Splitwise import 2.0

[krokosik]

The Context

There are numerous issues raised (#271 #207 #46 ...) with the current state of Splitwise import and I would like to group them all together, as well as gather feedback for how I would like to rework the current flow.

Currently, we rely on an external hosted solution, to generate a JSON with SOME data fetched from Splitwise API. Looking at the code, it is very simple. We do not import expenses and with the planned #234, such imported accounts will break.

The background for not importing expenses was the fact, that we do not want to overload the Node server with processing of JSONs, which could slow down the app (this concern was probably related more to the public instance) #29

The Plan

• Add pg-boss, which will allow us to offload execution to another process. We also want this for Feature Request: Allow currency exchange transactions #79 and Feature Request: Recurring expense #160
• Change the import splitwise screen, to have an accordion from https://export-splitwise.vercel.app/ and accept the API key not JSON
• Create a worker job that first does exactly what the current functionality does
• Fetch ALL transactions in batches
• Fetch more transaction metadata

Along the way, we might switch to https://github.com/athulanilthomas/splitwise-ts

Nice to have

• more granular import, allow importing a subset of groups/friends
• toggle for archived groups
• toggle for not importing settled up expenses
• ability to sync Splitwise data after it has been imported

[krokosik]

Feel free to comment your opinions on this and please keep all Splitwise import related discussion here

[krokosik]

Okay, I see now that the terms of use for the Splitwise API, unsurprisingly, explicitly disallow using it for developing a competing service to their product. I see 2 paths forward:

1. Create another hosted app like the one currently used, but with extended functionality
2. Limit ourselves to their official CSV exports.

[rodrigost23]

Is the CSV too limited? Does it lack information?

[krokosik]

@rodrigost23 It's more work for me to implement it mostly + I'm not sure if you can read parts of a csv into memory in JS.

[krokosik]

And a full CSV export seems to be a premium feature

[rodrigost23]

I'm able to export CSVs by friend or by group without being a premium subscriber, and it downloaded all transactions since 2019 (which means everything I have there) in the following format:

Date	Description	Category	Amount	Currency	Person 1 Name	Person 2 Name
2019-08-01	Snack	Food	50	BRL	-25	25
...	...	...	...	...	...	...
2025-09-27	Total balance			BRL	-500	500

Not a very good machine-readable format anyway, especially considering everything came translated. So not only the headers were translated, but also category names were in Portuguese.

Maybe having a way to import SplitPro data in its own format (json?) would be ideal, so a converter from Splitwise API or CSV could be part of that external hosted app, not part of SplitPro so to not infringe their terms.

[Luifr]

Any user can export CSV data without premium account

CSV export is per group or person
When exporting data for a person only non-group transactions are exported

I would like to be able to import group expenses via CSV

Each row will be a transaction in split-pro db, the user will have to map each split wise person to a spli-pro person (or create a new one with the same name as a default)