BTW, I really like the idea of converting the various transaction-global fields to a user-definable map of metadata. I'm thinking of doing the same thing eventually in Beancount, whereby the flag, payee, narration, links and tags of a transaction would be demoted to be just special key-value pairs in a more general metadata map, and the user could add their own keys as well (as they do in Ledger). I have no use for it myself so far, but combined with filtering capability, this is a simple and powerful idea I can see someone using to come up with creative solutions to problems unforeseen.
On Sat, Jul 12, 2014 at 6:09 PM, Craig Earls <ender...@gmail.com> wrote: > Metadata was added on late in ledgers history. Putting it in the comments > seemed less disruptive. May it's time to revisit that. > > > On Saturday, July 12, 2014, Martin Blais <bl...@furius.ca> wrote: > >> On Sat, Jul 12, 2014 at 5:20 PM, Jules van Velzen < >> julesvanvel...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> The reason why I can not (or better: will not) use narration (or payee >>> or description) for this is, as far as I can see, because it is a single >>> line only. Besides that, the payee field can be explicitly queried by using >>> the at shortcut (@) so I consider that a field which is in my control >>> (=explicit/consent) and use it to identify edge cases. However, to give an >>> explicit example: >>> >>> 2013-12-18 ZAAK >>> Crediteur:TMobile 15,26 EUR >>> Bank:AbnAmro -15,26 EUR >>> ; SEPA Incasso algemeen doorlopend >>> ; Incassant: NL93ZZZ33265679XXXX >>> ; Naam: T-Mobile Netherlands BV >>> ; Machtiging: 1.13567XXX >>> ; Omschrijving: Factuurnummer 9012 >>> ; 05477XXX >>> ; IBAN: NL12COBA0733959XXX >>> ; Kenmerk: 501205939XXX >>> >> >> Are you able to extract all of this information from a downloadable file? >> If so, I wish my bank did this. I get almost nothing: a one-liner >> semi-cryptic "memo". >> Or are you slightly OCD and add all of this information manually for >> every bill, even a less than 20 EUR bill? >> >> >> >> The comment implies a complete description for a transaction as >>> downloaded from my bankstatements. >>> >> >> I see in the manual that Ledger calls these "comments" but they're >> attached to the transaction somehow. >> I would not call this "a comment": in most computer languages a comment >> is ignored by the parser. >> These "Ledger comments" sound more like metadata than comments. >> >> >> >>> Maybe I could put it on one line but that deteriorates its readability. >>> I have tried to use a different comment-character like # or | but that >>> works only for one line. [ >>> http://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Commenting-on-your-Journal >>> ]. The reason I asked is because I might be overlooking something. Of >>> course it is fun to see that the bank or any person could help me tag my >>> transactions through the description field, though ... rather not. >>> >> >> I don't understand what this means. You seem to have a lot of info you >> can use in your import script. >> >> >> >>> >>> For now, I settle by transforming the : (ascii colon) to : (unicode >>> ratio symbol) by generating comments from statements. >>> >> >> What precisely do you mean by "settle"? >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>> >>> Thanks all for the input! >>> >>> On Saturday, July 12, 2014 12:00:57 AM UTC+2, Martin Blais wrote: >>> >>>> On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Jules van Velzen < >>>> julesva...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> One of the parts of completing my/a bookkeeping is to import bank >>>>> statements into ledger where each transaction has a description. >>>>> While the following problem does not happen often, the description >>>>> might have colons (:) and thus conflicts with the way tags work in >>>>> Ledger-Cli. >>>>> A minimal requirement to see if everything went ok is to visually >>>>> inspect the descriptions with the print command. >>>>> A description has the length of a sms and might imply multiple lines. >>>>> Of course it is possible to substitute the colon with something else, >>>>> however I would like the description (transaction comment) to be as >>>>> authentic as possible. >>>>> Is there a way to have real comments? In other words, a comment where >>>>> implicit meta-data like tags is not active? >>>>> >>>> >>>> Can you not use the narration for this? >>>> >>>> -- >>> >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Ledger" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to ledger-cli+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >> -- >> >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Ledger" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to ledger-cli+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > -- > Craig, Corona De Tucson, AZ > enderw88.wordpress.com > > -- > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ledger" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to ledger-cli+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ledger-cli+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
