Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
Flywire, Have you looked at https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MASTER/group__Options.html? I guess by "set and use" you mean add a date option to your report. The basic function is documented at https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MASTER/group__Options.html#gae207538b13cb19bb68f9b9300743b709 and it has an overloaded version https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MASTER/group__Options.html#ga5dafb8587af06977a7ee03b73b852a68 that takes a std::vector of the RelativeDatePeriods to include. That's used by gnc-register-start-date-option https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MASTER/group__Options.html#ga4a03e7ac556ea7774046121555df9f51, and gnc-register-end-date-option https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MASTER/group__Options.html#gaf48579ed1d96c1e7b9fbdc16b589995a to generate pre-filtered controls with the obvious relative date offerings. There's also gnc::options-make-date-interval that quickly adds one of each. Most reports use either gnc-register-end-date-option to set the date for a single-date report like a Balance Sheet or gnc:options-make-date-interval for reports like an Income Statement that cover a period. Changing the way options work isn't supported, nor has it ever been. If you change the way an existing option works you'll break some built-in report. That might not matter to you because you'll be able to run your custom report. That's fine, it's what Free software is all about, but you own the change and its consequences, and you can't expect that your changes will apply cleanly after the next commit never mind the next release, as you've just discovered. Even with the 4.x and earlier option system you couldn't create new option classes entirely in Scheme. The old option system was a horrid mix of Scheme and C because it had to support both report options and book options, plus the UI part was always pure C that had to use the Guile C API to get option values. I don' t think you're really interested in adding an option class so I'll spare you the details of what you'd need to write in C++ to do it. Yes, you can turn on Github actions in your fork and it will run the CI for you just like it does in the GnuCash mirror, see https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/enabling-features-for-your-repository/managing-github-actions-settings-for-a-repository. But we don't have a Windows CI action, the nightly builds are done with the https://github.com/gnucash/GnuCash-on-windows powershell scripts on a Windows VM in Derek's basement. Adding new RelativeDatePeriods for 2 years ago is fairly straightforward, just add the two values to the enum and the logic to gnc_relative_date_to_time64() and set up the various strings and the swig conversions in bindings/guile/gnc-options.i. Adding actual Fiscal Year support is another matter entirely. It's been discussed on and off for 20 years, but it requires substantial changes throughout GnuCash and so far nobody has wanted to invest the effort. Regards, John Ralls > On Apr 21, 2023, at 6:23 PM, flywire wrote: > > John, > > Seems like an X-Y response. The meaning of a hack is clear, although this is > more of a tweak, and where it occurs hardly matters if it's not part of a PR. > A response in terms of using existing report/module code in a new report > would be fine. > https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/5.0/gnucash/report/reports/example/sample-report.scm#L64-L77 > demonstrates creating a list of options, so it follows, changing it changes > the options. I'll take it consult the list is used to mean seek advice or > information, and understand some code in the repo is depreciated. None of > this is core to the question. > > To elaborate: > I'm seeking guidance on the processes involved in setting and using the date > option, and how to change it. There seems to be more to the changed approach > in V5 https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/tree/5.0/libgnucash/engine than > covered in the documentation. Apologies in advance if terms are used > incorrectly. > I imagine there are two approaches: > Override the value of year in scheme so it starts 1 July in the previous > year. I understand the options and lists are defined in C++ but I'm only > focused on scheme reports. Are these option values in scheme mutable or can > they easily be changed to mutable? Existing textual descriptions of the > options are fine. Can start/end year just be registered again in a scheme > report with a new definition or redefined in scheme using the > date-utilities.scm process in V4? > Redefine option values in C++. This is more problematic for me because I > haven't been able to compile GnuCash in Windows. Nevertheless, every commit > goes through a recompile as part of a CI process. Would it be feasible, and > if so how, to use that process in a private fork and grab a windows > executable from it to use on my PC? I expect I could work my way through the > C++ code and change value definitions and list
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
John, Seems like an X-Y response. The meaning of a hack is clear, although this is more of a tweak, and where it occurs hardly matters if it's not part of a PR. A response in terms of using existing report/module code in a new report would be fine. https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/5.0/gnucash/report/reports/example/sample-report.scm#L64-L77 demonstrates creating a list of options, so it follows, changing it changes the options. I'll take it consult the list is used to mean seek advice or information, and understand some code in the repo is depreciated. None of this is core to the question. To elaborate: 1. I'm seeking guidance on the processes involved in setting and using the date option, and how to change it. There seems to be more to the changed approach in V5 https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/tree/5.0/libgnucash/engine than covered in the documentation. Apologies in advance if terms are used incorrectly. 2. I imagine there are two approaches: 1. Override the value of year in scheme so it starts 1 July in the previous year. I understand the options and lists are defined in C++ but I'm only focused on scheme reports. Are these option values in scheme mutable or can they easily be changed to mutable? Existing textual descriptions of the options are fine. Can start/end year just be registered again in a scheme report with a new definition or redefined in scheme using the date-utilities.scm process in V4? 2. Redefine option values in C++. This is more problematic for me because I haven't been able to compile GnuCash in Windows. Nevertheless, every commit goes through a recompile as part of a CI process. Would it be feasible, and if so how, to use that process in a private fork and grab a windows executable from it to use on my PC? I expect I could work my way through the C++ code and change value definitions and lists. 3. I'd actually like to add a new date symbol for start/end of 2 years prior period. Your response previously linked from 2021 shows you have considered it. Maybe you have a better approach in mind, possibly something this year. It could be relevant. Regards ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
I'm not sure I understand your point. Nothing in the Sample report or the Custom Reports wiki page suggests changing the code that makes the options work, just how to use the existing options. Of course you can use GnuCash's existing code as a starting point just like you might use an existing answer on Stack Overflow as a starting point, or study anybody's code to learn ways of doing things. What has that got to do with modifying the internals of a program and expecting your modification to keep working in future versions? Regards, John Ralls > On Apr 20, 2023, at 12:33 AM, flywire wrote: > > Fair enough. The quoted link is not part of a PR, it demonstrates the code, > and > the thread from 2021 has extended into getting the functionality working > again following subsequent code changes released in V5. > > All scheme reports in GnuCash are internals, interpreted reports, with much > of the repeatable code like the date options being modular. The Manual, > wiki, and Sample Report all refer to and use existing reports as examples. > Customising options is certainly part of customising reports and a > particular focus of the Sample Report. > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/index.php?title=Custom_Reports&oldid=17184#Introduction >> Unfortunately, at the present time writing a custom report for GnuCash > requires a little bit of hacking. > > "For help on writing reports... consult the mailing list > gnucash-de...@gnucash.org" didn't offer the guidance I was expecting for > functionality that was previously working. > > https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106563.html > John Ralls wrote: > >> Nope, accounting periods didn't get fixed so everything I said in 2021 >> about that is still true. >> >>> >> https://github.com/flywire/gnucash/blob/Fiscal-year/libgnucash/app-utils/date-utilities.scm#L557-L569 >> > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
Fair enough. The quoted link is not part of a PR, it demonstrates the code, and the thread from 2021 has extended into getting the functionality working again following subsequent code changes released in V5. All scheme reports in GnuCash are internals, interpreted reports, with much of the repeatable code like the date options being modular. The Manual, wiki, and Sample Report all refer to and use existing reports as examples. Customising options is certainly part of customising reports and a particular focus of the Sample Report. https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/index.php?title=Custom_Reports&oldid=17184#Introduction > Unfortunately, at the present time writing a custom report for GnuCash requires a little bit of hacking. "For help on writing reports... consult the mailing list gnucash-de...@gnucash.org" didn't offer the guidance I was expecting for functionality that was previously working. https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106563.html John Ralls wrote: > Nope, accounting periods didn't get fixed so everything I said in 2021 > about that is still true. > > > > https://github.com/flywire/gnucash/blob/Fiscal-year/libgnucash/app-utils/date-utilities.scm#L557-L569 > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
Flywire, Nope, accounting periods didn't get fixed so everything I said in 2021 about that is still true. > https://github.com/flywire/gnucash/blob/Fiscal-year/libgnucash/app-utils/date-utilities.scm#L557-L569 Messing around in GnuCash's internals is only supported if the result gets accepted via a pull request. Otherwise it's a fork and with forks you always run the risk that we'll change or remove the underlying code and break your changes. That's true no matter what language the code is written in and it's true of every FLOSS project I've been involved with, which at this point is quite a few. Regards, John Ralls > On Apr 18, 2023, at 4:03 PM, flywire wrote: > > Your assumptions are wrong. Clearly, communication from the developer(s) > was ineffective. Full advice of the "major change" quoted in > https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106463.html > with no response to the request for guidance. > > On Tue, 18 Apr 2023 at 15:20, Vincent Dawans wrote: > >> ... It seems that John Ralls mentions the problems with it in the >> discussion from 2021 you link that and hints that it might be changed in >> version 5. I don't see a change as of 5.0 yet (unless I am missing >> something) so I can only assume... >> > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
Your assumptions are wrong. Clearly, communication from the developer(s) was ineffective. Full advice of the "major change" quoted in https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106463.html with no response to the request for guidance. On Tue, 18 Apr 2023 at 15:20, Vincent Dawans wrote: > ... It seems that John Ralls mentions the problems with it in the > discussion from 2021 you link that and hints that it might be changed in > version 5. I don't see a change as of 5.0 yet (unless I am missing > something) so I can only assume... > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
My comment was related to custom report creation from an end-user perspective, which is to say using the given set of options. So yes the move to c++ makes changing the supporting utility code on the fly more difficult if that's something required (as in this case). That is a limitation of going from an interpreted to a compiled language but I don't think in itself it's a reason not to do it if other considerations like code maintainability are to be considered. For that specific issue there is no question the current implementation for the financial/fiscal year doesn't make total sense (whether written in scheme or C++ is irrelevant). It seems that John Ralls mentions the problems with it in the discussion from 2021 you link that and hints that it might be changed in version 5. I don't see a change as of 5.0 yet (unless I am missing something) so I can only assume it's still in the works or more help is needed to implement that fix. As much as it was possible to hack a fix in version 4 I think it is worthwhile to focus on a more permanent fix in version 5. John Ralls says "GnuCash uses the term Accounting Period for non-calendar fiscal years. There are two problems with this: First, it's in Preferences instead of File properties so a user can't have different books with different fiscal years and two users of the same book have to set their preferences to the same Accounting Period. Second and maybe worse it sets specific dates that don't roll over." Hopefully we can join our efforts to help fix this feature so that hacking code is no longer needed. Sincerely, Vincent Dawans On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 9:11 PM flywire wrote: > I can't see how. > > Firstly, from previous comments, people don't seem to understand my > workflow. The suggestion it is only a matter of setting the Accounting > Period once per year is so wrong without changing start date of year. > > To briefly summarise, I have half a dozen entities and a few extras, each > with separate tax file numbers in a standard folder structure. If an entity > has it's own bank account it gets it's own set of books, otherwise, I use > QuickBooks and put classes on transactions/splits and report on the > classes. (My preference is the openness of GnuCash.) I normally navigate > through the Windows folders and double-click on the entity.gnucash file or > start it from the MRU list so it is easy to flick between entities. > > A typical workflow is preparing tax returns for the previous financial > year. The V4 year hack defining start year as 1 July works well for all the > reports I use with year being relative to current date (as opposed to > accounting period which must be explicitly set). I often need to look at 2 > years prior, ie the last finalised tax return, but it doesn't have a date > option so I set start/end of accounting period to the dates for 2 > (financial) years prior. This workflow allows me to identify issues with > transactions/splits/accounts that often need something similar in another > entity. I imagine the workflow is fairly typical. > > Accounting period is really useful for running a series of reports when the > entity was different, say a particular project period. > > So, I very much want to define the current year which would also define > prior year, keep the existing accounting period functionality, and add a > start/end of 2 years prior period. A preference setting like currency for > start date of year would be nice but I'd be happy with a hacked version. > > Regards > > https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106523.html > Adrien wrote: > > I can certainly see the utility of being able to define various 'start > > of year' options for different reports. Though I think this is > > essentially what the 'accounting period' option was supposed to > > accomplish. (and then the report's generic 'start of accounting period' > > will use that date) > > > > However, this preference allows only either a very general relative > > date, or an absolute date with a year, so it has to be reset if wanting > > to set a specific date. I think there is already a bug report for it. > > > > If this preference offered the ability to set *any* day relative to > > *any* year, would that accomplish your goal? > > > > (I still think a hard absolute date option is useful for someone working > > on historical data) > > > > Regards, > > Adrien > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@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. > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this li
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
I can't see how. Firstly, from previous comments, people don't seem to understand my workflow. The suggestion it is only a matter of setting the Accounting Period once per year is so wrong without changing start date of year. To briefly summarise, I have half a dozen entities and a few extras, each with separate tax file numbers in a standard folder structure. If an entity has it's own bank account it gets it's own set of books, otherwise, I use QuickBooks and put classes on transactions/splits and report on the classes. (My preference is the openness of GnuCash.) I normally navigate through the Windows folders and double-click on the entity.gnucash file or start it from the MRU list so it is easy to flick between entities. A typical workflow is preparing tax returns for the previous financial year. The V4 year hack defining start year as 1 July works well for all the reports I use with year being relative to current date (as opposed to accounting period which must be explicitly set). I often need to look at 2 years prior, ie the last finalised tax return, but it doesn't have a date option so I set start/end of accounting period to the dates for 2 (financial) years prior. This workflow allows me to identify issues with transactions/splits/accounts that often need something similar in another entity. I imagine the workflow is fairly typical. Accounting period is really useful for running a series of reports when the entity was different, say a particular project period. So, I very much want to define the current year which would also define prior year, keep the existing accounting period functionality, and add a start/end of 2 years prior period. A preference setting like currency for start date of year would be nice but I'd be happy with a hacked version. Regards https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106523.html Adrien wrote: > I can certainly see the utility of being able to define various 'start > of year' options for different reports. Though I think this is > essentially what the 'accounting period' option was supposed to > accomplish. (and then the report's generic 'start of accounting period' > will use that date) > > However, this preference allows only either a very general relative > date, or an absolute date with a year, so it has to be reset if wanting > to set a specific date. I think there is already a bug report for it. > > If this preference offered the ability to set *any* day relative to > *any* year, would that accomplish your goal? > > (I still think a hard absolute date option is useful for someone working > on historical data) > > Regards, > Adrien ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Configurable Year Start Day/Month
I can certainly see the utility of being able to define various 'start of year' options for different reports. Though I think this is essentially what the 'accounting period' option was supposed to accomplish. (and then the report's generic 'start of accounting period' will use that date) However, this preference allows only either a very general relative date, or an absolute date with a year, so it has to be reset if wanting to set a specific date. I think there is already a bug report for it. If this preference offered the ability to set *any* day relative to *any* year, would that accomplish your goal? (I still think a hard absolute date option is useful for someone working on historical data) Regards, Adrien On 4/14/23 7:22 PM, flywire wrote: Vincent, you seem confident. I posted an example. Can you demonstrate changing say Start of This Year to 1 July in V5? Code at https://github.com/flywire/gnucash/blob/Fiscal-year/libgnucash/app-utils/date-utilities.scm#L557-L569 works in V4 (check cur-year/cal-year). See comments at https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2021-September/045956.html Regards https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106464.html wrote: As for the changes in version 5.0, they don't really impact the ability to create custom reports... Bottom line version 5.0 is actually easier to work with for creating options. https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106463.html wrote: A new section is needed to address moving the option lists into C++ lists. It seems those options, say start/end-of-year, could be overwritten in scheme so they are customised before being used in reports, restoring previous functionality. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
