[GNC] Any reason reports are not stored in gnucash file ?

[Sherlock]

I suspect the main implementation issues would be the migration to the 
new model and propagating the file on Save As.

Regards,

Sherlock

On 10/14/25 6:43 AM, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> That is interesting.
> 
> If I am not mistaken, you can presently put a *custom* report in any 
> directory as long as you tell the config-usr.scm file where they are. 
> (note, *custom* means an entirely separate report template, not just a 
> saved-configuration, these would be reports that aren't in the default 
> GnuCash installation at all.)
> 
> With that in mind, consider what might seem like a complication at 
> first, but would perhaps be more versatile to cover more use cases:
> 
> Presently, the saved-configurations are saved in a single Scheme file 
> labeled "saved-reports-2.8". It is simply the various preferences for 
> each report listed one after the other, by report. (easily viewable in 
> any basic text editor)
> 
> I propose, those be stored in individual files per report with either 
> the book file, the gcm, or a book-tied 'saved-configurations' file 
> pointing to them *wherever they may reside in the file tree*. (just like 
> Custom Reports)
> 
> This would allow easy copying of preferences -per report- to other 
> books. (You may want the same P&L prefs for two books, but not the other 
> configs)
> 
> Things could be kept tidy with a default folder for them, but ideally, 
> the user should be able to store them anywhere, like they can with 
> Custom Reports.
> 
> These individual pref files for saved-configurations could either be 
> stored in the default config directory or with the Book files, at the 
> user's discretion since they will be pointed to regardless.
> 
> It would also be nice if these were XML or JSON so as to be a bit more 
> accessible to us mere mortals than Scheme, but I certainly appreciate 
> that might be asking too much. I don't speak Scheme, but looking at the 
> present saved-reports file, I can at least get a sense of what is going 
> on generally. (I'm guessing if the format were not Scheme, something 
> would have to translate them a bit rather than just 'insert/include' as 
> is likely happening now, or that insertion/include code would have to be 
> more complicated than it is presently.)
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> On 10/13/25 6:13 PM, Stan Brown (using GC 4.14) wrote:
>> Rather than store them in the book (main data file), why not in the GCM
>> file, which already holds configurations of registers, the general
>> journal, and the Accounts tab? That information is already on a per-book
>> basis, one GCM file per book file. And then there would be no collision
>> with the data file's present auto-save logic.
>>
>> Or the saved report configurations could be stored in a {book}.reports
>> file in the books directory. Then import and export would require no
>> code at all; the user would simply copy {book1.reports} to 
>> {book2}.reports.