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

[David T.]

Adrien,

It has been complicated, I agree. However, this thread originated with 
https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2022-August/102395.html 
written by Jim. Flywire has added a number of good comments related 
generally to importing investment transactions on the thread, but is 
misunderstanding Jim's specific problem regarding mitigating the burden 
of creating a large number of securities in the securities database.

I will admit, as I re-read Jim's original post, he buried the primary 
problem midway through the second paragraph, making it easy to think his 
problem had mostly to do with importing investment transactions. 
However, a closer reading of the post, along with his explanations later 
in the thread, make it clear that his primary problem is the creation of 
130 entries in the Securities database.

Your final comment summarizes the conundrum.

If I were in that situation, I'd might go the latter route, fraught with 
danger though it is.

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED BECAUSE YOU RUN THE RISK 
OF RUINING YOUR DATA FILE ENTIRELY. MY WORDS HERE ARE MEANT ONLY AS A 
SPECULATIVE SET OF OPERATIONS WITH RISKS THAT NO SANE ACCOUNTANT WOULD 
ACCEPT. DON'T DO THIS. I KNOW I WOULDN'T!

First, I'd create a new GC test file (test.gnucash) and add one account 
and one security to it (the account is necessary to force GnuCash to 
save the commodity entry, apparently) and save the file. Then I'd save 
it as an SQLite3 file. Then, I'd use an online GUID generator (e.g., 
https://www.uuidgenerator.net/guid) to create a bunch of GUIDs for my 
new securities records. Next, I'd merge the GUIDs with the list of 
commodities into a single list (containing: GUID, namespace, mnemonic, 
fullname, fraction, quote_flag, quote_source), open test.gnucash in a 
database app and insert the entries into the Commodities table. Then I'd 
save the whole content to XML and paste the commodities content into a 
***copy*** of my real data file (I don't know whether you need to fix 
<gnc:count-data cd:type="commodity">, but I imagine you would). Then I'd 
open the new Frankenstein file and confirm that the new commodities are 
there and add a transaction or two to verify that it was functional. 
Having confirmed all this, I'd begin importing actual transactions.

Of course, I might just find all this unsupported hacking too stressful 
and just bite the bullet and enter things through the UI.


Cheers,

David T.

On 8/16/2022 6:18 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> David,
>
> This thread keeps breaking, but unless I've lost track as a result, I 
> thought this was flywire's thread from the start. (who also has 
> several other related threads dealing with specific aspects of the 
> task at hand.)
>
> The goal was to import transactions for, and as a result, mass create 
> 130+ securities, but then discovered that importing their transactions 
> does not create or offer the option of creating them (like an account).
>
> Since there is no import option otherwise, the only choices left are 
> to create them manually, or take the risk of editing the data file 
> directly.
>
> Regards,
> Adrien
>
> On 8/16/22 2:52 AM, David T. via gnucash-user wrote:
>> flywire,
>>
>> You're crossing up threads here. Jim specifically needs to create 
>> Security entries in his GnuCash file (and has stated this on several 
>> occasions) so that he can add transactions for those securities 
>> later. Your advice regarding adding commodity transactions using csv 
>> import tools is besides his point and off his topic.
>>
>> It would be preferable for you to add your comments to a new thread, 
>> so that others can focus on Jim's problem here while more directly 
>> helping you address the issues that you have encountered on a 
>> separate thread.
>
>
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