach which I might be
>
> overlooking?? We can certainly stipulate that manipulating the XML
>
> content directly is unsupported and risky, I must be careful and keep
>
> backups, I might blow off my fingers, etc.? For what it's worth, I
>
> believe that I am pretty proficient with editing XML, processing CSV
>
> files, and scripting manipulations of text data.
>
>   
>
> Once I have the securities added to the book, I then need to add the
>
> appropriate child accounts to my brokerage accounts, each denominated in
>
> the appropriate security type and symbol. It looks like that is
>
> straightforward to do with a CSV of accounts in the correct format, and
>
> the File? Import?? Import Accounts from CSV? menu item. I have a few
>
> child accounts which I entered from the UI which will serve as
>
> examples.? Is there any way in which this is more difficult than it looks?
>
>   
>
> Cheers,
>
> ???? ?Jim "ADBE ALNIX AOL ? VUG VWO ZTD81" DeLaHunt
>
>   
>
>   
>
>   
>
> ------------------------------
>
>   
>
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