[office/kmymoney/Handbook-5.2] doc: finished ofx import, plus new plugins section, and enhanced
Jack Ostroff
null at kde.org
Thu Oct 26 22:28:24 BST 2023
Git commit bc817a961b629660e47e93ab034cf535d5acdd7a by Jack Ostroff.
Committed on 26/10/2023 at 23:27.
Pushed by ostroffjh into branch 'Handbook-5.2'.
finished ofx import, plus new plugins section, and enhanced
account edit section on online details.
M +140 -98 doc/details-accounts.docbook
M +176 -103 doc/details-impexp.docbook
M +1 -1 doc/index.docbook
M +43 -0 doc/makemostof.docbook
https://invent.kde.org/office/kmymoney/-/commit/bc817a961b629660e47e93ab034cf535d5acdd7a
diff --git a/doc/details-accounts.docbook b/doc/details-accounts.docbook
index 3f268985c..94481fdff 100644
--- a/doc/details-accounts.docbook
+++ b/doc/details-accounts.docbook
@@ -106,8 +106,9 @@
<para>
An indication whether this account has been configured for online access.
The process of configuring accounts for online access is described in the
- <link linkend="details.impexp">Importing and Exporting Chapter.</link>
- <!-- FIXME: make this link more specific -->
+ <link linkend="details.impexp">Importing and Exporting Chapter.</link>, but
+ details on the available settings are below in the section on <link
+ linkend="details.accounts.edit">Editing Account Information</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -841,130 +842,171 @@
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
-</para>
-
-<formalpara><title>General</title>
-<para>
- View the general information about the account, and change the name, start or
- opening date, as well as some of the other basic settings of the account.
-</para>
-</formalpara>
-
-<formalpara><title>Institution</title>
-<para>
- View and change the associated banking institution and account numbers. You can
- also create a new institution here.
-</para>
-</formalpara>
-
-<formalpara><title>Hierarchy</title>
-<para>
-<!-- not ported to kde4 or even 5 yet. uncomment if that is done, see
- https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=272737 You can change the parent account by
- dragging the account in this view of the account hierarchy. Changing the parent
- account is also possible in the main Accounts screen, by dragging the account
- and dropping it on a different parent account.
--->
- You can change the parent account by clicking the new parent account and then
- clicking <guibutton>OK</guibutton>.
-</para>
-</formalpara>
-
-<formalpara><title>Limits</title>
-<para>
- This tab is only present for asset and liability accounts. If you enter amounts in
- the available fields, &kmymoney; will warn you when the account balance reaches or
- exceeds those values.
-</para>
-</formalpara>
-
-<formalpara><title>Tax</title>
-<para>
- Here you can check whether this is a VAT account, and can specify the percentage of
- the VAT. In additon, you can check whether to include this account on tax reports.
-</para>
-</formalpara>
-<formalpara><title>Online Settings</title>
-<para>
- This tab is only be present if the account has been mapped to an <link
- linkend="details.impexp.ofxdirectconnect">online account</link>. It has three
- subtabs.
+This dialog has several tabs for configuring different aspects of an Account.
</para>
-</formalpara>
-<itemizedlist>
-<listitem>
-<para>
- <emphasis>Account Details</emphasis>: This shows the status of the online
- connection, the bank/broker, and the account number. It also allows you to store
- or change the password for the online account.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-
-<listitem>
-<para>
- <emphasis>OFX Details</emphasis>: Here you can adjust certain details &kmymoney;
- uses when it establishes an OFX connection with the institution. This should only
- be necessary if you get certain errors when you first set up the online account, or
- perhaps if your institution changes its OFX server software.
-</para>
-</listitem>
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>General</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ View the general information about the account, and change the name,
+ start or opening date, as well as some of the other basic settings of the
+ account.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<listitem>
-<para>
- <emphasis>Import Details</emphasis>: In the upper box, you can tell &kmymoney; what
- to use as the start date for the import. The lower box has several items
- &kmymoney; uses when creating transactions from the downloaded data.
- <itemizedlist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Institution</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- You can choose whether the payee's name is based on the PAYEEID, NAME, or
- MEMO field of the imported transaction. Different institutions use different
- standards, so you may need to try a different value here if your imported
- transactions seem to consistently have the wrong Payee.
+ View and change the associated banking institution and account numbers. You
+ can also create a new institution here.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Hierarchy</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Some banks do not follow the OFX standard of providing a repeatable, uniqe
- FITID (Financial Institution Transaction Identification) which can cause
- duplicate transactions on repeated downloads. If this happens, you can
- change the method &kmymoney; uses to detect duplicates from the <guilabel>OFX
- FITID</guilabel> to the internallly calculated <guilabel>KMyMoney
- ID</guilabel>. This is not frequently necessary.
+ <!-- FIXME: drag/drop was in KDE3 versions, but still not ported 5.1.x. See
+ https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=272737. You can change the parent
+ account by dragging the account in this view of the account hierarchy.
+ Changing the parent account is also possible in the main Accounts
+ screen, by dragging the account and dropping it on a different parent
+ account. -->
+ This shows where the account is in the overall hierarcy of accounts. You can
+ change the parent account by clicking the new parent account and then
+ clicking <guibutton>OK</guibutton>.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Limits</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Importing transactions from an institution in a different timezone can
- sometimes lead to the wrong date on an imported transaction. If this
- happens, you can set a <guilabel>Timezone offset</guilabel> to adjust for the
- difference.
+ This tab is only present for asset and liability accounts. If you enter
+ amounts in the available fields, &kmymoney; will warn you when the account
+ balance reaches or exceeds those values.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Tax</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Very infrequently, an institution will create OFX downloads with the sign of
- the transaction amount reversed. You can click this checkbox to correct this
- problem.
+ Here you can check whether this is a VAT account, and you can specify the
+ percentage of the VAT. In additon, you can check whether to include this
+ account on tax reports.
</para>
</listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Online Settings</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- A similar problem sometimes occurs, but only for the values in investment
- transacionts, such as the purchase and sale of stocks. Clicking this
- checkbox corrects this.
+ This tab is only be present if the account has been mapped to an <link
+ linkend="details.impexp.ofxdirectconnect">online account</link>. It has
+ three subtabs.
</para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Account Details</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This shows the status of the online connection, the bank/broker, and
+ the account number. It also allows you to store or change the password
+ for the online account.
+ <!-- FIXME: do we want to say WHERE the password is stored? -->
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>OFX Details</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Here you can adjust certain details &kmymoney; uses when it establishes
+ an OFX connection with the institution. This should only be necessary
+ if you get certain errors when you first set up the online account, or
+ perhaps if your institution changes its OFX server software.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Import Details</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In the upper box, you can tell &kmymoney; what to use as the start date
+ for the import. The lower box has several items &kmymoney; uses when
+ creating transactions from the downloaded data.
+ </para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ You can choose whether the payee's name is based on the PAYEEID,
+ NAME, or MEMO field of the imported transaction. Different
+ institutions use different standards, so you may need to try a
+ different value here if your imported transactions seem to
+ consistently have the wrong Payee. Unfortunately, this only
+ applies to Direct Connect, but will hopefully also apply to OFX
+ file import at some point.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Some banks do not follow the OFX standard of providing a
+ repeatable, uniqe FITID (Financial Institution Transaction
+ Identification) which can cause duplicate transactions on repeated
+ downloads. If this happens, you can change the method &kmymoney;
+ uses to detect duplicates from the <guilabel>OFX FITID</guilabel>
+ to the internallly calculated <guilabel>KMyMoney ID</guilabel>.
+ This is not frequently necessary.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Importing transactions from an institution in a different timezone
+ can sometimes lead to the wrong date on an imported transaction.
+ If this happens, you can set a <guilabel>Timezone offset</guilabel>
+ to adjust for the difference.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Very infrequently, an institution will create OFX downloads with
+ the sign of the transaction amount reversed. You can click this
+ checkbox to correct this problem.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A similar problem sometimes occurs, but only for the values in
+ investment transactions, such as the purchase and sale of stocks.
+ Clicking this checkbox corrects this.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
</listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</itemizedlist>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="details.accounts.delete">
diff --git a/doc/details-impexp.docbook b/doc/details-impexp.docbook
index 63989ff54..006d64c95 100644
--- a/doc/details-impexp.docbook
+++ b/doc/details-impexp.docbook
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
<author> &Ace.Jones; &Ace.Jones.mail; </author>
<author> &Jack.H.Ostroff; &Jack.H.Ostroff.mail; </author>
</authorgroup>
- <date>2023-20-05</date>
+ <date>2023-20-25</date>
<releaseinfo>5.2</releaseinfo>
</chapterinfo>
@@ -465,7 +465,7 @@
<para>
These need only be used in the event of import problems. If you have such
- problems, you should also report them to the &kmymoney; developer list &devlist;.
+ problems, you should also report them to the developers' mailing list &devlist;.
Note that the traces produced by these options may contain data of a confidential
nature, and the <guilabel>Anonymize data</guilabel> option should be used if they
are to be made publicly available.
@@ -912,7 +912,23 @@
<author>&Thomas.Baumgart; &Thomas.Baumgart.mail;</author>
<author> &Jack.H.Ostroff; &Jack.H.Ostroff.mail; </author>
</sect1info>
-<title>OFX Importer Plugin</title>
+<title>OFX Importer</title>
+
+<para>
+ The OFX importer was one of the first components of &kmymoney; to be written as a
+ Plugin. At that time, there were only a few plugins included in the source code,
+ and they were not always included in versions built for &Linux; distributions, so
+ it was sometimes necessary for users to be able to compile the plugins themselves.
+ This is rarely the case any more, but see the section on <link linkend=
+ "makingmostof.plugins">Plugins</link> for more information. Currently, many of the
+ features considered core parts of &kmymoney; are implemented as plugins, so that
+ fact is not always mentioned in this handbook where those features are discussed.
+ See also the <link linkend="details.settings.plugins">Plugins</link> section in the
+ Settings Chapter.
+</para>
+
+<!-- FIXME: see the new section on plugins at the end of makemostof. Most of this
+ can probably just be deleted.
<sect2><title>Getting the plugin</title>
@@ -948,197 +964,254 @@
<filename>config.log</filename> file, compressed first via <command>gzip</command>.
</para>
</sect2>
+-->
<sect2><title>What is OFX</title>
<para>
- OFX stands for <quote>Open Financial Exchange</quote>. According to the
- <ulink url="https://www.ofx.net/">OFX web site</ulink> <quote>Open Financial
- Exchange (OFX) is a unified specification for the electronic exchange of
- financial data between financial institutions, businesses and consumers via
- the Internet. OFX is not a financial institution.</quote> The specification
- defines formats for transfer of financial data both by file and by direct
- interchange.
+ <acronym>OFX</acronym> stands for <quote>Open Financial Exchange</quote>.
+ According to the <ulink url="https://financialdataexchange.org/ofx/">OFX Work Group
+ web site</ulink> <quote>Open Financial Exchange is an open standard for
+ client-server systems and cloud based APIs for exchanging financial data, and
+ performing financial transactions between financial institutions, and financial
+ applications.</quote> The specification defines formats for transfer of financial
+ data both by file and by direct interchange. Additional historic information may
+ be found on the <ulink url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Financial_Exchange"
+ >Wikipedia page</ulink>
</para>
<para>
- Although the standard is much more complete and robust than QIF, there are
- still variations, depending on the specific implementation used by any
- institution. OFX files may have an extension of <quote>OFX</quote> or
- <quote>QFX</quote> (upper or lower case); this does not imply any particular
- difference in the content. The specification is based on &XML;, so the files
- can be read in any text editor, but as whitespace is not relevant to the
- content itself, some implementations do not use any, making it very hard for a
- human to read.
+ Although the OFX standard is much more complete and robust than QIF, there are
+ still variations, depending on the specific implementation used by any institution.
+ OFX files may have an extension of <quote>OFX</quote> or <quote>QFX</quote> (upper
+ or lower case); this does not imply any particular difference in the content. The
+ specification was originally based on SGML, and more recent versions are based on
+ &XML;, so the files can be read in any text editor, but as whitespace is not
+ relevant to the content itself, some implementations do not use any, making it very
+ hard for a human to read.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ In addition, even though the standard includes provisions for additional types of
+ data, &kmymoney; is only able to import transaction data, with some additional data
+ such as the current balance of accounts.
</para>
<para>
Another site with good information is <ulink url="https:/ofxhome.com/">OFX
- Home</ulink>. They maintain a directory of financial institutions that
- support OFX. This can be useful if you have problems setting up <link
- linkend="details.impexp.ofxdirectconnect">OFX direct connect.</link> They also
- have a forum for discussions about OFX issues.
+ Home</ulink>. They maintain a directory of financial institutions that support
+ OFX. This can be useful if you have problems setting up <link
+ linkend="details.impexp.ofxdirectconnect">OFX direct connect.</link> They also have
+ a forum for discussions about OFX issues. The site is not as active as it once
+ was, but good information is still available there.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2><title>Importing an OFX file</title>
+<sect2><title>Importing OFX data</title>
<para>
- The most basic way to import an OFX file is to choose the importer from the
- menu bar. From the <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guisubmenu>Import</guisubmenu>
- <guimenuitem>OFX...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item. If OFX does not show
- up under Import, you do not have the OFX Importer Plugin installed correctly.
- Please see the previous section.
+ The OFX standard defines the organization and formatting of financial data, but
+ that data can exist either as a regular file or as a stream of data between two
+ computers. The most straightforward way of getting OFX data is to download it from
+ your bank or other financial institution as an OFX file. In most cases, when you
+ are logged into the bank's web site, on the page which displays your transactions,
+ there is a button or link for downloading that data. It may say OFX or QFX, or you
+ may reqeuest the data for Quicken or Web Connect (see below for more on this term.)
+ You also have the option of specifying the date range of transactions to download
+ (although that is sometimes restricted to periods matching the available
+ statements,) as well as filtering by type of transaction.
</para>
<para>
- The first thing the importer will do is ask you into which account to import
- the transactions. If there are transactions from multiple accounts in your
- file, you will be asked this question multiple times.
+ If you have downloaded an OFX file, the most basic way to import it is to choose
+ the importer from the menu bar, selecting the <menuchoice> <guimenu>File</guimenu>
+ <guisubmenu>Import</guisubmenu> <guimenuitem>OFX...</guimenuitem> </menuchoice>
+ menu item. If OFX does not show up under Import, you do not have the OFX Importer
+ Plugin installed correctly, or it is not enabled. Please see the previous section.
</para>
<para>
- After importing, some of your transactions may be shown with an exclamation
- mark on a yellow triangle in the ledger. This is because they need to be
- assigned a category. The importer was not able to automatically assign a
- category based on your past transaction history. You can edit each
- transaction in the ledger to assign a category, and the mark will be removed.
+ The first thing the importer will do is ask you into which account to import the
+ transactions. If the file includes transactions from multiple accounts, you will
+ be asked this question multiple times.
</para>
<para>
- Please note that this section describes the <quote>native</quote> OFX
- importer. OFX files may also be imported using the AqBanking Importer Plugin
- if you have installed that. Note that the two importers do behave slightly
+ After importing, some of your transactions may be shown with an exclamation mark on
+ a yellow triangle in the ledger. This is because they need to be assigned a
+ category. The importer was not able to automatically assign a category based on
+ your past transaction history. You can edit each transaction in the ledger to
+ assign a category, and the mark will be removed.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Please note that this section describes the <quote>native</quote> OFX importer.
+ OFX files may also be imported using the AqBanking Importer Plugin if you have
+ installed that and it is enabled. Note that the two importers do behave slightly
differently, and they are written and supported by two different developers.
+ <!-- FIXME: we do not appear to have any info in this handbook on aqbanking other
+ than in the reference section? -->
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2><title>Importing Investments</title>
<para>
- Please note that if you are importing a file with investment transactions,
- those investments must first exist in your &kmymoney; file. The trading
- symbol is used to match, so please ensure that the symbol in &kmymoney; is
- exactly the same as the one in the file you're importing.
+ <!-- FIXME: Was this true in the past? Currently, KMM will create securites in OFX
+ data if they do not already exist. -->
+ Please note that if you are importing a file with investment transactions, those
+ investments must first exist in your &kmymoney; file. The trading symbol is used
+ to match, so please ensure that the symbol in &kmymoney; is exactly the same as the
+ one in the file you're importing.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="details.impexp.webconnect"><title>Web Connect</title>
<para>
- The easiest way to import an OFX file is to set up Web Connect. Visit your
- bank's web site, and click on a link to download an OFX file. Your browser
- should ask you what program you would like to use to open the file. Point
- your browser to &kmymoney;. It will then import the downloaded OFX file into
- the &kmymoney; file you most recently had open. You can also change the file
- associations of your desktop environment, and have &kmymoney; open the OFX
- file automatically for you.
+ Rather than explicitly downloading an OFX file, as described above, the easiest way
+ to import an OFX file is to set up Web Connect. Visit your bank's web site, and
+ click on the button or link to download an OFX file. Your browser should ask
+ whether you want to save the file, or else what program you would like to use to
+ open the file. Point your browser to &kmymoney;. It will then import the
+ downloaded OFX file directly into the &kmymoney; file you currenlty have open, or
+ the file you most recently had open. You can also change the file associations of
+ your desktop environment, and have the system automatically opne &kmymoney; if you
+ click on an OFX file in your file browser. you.
</para>
<para>
- If you need to import the OFX file into some other &kmymoney; file, load up
- that file in &kmymoney; first, and then visit your bank's web site.
+ If you need to import the OFX file into some other &kmymoney; data file, open that
+ file in &kmymoney; first, and then visit your bank's web site.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="details.impexp.ofxdirectconnect"><title>Direct Connect</title>
<para>
- OFX Direct Connect is now supported in &kmymoney;. This gives you the ability
- to contact your bank directly to obtain statements. In the future, there will
- be more help written, and this will be moved to its own section.
+ &kmymoney; also supports OFX Direct Connect. This gives allows &kmymoney; the
+ ability to contact your bank directly to download transactions, assuming the bank
+ supports it.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Please be warned: not all banks support OFX Direct Connect, and those that do often
+ use software provided and supported by third parties, and those third parties often
+ provide customer support only to users of specific, commercial financial management
+ software. No bank directly supports &kmymoney;, so you may have to tell them you
+ want to bank directly from <application>MS Money</application> or
+ <application>Quicken</application>. In addition, the OFX Work Group web site
+ mentioned above also says <quote>Further, the API allows the exchange to be
+ facilitated either directly or via an intermediary such as data aggregation service
+ providers.</quote> Users have reported that banks which have migrated to using such
+ aggregation service providers are even less likely to provide any support unless
+ you are using one of the commercial applications.
</para>
<para>
- To enable this feature, you must compile &kmymoney; with the
- <userinput><option>--enable-ofxbanking</option></userinput> switch (now the default).
+ In addition, your bank may require a separate signup than for the regular web
+ site, it may give you a separate password or PIN, and it may even charge you a
+ separate fee for this service.
</para>
<para>
- Please be warned: Many banks require a separate signup, will give you a
- separate password or PIN, and may even charge you a separate fee for this
- service. No bank directly supports &kmymoney;. You will have to tell them
- you want to bank directly from <application>MS Money</application> or
- <application>Quicken</application>.
+ If Direct Connect works for you, it allows you to update your records by
+ downloading recent transactions with a single button push. If it does not work on
+ your first attempt, you may find an easy soltuion to your issue, or it may take a
+ lot of research, and there is no guarantee that it will work in any particulat
+ situation. However, plese do not take any of this as a reason to not try it.
</para>
<para>
The first step is to configure each account for which you wish to download
- statements. Go to the Accounts view, right-click on the account you wish to
- configure, and choose <guimenuitem>Map to online account...</guimenuitem>.
- In case more than one online banking plugin is installed on your system
- you will be asked which one to use. For the internal OFX method select
- <guimenuitem>&kmymoney; OFX</guimenuitem>. A list of banks will be downloaded
- from the Internet and a wizard will guide you through choosing a bank,
- entering your username and password, and selecting an account. Should you
- find that your bank is not listed, then it may still be possible to use the
- manual option. Your bank may be able to provide the required parameters, or
- you may have to do some research to find them.
+ transactions. Go to the Accounts view, right-click on the account you wish to
+ configure, and choose <guimenuitem>Map to online account...</guimenuitem>. This is
+ also available from the <guimenu>Accounts</guimenu> menu if the account is open in
+ the Ledger View. In case more than one online banking plugin is installed on your
+ system you will be asked which one to use. For the internal OFX method select
+ <guimenuitem>&kmymoney; OFX</guimenuitem>. A list of banks will be downloaded from
+ the Internet and a wizard will guide you through choosing a bank, entering your
+ username and password, and selecting an account. Should you find that your bank is
+ not listed, then it may still be possible to use the manual option. Your bank may
+ be able to provide the required parameters, or you may have to do some research to
+ find them.
</para>
<note>
<para>
- Setting up OFX Direct Connect can sometimes be a challenge, especially as
- the implementation at most institutions do not provide sufficient details in
- error messages. One particular issue to note is that many institutions
- require you to change your password the first time you access it online
- using this method. Unfortunately, at this time, the library that &kmymoney;
- uses (libofx) does not have a way to interactively change a password. In
- some cases, it is possible to get a technical support person at the
- institution to change the password for you. Until we are able to expand
- this section with more detailed troubleshooting information, if you have
- trouble getting this to work for you, you can ask for help on the &kmymoney;
- developer list &devlist;.
+ As implied above, setting up OFX Direct Connect can sometimes be a challenge,
+ especially as the implementations at most institutions do not provide sufficient
+ details in error messages. One particular issue to note is that many
+ institutions require you to change your password the first time you access it
+ online using this method. Unfortunately, at this time, the library that
+ &kmymoney; uses (libofx) does not have a way to interactively change a password.
+ In some cases, it is possible to get a technical support person at the
+ institution to change the password for you. Until we are able to expand this
+ section with more detailed troubleshooting information, if you have trouble
+ getting this to work for you, you can ask for help on the developers' mailing
+ list &devlist; or one of the other <link linkend="firsttime.contact"> support
+ channels</link>.
</para>
</note>
<para>
Once you have an account set up with online banking, go to the ledger for that
- account. Then choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Account</guimenu><guimenuitem>Update
- account...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item. This will connect to your bank,
- and download a statement for the last 60 days.
+ account, and choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Account</guimenu><guimenuitem>Update
+ account...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. This will connect to your bank, and
+ download your recent transactions. See the next section on how you can configure
+ the actual date range of transactions to fetch.
</para>
<note>
<para>
- In version of &kmymoney; prior to 4.6, the payee name was always taken from the
- <literal>PAYEEID</literal> field. As of version 4.6, the payee name can be based
- on either the <literal>PAYEEID</literal>, <literal>NAME</literal>, or
- <literal>MEMO</literal> field in the OFX transaction. You can configure this
- feature and some other OFX direct connect settings by selecting the appropriate
- tab in the <link linkend="details.accounts.edit">Edit account</link> dialog.
+ In older versions of &kmymoney;, the Payee name was always taken from the
+ <literal>PAYEEID</literal> field in the OFX data. As of version 4.6, the payee
+ name can be based on either the <literal>PAYEEID</literal>,
+ <literal>NAME</literal>, or <literal>MEMO</literal> field in the OFX transaction.
+ The next section shows how you can configure this feature and some other OFX
+ direct connect settings.
</para>
</note>
</sect2>
+<sect2 id="details.impexp.ofxsettings"><title>Configuring OFX import details</title>
+<para>
+ This was described previously, in the section on <link
+ linkend="details.accounts.edit">editing account details</link>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
<sect2><title>Exporting an OFX file</title>
<para>
- It is not possible to export your data as an OFX file currently. If you are
- interested to contribute in this area, please contact the libofx development
- team for details.
+ It is currently not possible to export your data as an OFX file. If you are
+ interested to contribute in this area, please contact the libofx development team
+ for details.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
-<!-- here goes the new csv impexp section. New entity is only a temporary
- workaround, although might be good to keep it in a separate file -->
+<!-- Using an entity for the csv impexp sections allow it to be maintained in a
+ separate file. Original note here suggested this was a workaround, but I
+ don't know why. -->
<!-- entity defined in index.docbook -->
&details-impexp-csv;
&details-impexp-csvexp;
-<!-- here goes the new Woob impexp section. New entity is only a temporary
- workaround, although might be good to keep it in a separate file -->
+<!-- as above, for woob import. -->
<!-- entity defined in index.docbook -->
&details-impexp-woob;
<sect1 id="details.impexp.plugins"><title>Writing Importer Plugins</title>
<para>
- &kmymoney; contains explicit support for importer plugins. If you have a
- custom format, and you would like to write an importer plugin, we would value
- your contribution. To do so, you'll need to compile the program from source.
- Then use the OFX Importer Plugin as an example.
+ <!-- FIXME: this is mentioned more generally in the makemostof section on Plugins,
+ so not sure if it is really necessary to also cover here, or just refer to
+ that section. -->
+ &kmymoney; contains explicit support for importer plugins. If you have a custom
+ format, and you would like to write an importer plugin, we would value your
+ contribution. To do so, you'll need to compile the program from source. Then use
+ the OFX Importer Plugin as an example.
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
diff --git a/doc/index.docbook b/doc/index.docbook
index 696eecfdd..0f6ab3769 100644
--- a/doc/index.docbook
+++ b/doc/index.docbook
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ Please respect the format of the date (YYYY-MM-DD) and of the version
(V.MM.LL), it could be used by automation scripts.
Do NOT change these in the translation. -->
-<date>2023-08-15</date>
+<date>2023-10-28</date>
<releaseinfo>5.2.0</releaseinfo>
<!-- Abstract about this handbook -->
diff --git a/doc/makemostof.docbook b/doc/makemostof.docbook
index cf6f63567..c19442f26 100644
--- a/doc/makemostof.docbook
+++ b/doc/makemostof.docbook
@@ -433,5 +433,48 @@
comes with budgeting and forecasting features, and you can export your customized
reports via CSV into other applications.
</para>
+</sect1>
+
+<sect1 id="makingmostof.plugins">
+<title>Plugins</title>
+
+<para>
+ While a detailed knowledge of plugins is not necessary to use &kmymoney;, a basic
+ understanding is helpful, as the concept is mentioned in many places throughout
+ this handbook. When &kmymoney; was originally designed, all features and
+ functionality were implemented within the source code of the program. As more
+ features and functionality were added to the program, a plugin system was designed,
+ so additional functionality could be added in a way that did not require
+ modification of any of the core source code files. When &kmymoney; starts, it
+ looks in a specific directory for any plugins, and it creates the appropriate menu
+ menu and configuration entries for those it finds.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ When the first plugins were written, even though the source code was included with
+ the complete source code of &kmymoney;, not all &Linux; distributions included them
+ in the versions they compiled. For some time, the handbook included instructions
+ for checking this and for compiling them yourself, if necessary. At this point,
+ many of the basic features of &kmymoney; have been implemented as plugins, and they
+ are included by all distributions, as well as the &Windows; and &macOS; versions
+ distributed on the <ulink url="https://www.kmymoney.org">&kmymoney; web
+ site</ulink>.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ See the section on <link linkend="details.settings.plugins">Plugins</link> in the
+ chapter on <link linkend="details.settings">Settings</link> in the for more
+ information on determining which plugins are installed and active, and how to
+ configure them.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ If you wish to write your own plugin in order to implement a feature, such as
+ importing or exporting data in a custom format, you should use one of the existing
+ importer or exporter plugins as an example. If you do so, please write to the
+ developers' mailing list &devlist;, in case someone has already started a similar
+ effort, and because your work may be of interest to other users.
+</para>
+
</sect1>
</chapter>
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