Why does CSV Export DROP unassigned transactions?

[Peter J. Farley III]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: KMyMoney [mailto:kmymoney-bounces at kde.org] On Behalf Of
> aga
> Sent: Friday, December 23, 2016 6:08 AM
> To: kmymoney at kde.org
> Subject: Re: Why does CSV Export DROP unassigned transactions?
> 
> Hi
> 
> I think it would be best for you to raise a bug report for this, as
it
> may take some while for a fix to be produced.  Strictly, it is not a
> bug as the software is doing what it was designed to do.  Please
report
> it as a wishlist entry, so that it is not forgotten.
> 
> Please say if an investment account was being exported.  It probably
> makes not a lot of difference, but at least it helps to initially
> concentrate on the suspect area.
> 
> More in line below.

Thanks for the response Allan.

After reading your answers below, I do understand.  I will file a
wishlist entry.

However, I must also comment that IMHO a transaction without a
category (unassigned) is not necessarily a case of "bad data".
"Missing" does not necessarily equal "bad", though as you correctly
say the user should certainly be alerted to the condition so that it
can be corrected.  A report or log of all such transactions generated
at the end of an import or export function would be my preferred
solution to that reporting.  Perhaps a log file to disk with a pop-up
window identifying the log file name and location would be the easiest
implementation.  I will suggest that solution in my wishlist entry.

I would also hope that any future "database" implementation of the KMM
main file would not make the Category field a "required" database
column at import or export time, since import of transactions from
outside sources may or may not contain "category" information.

This was a checking account being exported, not an investment account.

Regards,

Peter
 
> On Thu, 22 Dec 2016 14:00:33 -0500
> "Peter J. Farley III" <pjfarley3 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > Hi All,
> 
> > kMyMoney V4.7.2 on Win7 64-bit system when exporting in CSV
> > format DROPS transactions with unassigned categories.  And it pops

> > up a window for every single such transaction, requiring the user
to 
> > click OK for each one.  Why does it do that?
> 
> Not a very useful answer, I'm afraid, but the CSV exporter was
largely
> based on the QIF exporter, but expanded.  So, the way is is, is
pretty
> historic, unfortunately.
> 
> > Why can't it just write out the transaction with a null CSV field
for
> > the category, and also report all such transactions in one single
> > window at the end of the export process instead of a separate pop-
> > up window for each one?
> >
> 
> I think the expectation was that, probably, a single transaction was
in
> error, rather than bulk transactions.
> 
> > It makes no sense to me to DROP transactions with unassigned
> > categories.  The user may not have gotten around to assigning
> > categories yet but may still need to export all such transactions.
> 
> Whilst that does seem reasonable, remember that there is still a
> problem in your KMM file, which still needs to be resolved, so the
user
> does need to be alerted.  If the transaction is unbalanced, what
gets
> exported could contain bad data.
> 
> > Does V4.8.0 change this behavior?
> 
> No, nor the development branch.
> 
> > Peter
> >
> 
> Allan