I was playing around with gedmerge.php to merge a gedcom I received from my uncle into mine--it looks like gedmerge will only suggest matches if two entities have the same _UID, otherwise I have to manually select the two individuals to merge.
Is my understanding of this correct? Are there any other cases where gedmerge.php will suggest to entries to merge (based on names, dates, and relationships to previously matched individuals, for example)?
This could greatly speed the merge process. I just wanted to check with the authorities before I started coding it myself :)
Thanks,
Steve Hulet
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Doh! It turns out that I did not have have auto-accept enabled. Thank you for your reply which caused me to go back and re-read the instructions.
Looking through the comments on patch [1581206] it appears that I am not the only one who has made this mistake. I propose that gedmerge.php check to see if auto-accept is enabled, and notify the user if it is not. Here is a diff after adding this small feature:
321a322,327
> // first check that auto-accept is on
> $user_id = get_user_id(getUserName());
> if (get_user_setting($user_id, 'auto_accept') != 'Y') {
> print "<p style='font-size:large;color:red;'>WARNING: you must enable auto-accept of changes for this user for gedmerge to work!</p>";
> }
>
I didn't see a way to attach this new gedmerge.php directly to [1581206], but hopefully this can be useful to others.
Thanks,
Steve Hulet
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Hi - I tried merging two ged files, with auto accept on, and I get table listing a bunch of individuals I indeed want to merge. This is headed by the instruction"Look for records that need matching up or importing"
But there is no obvious way from there to make the records match up or other wise merge or proceed in any way - even though some records on ether side of table do match. Clicking on any of the individuals or families in the table merely opens a standard page displaying info on that individual in the normal way ... no merging to single ged file option anywhere to be found.
What am I missing here?
Cheers
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Answered my own question - the merging/importing options were a very long way to the right & only accessible after a lot of side scrolling - the table was enormously wide for some reason.
I have found what looks like a bug though - import keeps tripping up over a man who marries two sisters in the same family - prompting to link or import the same sister again & again, but actually adding a new family each time . Instead it should offer to link or import the other sister.
When I manually set up the two families that gets past that particular linking issue, but then import attempt to attribute other subsequent facts to wrong sister/family each time - whichever order I swap families to - again link to other sister should also be an option
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<<attribute other subsequent facts to wrong sister/family each time>>
gedmerge uses the _UID fields to identify common individuals. If it is copying facts to the wrong person, it suggests you may have two people in the same gedcom with the same _UID. (which can happen if you've made an earlier mistake on the linking).
If you're sure this is a bug, can you generate a couple of gedcoms that demonstrate it for me (tip: use the clippings cart on each one).
Thanks.
Greg.
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Hi I have just manually kludged my way through it - hopefully resolving everything - meaning the non merged version is gone
I just discovered my host seems to be preventing me from making valid backups again - zip function disabled - which means unfortunately there would be a bit of manual data entry since previous working backup in order to re create a common individual for that version - so would now be pretty time consuming to attempt to recreate original conditions
Bah!
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Steve
Do you really want auto accept? for data that is being merged and has not been reviewed for compliance with content formatting standards?
=Stephen
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Anonymous
-
2008-07-09
Stephen - its not optional for gedmege.php - the programme simply won't work, at present, without auto-accept enabled. Hence its a fetaure ONLY for admins. The trick is to run gedcheck.php over the to-be-imported file first.
Nigel
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Hi - am attempting to use Gedmerge again , (under PGV 4.2.3, with auto accept on, and no outstanding changes to accept/reject) - and have identified a common person appearing in both using ID system applying wih respective GEDCOM - but when I click to continue nothing happens - no list of matching people appears, even though I know from manually browsing that plenty of matches exist. After a brief pause the same "identify GEDCOM" menu remains open.
What might I be doing wrong?
My
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Paul
How many overlaps? Lots? Do you have a ton of memory to assign to PGV? Have you run gedcheck on the existing gedcom? Have you run gedcheck on the gedcom to merge? (import it as a new gedcom, not merged. You can later delete it.)
If there are not too many (10-30 I'd recommend, but could be more) overlaps (same persons), then I'd recommend simply doing an import merge, not a true merge, then use PGV as designed - to merge a few duplicates. It is excellent at this. Understand that a true merging system is quite complicated and INDI's must be nearly identical to know that they may be duplicates.
I have used GEDEDITCOM to add a new gedcom to an existing one very successfully for several PGV users, and would be happy to do so for you too. Need both, with the Master Gedcom (merge TO) identified, as well as the Merge From.
mailto:gedcoms-at-MyArnolds-dot-com
Gedmerge.php is truly a patch that Greg has not finished and will most likely never finish for PGV.
Stephen
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I have overlaps in the form of a husband and wife and three of their children. Yes I have run GEDcheck on both GEDCOM files & both report as OK. I found I needed to import the new GEDCOM file as you suggested in order for Gedmerge to find it.
I have tried the merge record function from the Administration menu (is this the "import merge" function you mean?)- which seems to only allow one individual record to import merge info, and so introduces errors in the form of links to families that are in the new GEDCOM file but not yet in the master GEDCOM file.
If I can get my head around the process so I can duplicate it in future that would be ideal, but may yet take you up on your very kind offer!
Cheers
Paul
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Paul
This is NOT your solution, given the minimal duplication. You need a program that can simply merge the tow gedcoms into one, renumbering any in the 2nd one that may conflict with the first. MERGE in PGV does one set of matching parameters, one at a time, and only in one GEDCOM. In other words, if someone added the same person as a husband as new, rather than checking to see if he already existed, this would create a duplicate INDI and a duplicate FAM, both which would need to be merged. Same if you had a wife for a man, but didn't know her full name, then discovered you had a family with a daughter who married this same man. You could merge the daughter INDI with the wife with no known maiden name, automatically merging the FAM records. The neat feature is the selection of which facts you wish to include in the final merged parameter (INDI, FAM, SOUR, REPO)
Stephen
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If its a one off, I already offered. Some have successfully used GENMERGE, but I can't speak to it. John Nairn has worked diligently to create a terrific Mac-centric program that is fully PGV compatible and does NOT mangle any PGV tags or media. http://www.pleiades-software.com/pages/1/index.htm
Stephen
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Hi,
I was playing around with gedmerge.php to merge a gedcom I received from my uncle into mine--it looks like gedmerge will only suggest matches if two entities have the same _UID, otherwise I have to manually select the two individuals to merge.
Is my understanding of this correct? Are there any other cases where gedmerge.php will suggest to entries to merge (based on names, dates, and relationships to previously matched individuals, for example)?
This could greatly speed the merge process. I just wanted to check with the authorities before I started coding it myself :)
Thanks,
Steve Hulet
You only need to suggest *one* pair of individuals to merge to get it started.
After that, it can "spider" out, merging spouses, parents, children, etc.
Doh! It turns out that I did not have have auto-accept enabled. Thank you for your reply which caused me to go back and re-read the instructions.
Looking through the comments on patch [1581206] it appears that I am not the only one who has made this mistake. I propose that gedmerge.php check to see if auto-accept is enabled, and notify the user if it is not. Here is a diff after adding this small feature:
321a322,327
> // first check that auto-accept is on
> $user_id = get_user_id(getUserName());
> if (get_user_setting($user_id, 'auto_accept') != 'Y') {
> print "<p style='font-size:large;color:red;'>WARNING: you must enable auto-accept of changes for this user for gedmerge to work!</p>";
> }
>
I didn't see a way to attach this new gedmerge.php directly to [1581206], but hopefully this can be useful to others.
Thanks,
Steve Hulet
Hi - I tried merging two ged files, with auto accept on, and I get table listing a bunch of individuals I indeed want to merge. This is headed by the instruction"Look for records that need matching up or importing"
But there is no obvious way from there to make the records match up or other wise merge or proceed in any way - even though some records on ether side of table do match. Clicking on any of the individuals or families in the table merely opens a standard page displaying info on that individual in the normal way ... no merging to single ged file option anywhere to be found.
What am I missing here?
Cheers
<<What am I missing here? >>
The buttons in the right hand column?
Answered my own question - the merging/importing options were a very long way to the right & only accessible after a lot of side scrolling - the table was enormously wide for some reason.
I have found what looks like a bug though - import keeps tripping up over a man who marries two sisters in the same family - prompting to link or import the same sister again & again, but actually adding a new family each time . Instead it should offer to link or import the other sister.
When I manually set up the two families that gets past that particular linking issue, but then import attempt to attribute other subsequent facts to wrong sister/family each time - whichever order I swap families to - again link to other sister should also be an option
<<attribute other subsequent facts to wrong sister/family each time>>
gedmerge uses the _UID fields to identify common individuals. If it is copying facts to the wrong person, it suggests you may have two people in the same gedcom with the same _UID. (which can happen if you've made an earlier mistake on the linking).
If you're sure this is a bug, can you generate a couple of gedcoms that demonstrate it for me (tip: use the clippings cart on each one).
Thanks.
Greg.
Hi I have just manually kludged my way through it - hopefully resolving everything - meaning the non merged version is gone
I just discovered my host seems to be preventing me from making valid backups again - zip function disabled - which means unfortunately there would be a bit of manual data entry since previous working backup in order to re create a common individual for that version - so would now be pretty time consuming to attempt to recreate original conditions
Bah!
Steve
Do you really want auto accept? for data that is being merged and has not been reviewed for compliance with content formatting standards?
=Stephen
Stephen - its not optional for gedmege.php - the programme simply won't work, at present, without auto-accept enabled. Hence its a fetaure ONLY for admins. The trick is to run gedcheck.php over the to-be-imported file first.
Nigel
gedmerge is something I knocked-together fairly quickly to get a job done. This explains the limited functionality and other restrictions.
However, in the absense of anything equivalent, I figured it better to share an unfinished module than keep it to myself.
If I ever get some spare time, I'll give it a bit of "polish".
Meanwhile, it's on the patches tracker. I figure that if you can't work out how to install/run it, then you shouldn't be using it ;-)
Where to find gedmerge.php?
Here on sourceforge - in the patches tracker.
Hi - am attempting to use Gedmerge again , (under PGV 4.2.3, with auto accept on, and no outstanding changes to accept/reject) - and have identified a common person appearing in both using ID system applying wih respective GEDCOM - but when I click to continue nothing happens - no list of matching people appears, even though I know from manually browsing that plenty of matches exist. After a brief pause the same "identify GEDCOM" menu remains open.
What might I be doing wrong?
My
Paul
How many overlaps? Lots? Do you have a ton of memory to assign to PGV? Have you run gedcheck on the existing gedcom? Have you run gedcheck on the gedcom to merge? (import it as a new gedcom, not merged. You can later delete it.)
If there are not too many (10-30 I'd recommend, but could be more) overlaps (same persons), then I'd recommend simply doing an import merge, not a true merge, then use PGV as designed - to merge a few duplicates. It is excellent at this. Understand that a true merging system is quite complicated and INDI's must be nearly identical to know that they may be duplicates.
I have used GEDEDITCOM to add a new gedcom to an existing one very successfully for several PGV users, and would be happy to do so for you too. Need both, with the Master Gedcom (merge TO) identified, as well as the Merge From.
mailto:gedcoms-at-MyArnolds-dot-com
Gedmerge.php is truly a patch that Greg has not finished and will most likely never finish for PGV.
Stephen
Hi, Thanks Stephen!
I have overlaps in the form of a husband and wife and three of their children. Yes I have run GEDcheck on both GEDCOM files & both report as OK. I found I needed to import the new GEDCOM file as you suggested in order for Gedmerge to find it.
I have tried the merge record function from the Administration menu (is this the "import merge" function you mean?)- which seems to only allow one individual record to import merge info, and so introduces errors in the form of links to families that are in the new GEDCOM file but not yet in the master GEDCOM file.
If I can get my head around the process so I can duplicate it in future that would be ideal, but may yet take you up on your very kind offer!
Cheers
Paul
Paul
This is NOT your solution, given the minimal duplication. You need a program that can simply merge the tow gedcoms into one, renumbering any in the 2nd one that may conflict with the first. MERGE in PGV does one set of matching parameters, one at a time, and only in one GEDCOM. In other words, if someone added the same person as a husband as new, rather than checking to see if he already existed, this would create a duplicate INDI and a duplicate FAM, both which would need to be merged. Same if you had a wife for a man, but didn't know her full name, then discovered you had a family with a daughter who married this same man. You could merge the daughter INDI with the wife with no known maiden name, automatically merging the FAM records. The neat feature is the selection of which facts you wish to include in the final merged parameter (INDI, FAM, SOUR, REPO)
Stephen
Thanks Stephen - what would be my best bet for a process/ external software that would retain my existing media links?
BTW I am on PC, so would not have access to GEDEDITCOM directly
If its a one off, I already offered. Some have successfully used GENMERGE, but I can't speak to it. John Nairn has worked diligently to create a terrific Mac-centric program that is fully PGV compatible and does NOT mangle any PGV tags or media.
http://www.pleiades-software.com/pages/1/index.htm
Stephen