hledger-web doesn't show results for accounts with an apostrophe

[ohmyohmyohmy]

When clicking on an account (on the left hand column) that contains an apostrophe like "Mimi's Cafe", the result that appears is always blank with a flat graph. This applies to all sub-accounts too.

Other accounts without apostrophe like "Bella Italia" doesn't have this problem.

Thanks!

[simonmichael]

Good catch! The fix might include adding a call to quoteIfNeeded in the searchform function. The bug happens only with account names containing both a space and an apostrophe (single quote). Are you a haskeller ?

[simonmichael]

Correction, I think the problem is in Common.hs (hledger-web):

accountQuery :: AccountName -> String
accountQuery a = "inacct:" ++ T.unpack (quoteIfSpaced a) -- (accountNameToAccountRegex a)

accountOnlyQuery :: AccountName -> String
accountOnlyQuery a = "inacctonly:" ++ T.unpack (quoteIfSpaced a ) -- (accountNameToAccountRegex a)

and Text.hs (hledger-lib):

-- | Wrap a string in double quotes, and \-prefix any embedded single
-- quotes, if it contains whitespace and is not already single- or
-- double-quoted.
quoteIfSpaced :: T.Text -> T.Text
quoteIfSpaced s | isSingleQuoted s || isDoubleQuoted s = s
                | not $ any (`elem` (T.unpack s)) whitespacechars = s
                | otherwise = "'"<>escapeSingleQuotes s<>"'"

This is a nice starter bug for anyone wanting to get started on hledger-web hacking. Steps might include:

• set up hledger source for building, see download page
• make ghci-web
• :main -f examples/sample.journal
• add some transactions to Expenses:Mimi's Cafe
• in browser: reload & reproduce bug
• change the above code somehow
• in ghci window: CTRL-c, :r ENTER, CTRL-p ENTER
• in browser: reload & observe effects of change
• figure out what is the correct thing it should be doing.. smarter handling of embedded quotes ? url-encoding ?

[ohmyohmyohmy]

Sorry, I don't speak Haskel. (Sad...) But I did find a temporary solution! I had to replace the apostrophes surrounding the account name with quotation marks "...", and then it'll work.

Example:
inacct:'Expenses:Mimi's Cafe' - fail
inacct:"Expenses:Mimi's Cafe" - works!

Are you proud of me? Huh? Are ya?

Just kidding! (I like to think programmers have a sense of humor too)

[simonmichael]

+1 creative interim solution ! :)

[efx]

I'll take a look at this one.

[efx]

Not a haskeller so am unfamiliar with how best modify those mentioned functions. I did confirm that an account with a single quote but no spaces behaves properly, e.g. mimi'snospace. Additionally the network request from hledger web properly encodes the single quote as %27.
It seems that isSingleQuoted should do a more comprehensive test on the account name? Or maybe the account name should have spaces stripped before invoking isSingleQuoted?

[ptek]

Hi Simon, I am trying to get into hledger-web with this one. Is there any reason that the documentation of quoteIfSpaced says "Wrap a string in double quotes" but the function actually wraps the string in single quotes?

[simonmichael]

Hi ptek, thanks! You're quite right, that's a mistake. Hledger.Utils.Text is a rough partial port of Hledger.Utils.String and it looks like I got confused.

[simonmichael]

Replying here re #649: I'm not sure that is right. Shouldn't it be "\""<>escapeDoubleQuotes s<>"\"" ?

The semantics of these helpers seem quite confusing, they are perhaps in need of additional clarification and some tests. Eg:

• why are we using quoteIfSpaced (handles whitespace) and not quoteIfNeeded (handles whitespace and single/double quote chars) as in String.hs ?

• should single quote chars be legal in account names ? If not, do we do enough validation/warning when they are used ? If yes, do we fully support that ?

• same questions for double quotes

• is escapeDoubleQuotes (String and Text versions) doing anything ? I don't think so

[simonmichael]

PS I tested with the following journal. hledger-web 1.5 shows the correct register screen for 5/9 txns, the #649 patch works for 7/9 txns (it fails on 2 and 4):

2018/1/1
    (1:mimi's cafe)  1

2018/1/2
    (2:expenses:"alex" cafe)  1

2018/1/3
    (3:expenses:le'shan's cafe)  1

2018/1/4
    (4:expenses:"be'any's" cafe)  1

2018/1/5
    (5:a'a)  1

2018/1/6
    (6:b'b'b)  1

2018/1/7
    (7:c'c'c'c)  1

2018/1/8
    (8:d')  1

2018/1/9
    (9:a' a)  1

[simonmichael]

Ping.. would anyone like to push this to completion ?

[ptek]

Would you like all 9 of 9 cases in the above comment covered?
I could give it a try

[simonmichael]

@ptek that would be nice, but even better if you could investigate the points I raised in the previous comment.

[ptek]

Ok, I hope I have enough insight into hledger for that. Will do my best

[simonmichael]

Thanks for the help! If you'd like to look at it together, ping me on #hledger.