Bug 460131 - Make it possible/easier to open account's web site to download transactions
Summary: Make it possible/easier to open account's web site to download transactions
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: kmymoney
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: git (master)
Platform: unspecified All
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KMyMoney Devel Mailing List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-10-08 18:58 UTC by Jack
Modified: 2024-07-20 14:39 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 5.2
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Button to open assigned URL (insitution or account) (11.08 KB, image/png)
2024-07-19 08:23 UTC, Thomas Baumgart
Details

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Description Jack 2022-10-08 18:58:44 UTC
Given the increasing number of institutions discontinuing OFX Direct Connect, KMM should make it easier to use Web Connect, which seems to be what the banks are suggesting.  This means at minimum, an easy way to go to the bank's main web site, or better (if possible,) to go to the page showing activity for that account.

Currently, a web site is only kept for Institutions, not for Accounts.  In addition, there is no hierarchy of institutions, only accounts.  In my case, I have an Institution for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.  (Even though they are formally separate, one owns the other, so I prefer to group them.)  However, they have separate web sites.  Thus I would like to either be able to store a URL for an Account, or to have a hierarchy for Institutions.  Just using two separate Institutions is certainly an option, but less desirable for me.

For ML, it does not look like there is a URL for activity for a single account, as the account is selected by dropdown - but the URL does not change.  I don't know about other banks, but if possible, it would be desirable to be able to specify that specific URL.
Comment 1 Brendan 2022-10-08 21:17:44 UTC
I think this would help but I have another suggestion, which would make it easier to import OFX files downloaded from multiple banks. The number of manual imports is increasing, thank Chase.

Currently you save the ofx or qfx file somewhere on your system. Then you have to import each saved ofx/qfx file one by one. As the number of accounts that require manual selection increases this becomes a bigger burden.

It would be nice if the process could be included as part of the "Update account" and "Update all accounts" process. This could be done a couple of different ways. A global path where the ofx/qfx files are saved could be set and then all existing ofx/qfx files are imported when you run "Update all accounts". Another option would be to define the path and file name for each ofx/qfx file for each account. This would allow you to update one account with the latest ofx/qfx file or update them all along with accounts that are still available directly from the bank via KMM ofx import.

I can make this a new wishlist item if this makes sense.
Comment 2 Jack 2022-10-08 21:35:07 UTC
You're missing one shortcut.  If you configure your browser to open the OFX or QFX file in KMyMoney directly instead of saving it, you save that step.

The hard part of your request is that I don't believe there is a single URL to use to request the data from a bank, although if there is, THAT is what I would save for each account.  I suppose you could trace the actual packets sent when making such a request to see if you can really craft such a URL  Merrill Lynch lets you distinguish since last statement, this month, last month, ...  At least for Merrill Lynch, I can download for the chosen period for all my accounts at once, but that does not appear the case for Bank of America, and it doesn't help with multiple institutions.
Comment 3 Brendan 2022-10-09 17:41:34 UTC
I'm not sure I have any banks where it is possible (or at least obvious) to get the ofx file directly from a URL. If it was, seems like a way to simulate direct connect so why save the file, just import it.

How does KMM handle an ofx file with multiple accounts in it (your Merrill Lynch accounts)? I've never tried it.

Every bank that I currently download ofx files from manually seems to do things their own way. I have more than one account at some of the banks and have always downloaded them separately. At a credit union, matching is a disaster so I'm always filtering by date to minimize duplicates.

It's for this reason, I'm proposing a way to import all saved ofx files along with any remaining direct connect accounts (or separately, if that's preferred). I assume it will take a fair amount of work to save the files manually but if that can be simplified, that would be even better. I'm not concerned about links to the banks in KMM, I always have one Firefox window open with all of my banks in tabs so getting to the web page is not an issue.

I'm imaging this as an update to the OXF Importer plugin, but I'm not sure how involved that would be. Maybe a new plugin, which would be a simplified version of the OFX Importer. I could see it starting out basic and improving with experience.

I currently have 6 or 7 accounts where I download the ofx file once a month and have to manually import the file to KMM. Now I've added my Chase credit card, Which I will probably import 4 to 6 times a month, basically doubling the number of times I have to go File, Import, OXF, and select the file. Automating just this part would be very helpful.
Comment 4 Jack 2022-10-09 17:59:39 UTC
Importing my ML OFX file with multiple accounts "just works." :-)  If you look into the file, you can see there is a section for each account, so some combination of libofx and KMM know what to do.  The data for each account gets imported into the correct account.

I agree there is a problem with naming downloaded OFX files.  Every bank uses different conventions, some even always using the exact same name for any ofx download.  However, I don't think it should be too hard for the ofx importer to allow pointing to more than one file - it can then just loop through them.  Pending any comments from the developers, I'll considering opening that specific change as a wishlist.

With your last item, if you don't have any reason to save the downloaded file after import, then I again suggest configuring  your browser to directly open the file in kmymoney instead of saving it.  That save the entire File Import/... process.
Comment 5 Thomas Baumgart 2024-07-14 16:02:54 UTC
Git commit f610de815453c8a3628af8490f7714168c5563e5 by Thomas Baumgart.
Committed on 14/07/2024 at 16:02.
Pushed by tbaumgart into branch 'master'.

Allow to override website URL on a per account basis

If an institution is assigned to the account the icon of the institution
will be used, a general one in other cases.
FIXED-IN: 5.2

M  +32   -2    kmymoney/dialogs/knewaccountdlg.cpp
M  +56   -30   kmymoney/dialogs/knewaccountdlg.ui
M  +36   -23   kmymoney/views/simpleledgerview.cpp

https://invent.kde.org/office/kmymoney/-/commit/f610de815453c8a3628af8490f7714168c5563e5
Comment 6 Jack 2024-07-18 17:20:26 UTC
Now that I'm trying to test this - how do you activate the web url for an account or institution?  I see you can click the icon next to the URL in the Edit Institution dialog, but I don't see anything similar on Edit Account.  Should I open a new wishlist, perhaps to add "open linked URL" to the Institution and Account options menu?  Maybe also put a button on the ledger page?  If I'm really stretching, could right clicking the ledger tab bring up the Account Options menu?
Comment 7 Thomas Baumgart 2024-07-19 08:23:37 UTC
Created attachment 171773 [details]
Button to open assigned URL (insitution or account)

That button exists in the ledger view for a long time now. See attached screenshot. It opens the URL entered in the account or in case that is empty, the one stored with the institution. If none is available, the button is not displayed. All this happens in the context of the selected account tab in the ledger.
Comment 8 Jack 2024-07-19 19:43:38 UTC
I had been looking for it somewhere on the tab itself.  However, that icon only seems to appear if you have explicitly entered a URL for the account.  If you have not done so, shouldn't it appear using the Institution's URL, if present?
Comment 9 Thomas Baumgart 2024-07-20 05:16:55 UTC
But that is exactly how it works (at least for me). The initial version was only supporting the institutions entry and I added to override it with the account's one lately. Now that I am looking at it again, I might move the URL entry to the institution tab, which is probably better suited for this item.
Comment 10 Jack 2024-07-20 14:39:54 UTC
Having a link to invoke the URL (if peresent) makes sense on both the Account and Institutions Edit pages, and I suppose even from their entry in the relevant View.  However, for my use case, it makes sense to be able to do so directly from the ledger.  For accounts which no longer support direct connect, being able to go directly to the web site from the ledger saves lots of steps.  Even if I don't have a specific URL for the account, falling back to the institution's URL if no account URL is available make sense.