[Kmymoney-devel] Adding tags: any testers?

[Mikael Kujanpaa]

maanantai, 5. marraskuuta 2012 19:26:56 Alessandro Russo kirjoitti:
> Hi,
> my patch is complete (almost, but we decided to commit it and make some
> other changes after that), can somebody test it?

Hi, I took some time and tested it while inputting my transactions. Here are 
my notes:

- After I edit the splits, the focus jumps directly into Memo-field, skipping 
the tags field. If split-window is not displayed, the tab order works as 
expected.

- I didn't manage to get it crash anymore, so that seems to be okay now.

- If I enter already existing tag twise, it filters the tag from the list, 
which is good. But one can still write the same tag name and it will be asked 
if tag (with the same name) should be created. I think this should not be 
possible, unless tags could be grouped in hierarchy (and even then same name 
shouldn't be possible in same group).

- Tag functionality seems to be missing from loan wizard. I tested editing the 
existing loan, but I guess same applies to new loans as well. Since this is 
probably big change, I think current patch should be committed before 
implementing this.

Have you decided should tags be simple lists or two dimensioned hierarchy? I 
bet list is far simpler to implement, and probably meets most users needs too. 
But two dimension hierarchy would allow more advanced reporting, since tags 
could be used as grouping option instead of simple filtering. 

For example, I could have hierarchy called "Cars", and under that I could have 
all my cars listed (if I just had more than one :) ). Then, I could have 
hierarchy called "Family", and there would be my wife, my son and me. In this 
way:

Cars:
 - Porche
 - Ferrari
 - BMW

Family:
 - Wife
 - Son
 - Me

Now, I could tag my transactions from these two groups (but only one car and 
one family member per transaction). Let's assume there is bought some gasoline 
for the BMW that my son is gonna use. I would have transaction from category 
"Gasoline" and tag it with "Son" and "BMW". Then there is another transaction 
for gasoline, this time with tags "Son" and "Ferrari".

If I then select my son as a filter criterion in the reports, the reporting 
engine could generate automatically this kind of report:

Expences:
  Gasoline, BMW
  Gasoline, Ferrari

In single dimension model I couldn't separate the expences by other tag group, 
so I would just have one line "Gasoline" without knowing how much was spent 
for BMW and how much was for the Ferrari. (Sure, I could have categories named 
"Gasoline, BMW" and "Gasoline, Ferrari", but that would be bad idea because I 
would end up having tens of gasoline categories after some years when my cars 
have changed several times.)

Disclaimer: this wasn't my idea. My co-worker (who has worked several years 
doing different kind of corporate reports) mentioned it when I told him about 
your work. This might be too overkill for personal accounting application, but 
I thought still to mention it because I think my friend had a good point why 
tag hierarchies can be useful.

-- 
Mikki