When using the Batch Update function for exchange rates, the existing data that appears as Step #1 to be copied is incorrect. Columns should include Date, Currency, and Rate. But what appear to be alphanumeric keys appear in the second column instead of the currency name. This list of exchange rates:
produces this list to be copied:
Also note that in this example, the last two erroneous keys are identical, although the currencies they replace are not.
This is not a bug. All currencies in Manager are known by their internal ID. This internal ID must be used instead of currency name.
I do want to improve batch update and batch create operations so these columns can be more user-friendly. E.g. Manager will be able to accept “currency code” as ID rather than its internal ID. This would make it a lot cleaner but I’m not there yet.
Also, this is not exclusive to exchange rates. When you try batch update customers, you will see Currency column will behave the same.
Well, this is an explanation that makes technical sense, but not very satisfying. Basically, if the user tries a batch update, she has no indication what currencies she is updating. So why bother? Unless you are using an edition that allows multiple windows to be opened, you cannot even go back to the listing screen to look. So you have to print the screen or write down notes on order of presentation.
In my opinion, this is almost worse than no batch operations at all. My thought would be to suppress the capability until it is more user-friendly. Obviously, the program knows what the currency is, because it displays it in other circumstances. So somewhere, the ability to convert the internal ID to a sensible currency name exists.
Batch update is not something you will often do in relation to exchange rates. But it’s there for consistency reasons.
How come? You can batch create exchange rates. Previously you couldn’t. How is this worse?
The table headings for Batch Create are understandable:
Table contents for Batch Update are not:
To my thinking, a table you cannot update as part of an update feature is worse than no feature at all. It raises false expectations and leads to frustration. Obviously you don’t expect a user to input a 32-character ID for a currency when doing a batch creation. If the program can handle dollars, euros, pounds, and francs when creating exchange rates, why can’t it handle them when updating?
Note that in my example, three lines in the table were on the same date. Two lines have the same internal ID. In this limited scenario, we might assume that ID belongs to the US dollar. But in more extensive tables, it might readily become impossible to discern. And we have no way of knowing what the other two IDs correspond to.
Well, you can. But you’d probably do batch operations on one currency at the time to avoid confusion. Unless you are using some script to generate spreadsheet with exchange rates.
Is this user-friendly? Well, it could be better but this is an issue that affects globally batch operations across all objects not just exchange rates. So as batch operations will continue to improve, so will this part of the program. Eventually, you won’t see 32-character IDs and Manager will have more user-friendly unique names for objects.
A suggestion for @lubos and possible solution for @Tut:
How about when batch exporting, an additional column be added (“Currency Name”). That way, the Currency UUID still exists for technical reasons, but the Currency Name is there for human reference when updating hundreds of exchange rates in Excel.
Batch import would use the Currency UUID, and simply ignore the Currency Name field as it’s only there for reference by the user.
