[GNC] Transactions in Placeholder

[David T.]

I'm going to follow up my own message to note that I have now found that GnuCash 4.13 under Windows 10 will add transactions to a placeholder account even while displaying a message stating that it cannot write transactions to placeholder accounts! 

I've just had GnuCash do this twice, when it used an ancient transaction as a template (I'll write about that in a different thread shortly) that has an account that I have since set as a placeholder account and hidden because it is closed. 

Something is clearly broken here.

⁣David T. ​

On Apr 29, 2023, 9:44 PM, at 9:44 PM, "David T. via gnucash-user" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>Michael, 
>
>The OP problem had to do with the importer adding transactions to a
>placeholder account. So that's why I am discussing that, rather than
>bringing up the creation of new accounts in the process. I'm not even
>sure how that applies here; a newly-created account during the import
>process (if such is even achievable in the import process) would
>presumably not be set as a placeholder account. 
>
>GnuCash already prevents a user from entering transactions into a
>placeholder account-- and even prevents you from opening such accounts
>without an explicit (non standard) open mode. The only way I know of
>entering transactions into a placeholder account is to turn off the
>setting first. Of course, then, it's not a placeholder account...
>
>Again, in my example, you're missing the point. I'm not talking about
>the special case where a user has elevated rights and logs in specially
>to use them. I'm talking about a system allowing any user to change any
>file-- or worse, a system changing them as a result of some other
>action I took. If I, as a regular user, were to overwrite YOUR files,
>you'd be rather upset.
>
>I'll repeat: adding transactions to a placeholder account during an
>import should not be possible, since it violates the GnuCash definition
>of a placeholder account. 
>
>⁣David T. ​
>
>On Apr 29, 2023, 6:17 PM, at 6:17 PM, Michael or Penny Novack
><stepbystepfarm at comcast.net> wrote:
>>On 4/29/2023 10:08 AM, David T. wrote:
>>> Michael,
>>>
>>> I disagree. The importer shouldn't put transacting into an account 
>>> that is--by definition-- write protected.
>>>
>>> My counter example would be a write-protected file folder. An 
>>> operating system that allowed a user to put data into a 
>>> write-protected folder would come in for serious criticism.
>>>
>>> Temporary records should go somewhere, for sure. It's been my 
>>> experience that GnuCash uses Imbalance-xxx for such transactions.
>Why
>>
>>> would you ever expect to put them in write-protected accounts?
>>>
>>You are talking about the  behavior of the IMPORTER.
>>
>>Your proposed solution would affect ANY entry of transactions.
>>
>>And an operating system SHOULD allow writing into a write protected 
>>folder whenever the person (or program) doing so has sufficient
>>"rights" 
>><< normally when I am logged in it is WITHOUT admin rights (even on my
>
>>home system) -- bear in mind decades in the cypher mines where I had
>to
>>
>>be very conscious of whether I was using my ordinary login or my
>>"prod*" 
>>log in. Like in the middle of the night emergency fix to a hanging 
>>production program -- doing this during the day I would walk over to
>>the 
>>desk of whoever normally handled "builds" and have them do the 
>>replacement of the program in the production library>>
>>
>>Michael
>>
>>PS --- By all means ask for a change to the behavior of the importer
>if
>>
>>you think that is in order. But actually what you want is that the 
>>importer verify that it isn't specifying an account that does not
>exist
>>
>>OR one that is a placeholder. We used to call something like the the 
>>"input editor" portion of a transaction handling program.
>_______________________________________________
>gnucash-user mailing list
>gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>-----
>Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.