[GNC] Deleting Transaction from Reconcile Deletes Wrong Transaction

Fri Dec 30 09:47:35 EST 2022

It is possible that a specific set of prerequisite conditions need to exist
for the bug to manifest, but I don't know exactly what I might have been
doing immediately before getting the notion that I should just delete the
transactions right from the Reconciliation dialog.

Normally, I would delete unwanted transactions directly in the register,
too.  But the Reconciliation dialog permits two methods of deleting a
transaction - right-click-delete, or top toolbar delete button.  They gave
it some thought and provided a way to do it, and frankly, it's an
appropriate and convenient place to provide that capability.  Sometimes
it's easier to see a rogue transaction in the Reconciliation dialog over
the more information dense register.

I use database storage over the XML storage method because it does afford
me opportunities that the XML plain text file does not.  I now have data
going back seven years in GnuCash and I think that's too much to push on a
text file.  At some point the scales tip in favor of a
full-fledged database over text file read/write operations.  But you're
right, backing up is not integrated into GnuCash at the push of a button.
I have to perform backups using the HeidiSQL application, and even then
it's not very intuitive.

My bad for not backing up before transitioning from working with
transactions to reconciling statements.  Yup.  That's on me.  But GnuCash
rarely lets me down, so I get complacent sometimes, I guess.

On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 12:36 AM David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I just performed a trivial test in release 4.8 (Build ID:
> 4.8a+(2021-09-28) in Lubuntu 22.04 by adding a bogus transaction to a
> register then saving the file, opening the reconciliation window, right
> clicking the desired split in the right panel of the reconciliation window,
> and clicking delete.  The correct entire transaction was deleted.  So, from
> my perspective, if the current release does not work the same way, there
> has been a regression since 4.8.
>
> On Thu, Dec 29, 2022 at 11:08 PM David Carlson <
> david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I haven't needed to do a reconciliation yet since this thread started,
>> but perhaps in the next few days.
>>
>> In the meantime,  I didn't even realize that you could right click split
>> lines in that screen and do things.  If that works successfully, wonderful.
>>
>> I have always used the menu to navigate to the transaction in the
>> register view and perform my edits there.
>>
>> Finally,  I  subscribe to the theory to save a backup just before
>> starting any significant activity such as a reconciliation or import. That
>> is one reason I am not using a database file format and I won't until the
>> application has a way to undo several recent actions.  My cat does
>> occasionally walk across the keyboard.
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 9:47 PM Thomas Forrester <tlforrester at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I guess you didn't read what I wrote.  So, let me say it again (via the
>>> magic of copy/paste):
>>>
>>> "I was right-clicking on a transaction in the right (credit) column.  It
>>> was already highlighted, and there was no other transaction highlighted.
>>> The right-click context menu appeared alongside the mouse pointer which
>>> was
>>> positioned on the highlighted credit transaction.  From that menu I
>>> selected and confirmed the delete of the highlighted credit
>>> transaction.  A
>>> debit transaction was deleted instead."
>>>
>>> Reverting to a backup after doing as much work as I had leading up to
>>> that
>>> reconciliation in that session would have been a multitude of times more
>>> painful.  Bad stuff always happens after lots of other stuff has
>>> happened -
>>> Murphy's Law.  The backup is for truly catastrophic stuff, or maybe if
>>> you're just lucky and haven't done anything else yet.
>>>
>>> This is hardly and interface error.  And checking the 4.13 change log
>>> reveals nothing addressing this or any related reconciliation bug.  The
>>> known issues list doesn't even identify it.  I don't think it's on
>>> anyone's
>>> radar.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Dec 29, 2022 at 4:28 PM Adrien Monteleone <
>>> adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> > That sounds like a GTK bug. You were raising a context menu on what was
>>> > selected, not where the mouse pointer was located. If you had a line in
>>> > the left pane selected, that is what got deleted.
>>> >
>>> > Maybe reverting to a backup file and making it your main file would be
>>> > in order for restoring your books to a sane state then starting the
>>> > reconciliation over.
>>> >
>>> > As for the bug, I suppose you can file it, but I wouldn't be surprised
>>> > if it is a GTK rather than GnuCash problem.
>>> >
>>> > But before you do, try GnuCash 4.13 first. I think the GTK version was
>>> > just bumped on that release.
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> > Adrien
>>> >
>>> > On 12/29/22 3:36 PM, Thomas Forrester wrote:
>>> > > I was reconciling several credit card statements for the same card
>>> and
>>> > had
>>> > > noticed that a subscription payment I had set up as an automatic
>>> entry
>>> > was
>>> > > showing up even though I had canceled the subscription.  Clearly, I
>>> > hadn't
>>> > > discontinued the automatic transaction entry in GnuCash.  I ignored
>>> > several
>>> > > of the subscription transactions while reconciling, but then I
>>> thought I
>>> > > might as well just delete them in the Reconcile screen since you can
>>> > > right-click and delete transactions right there.  With the first ot
>>> 3 of
>>> > > the transactions highlighted, I right-clicked on it and selected
>>> > delete.  I
>>> > > clicked OK to the confirmation message affirming I was sure I wanted
>>> to
>>> > > delete the transaction. I rather mindlessly repeated that action a
>>> couple
>>> > > of times, then realized the transactions weren't deleting.  Much to
>>> my
>>> > > horror, I realized transactions on the left (debit) column for the
>>> > > reconciliation was getting shorter, not the right (credit) column
>>> where
>>> > the
>>> > > highlighted item I was trying to delete was.
>>> > >
>>> > > Again, I'm going to stress this: I was right-clicking on a
>>> transaction in
>>> > > the right (credit) column.  It was already highlighted, and there
>>> was no
>>> > > other transaction highlighted.  The right-click context menu appeared
>>> > > alongside the mouse pointer which was positioned on the highlighted
>>> > credit
>>> > > transaction.  From that menu I selected and confirmed the delete of
>>> the
>>> > > highlighted credit transaction.  A debit transaction was deleted
>>> instead.
>>> > >
>>> > > Obviously, this is not correct behavior.
>>> > >
>>> > > This is GnuCash 4.11 Build ID: 4.11+(2022-06-25) using a MariaDB
>>> backend.
>>> >
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>>
>
> --
> David Carlson
>