v1.3.5 "Recurring Transactions" Problems (bugs or design decisions?)

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Daddy Peacebucks
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v1.3.5 "Recurring Transactions" Problems (bugs or design decisions?)

Post by Daddy Peacebucks »

A few weeks ago I upgraded from v1.3.3 to v1.3.5 (running both in portable mode), and while recently recording bill payments in the Recurring Transactions section, I noticed several changes in v1.3.5 (maybe they happened in v1.3.4, but I never ran that version). Specifically these changes are:

  1. The little 3-color circular button to right of the Date Paid field (that would say Reset 'Date Paid' to 'Today's Date' if you hovered the cursor over that button) is missing. This feature has been very useful. I realize that you can choose today's date by clicking within the drop down calendar, but the button was faster (especially when paying multiple bills on the same day).
     
  2. The Transaction Date monthly calendar inside the Recurring Transaction box is missing. The calendar is still available as a drop-down box, but I liked it showing up without having to click anything.
     
  3. The "Date Paid" and "Date Due" field locations (and their 'hints') have been switched. The new locations don't make sense compared to the old locations in v1.3.3. <== THIS ITEM IS CLEARLY A BUG (and results in the next item not working properly)
     
  4. When recording the payment of a bill (using the "Enter Next Occurrence" option) I now only have the ability to change the "Date Due", but cannot change the "Date Paid" ("Date Paid" is now greyed out). This is the exact opposite of what should happen.

While changes 1 & 2 may be intentional design decisions (which I personally don't like, but great minds can disagree!), changes 3 & 4 behave like actual bugs.

Would you let me know if any (or all) of the above are bugs? Or am I misunderstanding how the program is intended to be used.

If #3 is a bug, then simply switching the two field names (and related hints) back to their previous location will effectively 'fix' #4. For now, I'm going to continue to use the field labeled 'Date Due' as my 'Date Paid' field (and vice-versa), based on their previous locations rather than their current titles. That effectively keeps things working as I have always used MMEX in the past.

Note that in the past I have used "Edit Recurring Transaction" to change the data for an upcoming bill (for example the amount due in the next month on an electric bill), and used the "Enter Next Occurrence" to record when I have paid the bill. Having I been using the program incorrectly all these years?

If you don't intend on changing these back (or if you think they won't be fixed for quite a while), would there be a problem if I went back to using v1.3.3 (I don't want to risk corrupting my data by reverting to an old version)?

FYI, I run MMEX under Windows (in case that is relevant to the missing features and/or the ability to safely go back to using v1.3.3).

Let me know if you need screenshots for any of the above issues.
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Re: v1.3.5 "Recurring Transactions" Problems (bugs or design decisions?)

Post by Nikolay »

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Re: v1.3.5 "Recurring Transactions" Problems (bugs or design decisions?)

Post by Daddy Peacebucks »

Thanks, however neither report mentioned the "hover text" also being incorrectly placed. I'm just letting you know that those also need to be moved (maybe it will happen automatically when you move the field names).

Also, no discussion of the always visible calendar nor the Reset 'Date Paid' to 'Today's Date' circular button being removed. Are those two items gone for good?
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Re: v1.5.1 "Recurring Transactions" Problems (bugs or design decisions?)

Post by Daddy Peacebucks »

I don't mean to be a pest, but the "problem" (as I see it) still exists (now in v1.5.1), and I'm not getting any answers to my questions other than links being posted that don't actually answer them.

First of all, I can't tell from the responses on GitHub (or the response on this board) whether or not this is considered a bug. To me it still is (especially because it didn't behave this way before v1.3.4). Let me explain with an example:

I have a recurring electric bill due on the 12th of each month. This month I decide I want to pay that bill early (on the 6th). When I select that transaction using "Enter next Occurrence..." to make a payment, I can't change the "Date Paid" at all (it's not clickable from that screen, it's greyed-out), and if I change the "Date Due" to the 6th and then click OK, the payment posts as a future payment (with its date being the 12th), so then I have to change the date of that transaction to the 6th (so I know when I actually submitted payment).

Am I completely misunderstanding something? Am I supposed to be entering early payments using a different method? Or is this actually an acknowledged bug that just hasn't been fixed yet? If this isn't considered a bug (and therefore isn't going to change), I'll ask again - can I go back to using v1.3.3 without corrupting my data? If so, can I revert from 1.5.1 (which I just installed today), or do I need to use my backed up data from v1.3.5 (which I've been running since my previous posts in November 2020)? Or won't that work either?
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Re: v1.3.5 "Recurring Transactions" Problems (bugs or design decisions?)

Post by Renato »

I have tested shortly, it is correct that the changed booking date (Date Due) is not taken over, but (Date Paid).
@Nikolay will surely have a look at it.
I would suggest to continue with version 1.5.1 and adjust the posting date manually (Edit Transaction).

If you can go back to version 1.3.3, probably yes, but I don't have such version installed anymore to test that.
Make a backup of the database .mmb and test with 1.3.3.
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