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GEDCOM File Spec Differences...

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2004-01-31
2004-07-06
  • Chrus Rotti

    Chrus Rotti - 2004-01-31

    I tested roughly phpGedView and I really like it. Open Source, GEDCOM and a great community for me offers more value then every other software. Only with the usabilty obviously some Win Progs are better then a HTML application.

    Now my problem: I'm having problems with my GEDCOM data file. I have build up a (little) GEDCOM-database with the german software "GENprofi-Stammbaum 2.6". Previous I tried PAF and other programs. Now I like to use the GENprofi data file (that declared by the software is GEDCOM 5.5) for an import in phpGedView. In german forums I already found out that the format is not perfectly correct.

    2 problems (I'm not a engineer and I only try to translate):
    A) per row one "filling byte" is missing
    B) the software use some keywords that are "old"; I added a sample entry because I don't know if this is right (names changed):
    0 @I2000344@ INDI
    1 NAME Peter /Rotti/
    2 GIVN Peter
    2 SURN Rotti
    1 FAMC @F7@
    1 FAMS @F8@
    1 FAMS @F9@
    1 BIRT
    2 DATE 22 FEB 1726
    2 PLAC Austria-Hungary
    1 DEAT
    2 DATE 20 APR 1792
    2 PLAC Austria-Hungary
    1 SEX M

    Now I have some questions:
    1) Have I a chance to use the GENprofi-File in phpGedView ?
    2) If I like to start a new file in an other Win Prog: what software is recommended and 100% GEDCOM and phpGedView compatible?

     
    • Peter Pluntke

      Peter Pluntke - 2004-01-31

      Hi Chrus,

      haven't had a look at your Stammbaum's output yet, but I tried GenProfi Stammbaum as well and I rejected it.
      As I'm german too, I'd like to tell you about my favourites:

      Have a look at
      http://ahnen.pluntke.com and there to "software".

      There you'll find my opinion - why I've chosen "ages" (just for campatibility reasons), and I can tell you, that it's working great with phpGedVirew.

      If anybody else is interested: my page is available in english too.

      Regards
      Peter

      PS: Chrus - if you have any further questions you can also reach me at my sourceforge-net email address (of course in german too ;-)

       
    • Willem H. Rozendaal

      Hello everybody,

      I'm working on a program to solve o.a. exactly this kind of problems "incompatibility between versions of gedcom". Currently it takes the gedcom of a number of applications (mostly Ducth ones but also FTW, but I'll support Legacy and PAF in the next release) and does sanity checks etc, and then can translate to o.a. a format that is perfectly understood by PHPgedVIEW.

      I personally think that is a better aproach to import the data in PHPgedView then then having that program focus on multiple input dialects or being forced to use only certain applications when you want the to use the great product phpgedview is.

      You can freely download the program from www.xs4all.nl/~rozendaa/gedcompare.

      THe program is still very much under development and I would not even have released it if it was not in a very high demand in the Netherlands. It performs, apart for translating the following operations on gedcom files: Finding persons that possibly are present in one file more than once, finding persons present in both of two input files, finding the differences between two files, and repairing corrupted gedcom files. I regret al documentation is in dutch, but the program does speak English and is very much self-explaining.

      I would be quite willing to have a look at the specification of the GENprofi-file GEDCOM output (or lacking that, at a couple of gedcom-files from that product) to see if I can fit it in. From the description given by Chrus, it is very much like one of the dutch programs, so maybe I can make an intermediate release that supports GENprofi-file.

      The documentation may be in German. Please contact me directly at whrozendaal@famrozendaal.xs4all.nl if you have any questions regarding GEDCOMpare, since I do not think that GEDCOMpare should further discussed here.

      But I'm very much interested to see a discussion about the concept of creating an intermediate program that takes various kinds in input formats and translates them to something that phpgedview is fond off.

      Wim Rozendaal,
      The Netherlands

       
      • KosherJava

        KosherJava - 2004-02-01

        I suggest you have a look at this bug:
        http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=808788&group_id=55456&atid=477079
        specifically have a look at te mention of an other tool. If someone could put these algorithms into php it could be part of the tools in the import process.

         
        • Willem H. Rozendaal

          As I mentioned in my previous post in this thread: my program would very likely solve the problem of incomplete processing of the FTM file. WHen I mentioned FTW, I refered to Family Tree Maker for Windows. Most likely the program talked about in the problem you mentioned. So this should provide a work-around.

          As for your question to put the code into PHP: I do not know the language, but most likely it would be to slow an appication to run on the server. My program now is somewhere between 75000 and 100000 VB.net lines of code.

           
          • KosherJava

            KosherJava - 2004-02-01

            I  dont imagine that the algoritm is 10,000 lines. the vvisual stuff might eat up code but the conversion algorithm is probably very small.

             
            • Willem H. Rozendaal

              I've just recounted. The program is structured as followes: a lot of routines that perform all the functions like comparing, searching doubles, complex privacy filtering, displaying different languages etc. That makes up for about 10000 lines of code, hardly any generated.
              The code supporting the display of the dat on screen. About 20000 lines of code, most of them generated by the screen painter. A general input routine and a general output routine, that both take about 2000 lines and store/retrieve the data into/from an internal database. The output routine is supported by a 'translate input to intermediate code'routine for each input dialect. They are between 50 and 2000 lines, depending how big de differences between offical 5.5 and the actual dialect are. And there also is an 'intermediate to output translate' for each supported dialect. Same size. Th e biggest are fro Family tree maker for windows.
              Last but not least there is the code for maintaining the internal database 2500 lines of  code.
              Grand total 50000 lines of visual basic.net code. And after I've made it internet compatible it will most likely be a few thousend more.

               
              • KosherJava

                KosherJava - 2004-02-01

                I guess its not worth porting.

                 
    • Chrus Rotti

      Chrus Rotti - 2004-02-01

      Thank you for all the indications. I found a interesting site with "GEDCOM 5.5 Torture Test Files": http://www.geditcom.com/gedcom.html

      This files brings GENprofi-Stammbaum 2.6 to hang and after a short time the programm closes himself.

      Ages! 1.3 is a little bit stabler, but does not recognize some tags (only imported as notice) and sometimes also shuts itselfs down.

      I'm wondering if there is a software that saves directly in very compliant GEDCOM 5.5 and can open all the Torture Test Files?
      Maybe it is not the right thread; but is GedXML an alternative? Will phpGedview support this format in the future? I found a SF-Project in Planning status: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gedcomfilter/

      @pluntke: I like Ages because its fast and easy to enter familys, but the fail and shutdowns with the Torture Test Files makes me unsure; I like to test other programs to find the best for me.

      @rozendaa: Thank you for the offer to write a filter to translate GenProfi-Files. Actually I think i reenter all my data in a new file from scratch, because apart the technical problems I'm not happy with the quality of the file (Notes, Sources, accuracy). Maybe some other user likes to use the filter, but for me now its more important to find a strict GEDCOM 5.5 (or GedXML) Software that collaborates without big poblems with phpGedview.

      The Torture Test Files cause also some problems to phpGedview

      I appreciate any indication about experiences with the Torture Test Files and a "perfect" Win Software.

       
      • KosherJava

        KosherJava - 2004-02-01

        The developers have been using this gedcom as a test file for a while. What problems does PGV have with it? 

         
    • Chrus Rotti

      Chrus Rotti - 2004-02-01

      I don't know if this are PHP-right problems, but with other Gedcom-files this errors does not come:

      Notice: Undefined variable: alpha in /.../indilist.php on line 52

      Notice: Undefined index: in /.../functions_index.php on line 828

      Notice: Undefined index: in /.../rottensteiner/functions_index.php on line 831

      And if I try to upload the (existing) ANSEL-file "TGC551.ged", the browser closes itself *strange*. If I delete the file first, it functions.

       
    • Mark Hattam

      Mark Hattam - 2004-02-02

      GEDitCOM is one editor that saves in 100% Gedcom 5.5 format

      http://www.geditcom.com

      The other advantage to it is that it runs on a Mac

      Mark

       
    • Chrus Rotti

      Chrus Rotti - 2004-02-09

      On the tip of Peter P. I tested Ages (see http://www.daubnet.com/english/ages.html ) and this software is miles better for having a compliant GEDCOM-file then the previous I used: It saves directly in a .GED File.

      Right now I'm testing it with PGV. Not everything is perfect and I like to report a problem that maybe some coder (I'm only a user) can identify.

      Viewing married persons I get this: Unrecognized GEDCOM Code: _STAT MARRIED
      The Marriage Info is displayed however correctly.

      EXAMPLE CODE (wife & family link tags):

      0 @I9@ INDI
      1 _UID 749D359B85D86A48BE862D5075D860D50000
      1 NAME Maria /Zippl/
      1 SEX F
      1 FAMS @F4@

      0 @F4@ FAM
      1 HUSB @I8@
      1 WIFE @I9@
      1 _STAT MARRIED
      1 CHIL @I6@
      1 MARR
      2 DATE 5 NOV 1878
      2 PLAC Bozen, Tyrol, AT-HU

       
    • Arne Eckmann

      Arne Eckmann - 2004-02-09

      Hi Chrus

      Like it say: _STAT is not a regular GEDCOM code, but a self defined  GEDCOM code, which basically can't be exchanged between different programs.

      Read all about the GEDCOM STANDARD here:

      http://www.math.clemson.edu/~rsimms/genealogy/ll/ged551-5.pdf

      Best regards,

      Arne

       
    • John Finlay

      John Finlay - 2004-02-09

      Hi Chrus,

      Please also look at the "NON-STANDARD GEDCOM CODES" section of the readme.txt file for information on how to get PGV to recognize custom gedcom codes.

      --John

       
    • Bruce Tennant

      Bruce Tennant - 2004-07-03

      Has anyone tried using a Legacy gedcom?

      I like the look and feel of phpGedView but I'm afraid I may not get to display my *whole* gedcom file.  Legacy isn't 100% 5.5 compat (no program is), but it does use many of the features that other programs don't.  One of those features is the Notes fields, anywhere it is legal in the GECOM 5.5 spec to have a note, Legacy pretty much supports it.  Does phpGedView support these?

      Also, if you're looking for a base to write a good gedcom cleanup tool you should look into the perl module.  The nice part of it is that it takes a schema file that looks a lot like the gedcom 5.5 spec.  So for FTM or Legacy, you can actually define the "vendor" tags and have them available.

       
      • KosherJava

        KosherJava - 2004-07-04

        I use legacy and export UTF-8 GEDCOM only, and it has been a delight with PGV. I have notes on different fields and they all seem to show up. If you notice notes that do not show up and they are valid GEDCOM please file a bug report.

         
    • John T

      John T - 2004-07-06

      I'll second the vote for Legacy.  It is my prefered offline database of choice.

       

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