The Gendex server indexes thousands of World Wide Web databases containing genealogical data for nearly forty million individuals, and gives the users the ability to locate and view data of interest on any of these databases.
Gendex is a way of sharing your genealogy without loosing control over your data, that is, all your information remains at your server. You only send the URL to your gendex file to gendex, which then will index your data, and send genealogy visitors your way, and directly to the pages of their interest :-)
You don't need gendex, unless you want to have your genealogy indexed at the gendex server.
I noticed that it's possible to access the gendexfile, even if authentication=YES is set. So that works ok.
Another issue: one of the reasons I let all users authenticate themselves, is that I want to prevent info on living persons to be public. In de Gendexfile however, all persons are included. You know of a way to limit the file to only dead persons?
Bye
Boudewijn
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I think this is reason to set the switch by default to off so gendex files are only generated if the user knows what he does!
I didn't think about that yet but it is true if you don't have a file ".htaccess" with the needed settings everyone is able to see that files as they are text files.
If you add ".htaccess" the gendex files don't make a sense :-(
As the privacy check is done online at the moment and not while importing the gedcom I don't see a way to prvent the addition of living user data :-(
What do you think?
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Thnx for your answer!
The .htaccess doesn't work for me, as I run PGV on a Windows-platform. And because my website is "open" to the world and only protected by the PGV-authentication, it's hard to make the GENDEX invisible. But as you said, there's no problem if the file is not generated at all!
Now for the privacy-check. I suppose the gendex is made at the moment the gedcom is imported. And at that time, there is not yet a privacyfile for it. So I guess it will be hard to filter something out at that time :-(
If I understand it right, it will only be possible if a separate function is created to make the gendex afterwards?
Boudewijn
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Kurt said:
> As the privacy check is done online at the
> moment and not while importing the gedcom I
> don't see a way to prvent the addition of living
> user data :-(
>
> What do you think?
In my opinion you could include a simple filter to check if a birthdate is older than say 120 years, so that persons younger than say 120 years and persons with missing birth year are excluded from the gendex file.
In this way living persons are not indexed at gendex.
When visitors via gendex finds their way to your site, the more advanced privacy setting of your site is active.
Boudewijn said:
> If I understand it right, it will only be possible if
> a separate function is created to make the
> gendex afterwards?
In my opinion it would be better if the gendex file was created by a separate function after the gedcom was imported and the privacy setting could be respected by this function.
Best regards,
Arne
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I also think that we should set the default for gendex files to off. The problem with privacy is that it is not based on a simple birthdate function. Detecting if someone is alive or dead has become a complicated issue and it is still not perfect.
If you are using gendex files you want them to be created automatically everytime you update your site by reimporting your gedcom. So the creation of gendex files really needs to happen at import time. Maybe gendex files becomes an optional step 6 in our new import process.
--John
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In fact you could consider setting the pivacy for a GEDCOM as step 6. Gendex files would be step 7 then, which is in the correct order. First privacy, then gendex.
Boudewijn.
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What are the gendex files of PhpGedView used for?
What can I do with them?
Why do I need them?
Hi Kurt
It was I who filed the RFE for the gendex files, because I thought it would be a nice addition to PhpGedView.
It you don't want the gendex files to be generated, you can turn the option of during setup, and it you want it to default to off, it's okay with me.
You can read about GENDEX here:
http://www.gendex.com/gendex/
The Gendex server indexes thousands of World Wide Web databases containing genealogical data for nearly forty million individuals, and gives the users the ability to locate and view data of interest on any of these databases.
Gendex is a way of sharing your genealogy without loosing control over your data, that is, all your information remains at your server. You only send the URL to your gendex file to gendex, which then will index your data, and send genealogy visitors your way, and directly to the pages of their interest :-)
You don't need gendex, unless you want to have your genealogy indexed at the gendex server.
http://www.gendex.com/gendex/submitting.html
Best regards,
Arne
Thanks for the good explanation :-)
Maybe we should also add this to the help text for the switch "gendex on or off"???
Hi Arne and Kurt,
I noticed that it's possible to access the gendexfile, even if authentication=YES is set. So that works ok.
Another issue: one of the reasons I let all users authenticate themselves, is that I want to prevent info on living persons to be public. In de Gendexfile however, all persons are included. You know of a way to limit the file to only dead persons?
Bye
Boudewijn
Hi Boudewijn and Arne,
I think this is reason to set the switch by default to off so gendex files are only generated if the user knows what he does!
I didn't think about that yet but it is true if you don't have a file ".htaccess" with the needed settings everyone is able to see that files as they are text files.
If you add ".htaccess" the gendex files don't make a sense :-(
As the privacy check is done online at the moment and not while importing the gedcom I don't see a way to prvent the addition of living user data :-(
What do you think?
Hi Kurt,
Thnx for your answer!
The .htaccess doesn't work for me, as I run PGV on a Windows-platform. And because my website is "open" to the world and only protected by the PGV-authentication, it's hard to make the GENDEX invisible. But as you said, there's no problem if the file is not generated at all!
Now for the privacy-check. I suppose the gendex is made at the moment the gedcom is imported. And at that time, there is not yet a privacyfile for it. So I guess it will be hard to filter something out at that time :-(
If I understand it right, it will only be possible if a separate function is created to make the gendex afterwards?
Boudewijn
Hi Kurt and Boudewijn
Kurt said:
> As the privacy check is done online at the
> moment and not while importing the gedcom I
> don't see a way to prvent the addition of living
> user data :-(
>
> What do you think?
In my opinion you could include a simple filter to check if a birthdate is older than say 120 years, so that persons younger than say 120 years and persons with missing birth year are excluded from the gendex file.
In this way living persons are not indexed at gendex.
When visitors via gendex finds their way to your site, the more advanced privacy setting of your site is active.
Boudewijn said:
> If I understand it right, it will only be possible if
> a separate function is created to make the
> gendex afterwards?
In my opinion it would be better if the gendex file was created by a separate function after the gedcom was imported and the privacy setting could be respected by this function.
Best regards,
Arne
Hi Arne,
Thnx for your response. I'll post an RFE for this new function.
Boudewijn.
I also think that we should set the default for gendex files to off. The problem with privacy is that it is not based on a simple birthdate function. Detecting if someone is alive or dead has become a complicated issue and it is still not perfect.
If you are using gendex files you want them to be created automatically everytime you update your site by reimporting your gedcom. So the creation of gendex files really needs to happen at import time. Maybe gendex files becomes an optional step 6 in our new import process.
--John
In fact you could consider setting the pivacy for a GEDCOM as step 6. Gendex files would be step 7 then, which is in the correct order. First privacy, then gendex.
Boudewijn.