* Exported GEDCOM Auto-Update

[edmacke]

Does FH keep a link to an exported GEDCOM file and automatically update it?

I exported a GEDCOM to the "public" folder under my project. I was in the process of comparing that file to another GEDCOM file, and updating my FH project data based on those findings.

In the midst of doing that, my comparison software notified me that the "public" GEDCOM file had changed. Was that because FH knew about that exported GEDCOM file, and was automatically updating it with the latest project data? Or something else...?

[edmacke]

I think this should be in Using Family Historian > General Usage, as opposed to User Group Information > General.

[tatewise]

I have moved this to the General Usage Forum.

No, FH does NOT do anything with with exported Gedcom files. It only operates on the one Gedcom within the .fh_data folder that has the Project filename.

However, when you use the Export > GEDCOM File dialogue FH offers to open the exported standalone Gedcom and maybe you accepted that offer. In which case that Gedcom is 'live' within FH but as completely independent instance. Take care you are using the correct instance of FH.

Alternatively, some auto-backup utility or cloud storage tool that you employ could have changed the Gedcom, albeit just the timestamp?

[edmacke]

No, FH does NOT do anything with with exported Gedcom files. It only operates on the one Gedcom within the .fh_data folder that has the Project filename.

I'll double check later - that may have been the one I was looking at.

So just for clarification (and sorry if this is a newbie question)...

• If I'm making editing an FH project names "My Project", any changes I make in FH would be saved to any FH propietary database files and also to the GEDCOM file "/.fh_data/My Project.ged" when I did a File > Save? Or does FH actually use the GEDCOM file as its sole "database"? Like, if I made manual changes to the "/.fh_data/My Project.ged" file, would those changes show up the next time I opened FH?
  
  If I open a GEDCOM file directly using FH (as would happen if I accepted FH's post-export offer), any changes I make in FH would be saved to the GEDCOM file when I did a File > Save.

Is that correct?

[tatewise]

FH has no separate database. It only uses the Gedcom file.
Yes, if you change the Gedcom file, you are changing the only database, and the changes will appear in FH.
(That is the mechanism used by the Ancestral Sources companion program.)
If FH is open with that Gedcom when the changes are made, it will detect the change and offer to load them.
File > Save and the Auto-saves do save to the current Gedcom file.

If you open any Gedcom file in FH then any saves are written back to that Gedcom file, but in the Export > Gedcom File case, that Gedcom file is completely distinct from the original /.fh_data/My Project.ged file that remains unchanged.

[edmacke]

FH has no separate database. It only uses the Gedcom file.

Thanks so much for the explanation... that helps a lot.

I use Subversion (Tortoise SVN) for keeping revisions of my data, so I really like knowing where the important files are.