XML file for testing

[Dreamsorcerer]

It would be nice to have an XML version of the test gnucash file. When I open the sqlite file, it says the there's no supported backend, as it appears I don't have the dependencies installed. As XML is the default and should always be available for every install, it seems like a good idea to have the test file in XML.

As a bug report, I'm pretty sure when I selected the file in assist mode it did not report any errors, but just continued to the final screen with all the fields still at 0.

[cybermaggedon]

accounts.gnucash in the accounts directory is an 'XML' form of a GnuCash file: https://github.com/cybermaggedon/gnucash-uk-vat/blob/master/accounts/accounts.gnucash which is what I use to test with.

There is a complication with testing the XML form in that it can only be read by the 'gnucash' backend. As you know, we support 'piecash' and 'gnucash' backends:

• gnucash uses the Python libraries which are shipped with the GnuCash package and basically use the native GnuCash libraries, so it's the closest to 'official' support. Last time I looked, the GnuCash official package only shipped Python library support in the Linux packages, and they're also supplied if you install the official packages which come with Fedora, Ubuntu etc. However, they are not installed on Windows or MacOS packages.
• piecash uses a database backend to directly read the database file, so has minimal dependencies. It only works with the SQLite version of GnuCash files, not the XML version.

The 'gnucash' library involves some HUGE dependencies. On Linux, GnuCash itself depends on Gnome, which depends on all of the desktop components. Thus testing the GnuCash backend involves installing over 1GB of dependencies. I haven't got a cost-effective way of including that in our Github testing pipelines at the moment. Maybe the gnucash backend gets some mock testing, I can't 100% remember

[cybermaggedon]

Maybe it would work to have a bunch of gnucash backend integration tests which aren't invoked in the pipelines but can be invoked manually for those of us with the right environment

[cybermaggedon]

It's 5 years since I made accounts.gnucash so can't 100% remember, but I'd be fairly sure it's the same accounts as accounts2.gnucash just saved in a different format.

[Dreamsorcerer]

Hmm, I opened accounts.gnucash, but it only has 2 transactions in the 2017 period. When loading it through assist mode I still get an empty summary:

VAT due on sales              :            0.00
VAT due on acquisitions       :            0.00
Total VAT due                 :            0.00
VAT reclaimed                 :            0.00
VAT due                       :            0.00
Sales before VAT              :            0.00
Purchases ex. VAT             :            0.00
Goods supplied ex. VAT        :            0.00
Total acquisitions ex. VAT    :            0.00

[cybermaggedon]

Are you using with the test VAT service? Using the right VRN would make it come with a VAT obligation in the 2017 period. The 2017 period was selected in that test data because it matches the test periods used by HMRC VAT on-boarding.

Maybe we need a better set of test data, though.

[Dreamsorcerer]

Are you using with the test VAT service? Using the right VRN would make it come with a VAT obligation in the 2017 period. The 2017 period was selected in that test data because it matches the test periods used by HMRC VAT on-boarding.

Yes, that's why I mentioned there's only 2 transactions in the 2017 period in that accounts file. The other transactions are in 2020 and wouldn't help with testing.

[Dreamsorcerer]

Something is not right, looking closer, there are transactions in the first quarter of 2017, but gnucash-uk-vat still does not recognise anything:

[Dreamsorcerer]

Also, when I select the file in the file selection dialog, I get an exception. Maybe this is the root cause?

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/s/Hacking/gnucash-uk-vat/gnucash_uk_vat/assist.py", line 111, in select
    self.check()
  File "/home/s/Hacking/gnucash-uk-vat/gnucash_uk_vat/assist.py", line 162, in check
    k = self.kind
AttributeError: 'FileSelection' object has no attribute 'kind'

[Dreamsorcerer]

Yes it is. If I change the toggle to piecash and then back to gnucash in order for .kind to be set and then select the file in the file dialog, then everything works correctly.

So, first we need to have kind set correctly as the default value I guess. Then we should really be failing the program on an exception instead of continuing as if everything was fine...

[cybermaggedon]

Ah makes sense, thanks for tracking it down

[cybermaggedon]

Got an experimental test data generator...

https://github.com/cybermaggedon/gnucash-uk-vat/tree/feature/test-accounts-generator/test-generator

on a branch

[Dreamsorcerer]

Great. For regular users, a default that has been pre-generated is probably all that is needed and would make testing easier (I'm still waiting for HMRC feedback, but I think they'll look at the last request sent to their API when evaluating the application, so just need enough data for people to demonstrate it).

[cybermaggedon]

Can I just check @Dreamsorcerer, did your PR fix the VAT zero return numbers?

[Dreamsorcerer]

Yes, although it would be nice to have the application fail entirely if an exception occurs.

[Dreamsorcerer]

• piecash uses a database backend to directly read the database file, so has minimal dependencies. It only works with the SQLite version of GnuCash files, not the XML version.

I would note that the sqlite accounts in the test/ directory does not appear to be set up with VAT accounts, so does not appear to be helpful for testing.