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What is a good GEDCOM editor?

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Anonymous
2003-12-14
2003-12-27
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous - 2003-12-14

    I just installed this as I thought it would fun to try compiling a small family tree.  However, it seems to do anything one must already have a GEDCOM file.  If so, I would appreciate any recommendations on editors for family trees that export a file that phpGedView can work with?

    If possible, I'm interested in web-based, Java, or Linux applications.

    Thanks.

     
    • Jan Boesgaard

      Jan Boesgaard - 2003-12-14

      There are many program which you can use..

      Some a free to use some are free to try and some need registation.

      If you want a free version i can advice to use PAF
      http://www.familysearch.org/
      You can finde the program under download.

      The most USED and free to try is Legacy
      http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/

      The also Brotherkeep
      http://www.brotherskeeper.com/

      And many many others....

      Which you wanner use is up to you.
      Best is to try a few off them and select the one you like.
      All thise program i mention, can export to use in phpGedview. The can all export to a Gedcom file. UTF-8 and other if you want that.

       
    • John Finlay

      John Finlay - 2003-12-16

      You can also just import a simple one person gedcom file into PhpGedView and then start working with it.

      Just copy the following lines into a new text file and import it into PhpGedView.  From there you can begin adding new people.

      --John

      ## START OF GEDCOM - Copy everything after this line. ##
      0 HEAD
      1 SOUR PhpGedView
      2 VERS 2.61
      1 DEST ANSTFILE
      1 GEDC
      2 VERS 5.5
      2 FORM Lineage-Linked
      1 CHAR ANSEL
      0 @I1@ INDI
      1 NAME Given Names /Surname/
      1 SEX M
      1 BIRT
      2 DATE 02 OCT 1822
      2 PLAC Weston, Madison, Connecticut
      0 TRLR
      ## END GEDCOM FILE ##

       
      • KosherJava

        KosherJava - 2003-12-16

        Would it make sense to have an option in PGV of creating an "empty" GEDCOM so that users can start right away even without an existing GEDCOM (or searching for your post above :) )

         
      • Anonymous

        Anonymous - 2003-12-22

        Thanks.  I gave this a try and was able to get myself into the system.  I'm running into two problems though:

        1) I can't seem to add people easily.  The best I could do was add my girlfriend as "my wife".  I see no way to add my parents or siblings to the system.  The clickable link entitled "Link this person to an existing family as a Child" looks promising, however I can't find anyway to add a family. 

        2) Any changes made to records seem to require a mult-step committ and re-import process for the GEDCOM file before they become visible.  This is very confusing.  Why doesn't a change in birth date become immediately viewable from the various charts?

        Sorry if these are dumb questions.  PGV looks very good, but I'm having a lot of trouble actually using it.

         
    • John Finlay

      John Finlay - 2003-12-16

      Yes, this is something that I have thought about doing, but never took the time to do it.

      Now that someone else has brought it up, I am working on it as I am typing this.  On the Manage Gedcoms page I will add the option to Create a New Gedcom to go along with the Upload and Add options.

      --John

       
      • KosherJava

        KosherJava - 2003-12-16

        Maybe make the location a drop more generic.
        not everyone knows that PLAC is place (I can see help requests asking what PLAC Weston, Madison means, and how to translate it into an other language :)

         
    • John Finlay

      John Finlay - 2003-12-23

      The function to add new people are not completely implemented yet.

      You can acess the PGV database remotely using the GDBI client.  See http://www.phpgedview.net/editing.html

      The GDBI client will give you a lot more editing features than an online form could ever hope to provide.

      --John

       
      • Frederik Frost Nielsen

        but are you working on another solution than
        using the GDBI client? my webprovider doesnt support java...

        What I would like and what I thought phpGedView could was the ability to make and edit your family tree.

         
        • KosherJava

          KosherJava - 2003-12-25

          Your providor does not require Java. It is a purely client sided Java app that connects to the phpGedview repository to store data using the GDBI interfaces.
          PGV can now create new gedcoms for you and allows you basic editing even without the Java GDBI client.
          Read http://phpgedview.sourceforge.net/racp.html for a drop more info.

           
    • John Finlay

      John Finlay - 2003-12-27

      The Java client runs on your local computer and connects remotely to your PhpGedView site using a CGI interface.

      I am working on online editing forms.  You can add children, husbands, and wives, but you currently cannot add parents.

      Any changes do not become immediate because there are many calculations that take place at index time that have to be recalculated whenever you make changes.  For example, if you change the birth date of a grandchild, this could change the death status of the grandparent.  If you change a persons name, it will require changing the index for the family.

      Another reason for the reimport is that it is a convenient way to give administrators the ability to edit and approve changes before they go live.  So if your Aunt Joyce makes a change that you don't like, it isn't automatically live on your site.  You first have the option of asking her about it, and you can undo it.

      PhpGedView is designed to be a distributed editing environment and has been designed with this in mind.  It is meant to promote collaboration, research, and cooperation between family members.  This way someone can propose a change and then all the users on the site can log in and see the change without it actually being live to the public.

      The editing features of PhpGedView aren't meant to be a simple single user editor.  They are meant for multiuser editing and collaboration.

      Documentation is currently being written on how to use the online editing forms.

      --John

       

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