* Assigning a fact to multiple individuals

[ColeValleyGirl]

Is there any efficient way to assign the same fact to multiple individuals.

I have examples of passenger lists where multiple individuals from the same family have travelled together. Other examples include families admitted to the Workhouse, or a bunch of children admitted to a home...

It's quite tedious (as well as prone to errors of omission) to create the fact for one individual and then copy and paste it individually to all the others, especially for large families, so it would be good it there was a way to either choose a bunch of individuals and create a fact that is applied to all of them, or to copy a fact and then paste it to multiple individuals at once.

[SimonOrde]

Why not use the Witness feature for this? I would suggest creating a new fact type (e.g. an Individual event called "Travel" say) and give it a sentence template like this:

{date} {individual} travelled {place} <with {other=Fellow Traveller}>

Then, in the Fact Definition window, click on the 'Roles' button and add a new role 'Fellow Traveller' with a witness sentence template like this:

{date} {individual} travelled {place} <with {other=principal,Fellow Traveller}>

Suppose 3 people all travelled together in Holland - say A, B, and C. Add the 'Travel' event to any one of the 3 - it doesn't matter which. Add the date and place. Then add all 3 people, A, B and C, as 'witnesses' to this travel event. That will give you a sentence for each one in narrative reports that will look like this: "In 1980 B travelled in Holland with A and C". This also means that you use the Witnesses Window as a nice way to see all the people who shared the event (travelled together).

The 'Residence' event is defined (by default) to work exactly like this, so you could use that as a model.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Unfortunately, the witness feature doesn't seem to generate contents in summary reports, which are what I use... For example, my father was a witness to his father's death (Informant) but the summary report doesn't reflect that. Maybe I don't understand the witness feature well enough -- I've been trying to avoid it other than in instances where an individual is really a 'witness'.

[tatewise]

Alternatively, create a Plugin that allows a Fact to be chosen and copied to any selection of Individual records.

The trickiest bit is choosing the Fact because there is no built-in selection process like there is for records.
So the chosen one Individual would be scanned for all Facts to be presented in a drop-list for the user to choose one.

If you were happy to require that the new Fact always had a unique Source Citation then it gets easier.
The Plugin could be supplied with that Source record selection and search for the one Fact with the Citation.

Then that Fact is easily copied to any selection of Individual records.

Note that Witnesses are not as portable to other genealogy products as separate Facts, and yes they don't appear in summary reports. So use Witnesses initially and then use my Give Witnesses Their Own Facts Plugin from Plugin Store.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Mike, that sounds good -- and I wouldn't want to create multiple facts except from a single source citation.

Hadn't spotted that plugin but it might be useful to fix the inadvertent instances were As has produced witnesses -- although I usually just delete them.

[tatewise]

Are you able to tackle that plugin Helen, or do you need assistance?

[ColeValleyGirl]

I haven't even started with Lua, Mike -- too much VBA and website stuff (not to mention other commitments, including actually researching FH).

If you have the time and think it's useful enough to others that would be great. Otherwise I'll add it to the end of a long list of to-dos.

[jimlad68]

Can you not just treat this as a simple Method 2 Source, that would mean only having 1 detailed source for as many facts and people as you care to link to it, just like with say a census. Then all the detail in that source would be shown with the source detail for a/any/all individual summary via the report options. Method 2 would mean only having 1 detailed source for as many facts and people as you care to link to it. If required you could fine tune the Fact for any individual.

[tatewise]

You misunderstand Jim.
Helen wants to create one Fact with its Source Citation and then duplicate that Fact in several Individual records.
This is much the same as AS does to create multiple Census Events and is why AS is so useful.
Helen wants to do something similar, but for a different Fact that AS does not handle.

BTW: Helen I have made a start on the Plugin.

[jimlad68]

Ah, so Helen does want to use Method 2 (or method 1), but a bit more automated like AS. Bit of a brain storming, but how about creating a new census template in AS, then converting the resultant census facts to whatever is required with plugin change any fact tab.

Don't worry if I am still misunderstanding! As ever I will look forward to any future developments.

[tatewise]

No, Helen wants to use Method 1 Sources.

The AS Census Template approach sounds interesting, and would support both Method 1 and Method 2.
But I suspect there will be too many Census specific settings that get in the way, such as Title Templates for the Source and Media records, the Source Type text, etc.
But give it a go Jim and see if it will work without disrupting standard Census data entry.

[jimlad68]

Firstly apologies, getting my method1,2 mixed up !!!
Yes method 1 rocks (single source, multiple facts).

As for AS, I use it very simply, and in a 'generic' scenario it seems to work fine:
- a template with any fictitious country and year and date together with text generation (e.g.Source title) with keywords should create most of what is required.
- adding text/note as required, no need for auto text, but that is probably possible if there were many to do.
- much can be excluded/ changed (e.g. Source type) via the options
- not forgetting to revert the settings back if required for real census input. I suspect there is a way to save the original settings, and then reapply them.

### P.S. the plugin change any fact tab works fine afterwards. I could not find a way within AS to create a fact other than Census, that would make life a little easier.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Jim, that approach wouldn't work for attributes or events such as immigration, which have different formats to a census. And it seems a little counter-intuitive to use AS to do something it wasn't intended to do and then run a plug-in to correct the output afterwards...

[jimlad68]

Fine Helen, but as for NOT "do something it wasn't intended", that's the story of my life! This topic has at least given me some possible workarounds for similar situations.

I do note that in the AS census options you also have the option to alternatively or as well record the detail in a residence fact which is an attribute, but unfortunately limited in content.

I suppose it would be more ideal if AS could create a new 'generic' fact to add to census, birth, death etc, or amend the existing census to be even more flexible with options to save to a different fact including attribute types. Perhaps a suggestion for Nick.

[tatewise]

Jim, to explain Helen's point about format, Attributes have a value field, and Emigration has a To place field, neither of which exist in a Census Event, so the facts created by AS would be missing those fields. Change Any Fact Tag would not rectify that deficiency so the user would have to find each fact and update each one, which rather defeats the objective. Helen wants to create multiple Emigration Events adjusted to act as Travel Events.

Regarding the Plugin, it will assume that only multiple preselected Individuals are the intended targets for the copies of the Fact. This avoids a single selected Individual accidentally gaining the Fact. If only one Individual really needs the Fact then the Plugin would be more complicated to use than a manual copy & paste.

If none or only one Individual is selected, the Plugin will prompt for the selection.
The Plugin will also allow the Method 1 Source record cited by the new Fact to be preselected, otherwise it will prompt. It might even cater for Method 2 Sources or a reused Method 1 Source by choosing the Fact in the record with the latest Update date-time stamp, although that will take longer to find. However, it is easy for the Plugin to discover how many Citations exist for a Source, so it can curtail the search when all have been found.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Jim, my problem was not so much with re-purposing AS (even if it could create everything that's needed), as with the fact that it doesn't seem to improve the workflow very much.

[jimlad68]

Ah well, worth a brain storm, learn something in the process, and I look forward to any other outcome/ solutions.

[DavidNewton]

I've written a quick and dirty plug-in which may help until someone writes a more sophisticated one. The plugin requires that the individual who gets the fact first to be selected and the fact itself marked by the presence of the text '[*]' at the beginning of the note field, which will be removed by the plug-in. Selection of individuals to receive the fact is by a standard selection and the plug-in checks that the first individual is excluded from getting a second copy of the fact. No such checking is done for any other individuals.

No guarantees!

David

CopyFactToManyIndividuals.fh_lua

(2.59 KiB) Downloaded 238 times

[tatewise]

You have just beaten me to it David.

Attached is prototype Copy Fact to Chosen Records Plugin Version 0.1 Date 24 Oct 2016.
[Attachment deleted as now superseded.]

It starts from a selected Method 1 Source record with which to find the single Fact that cites that Source.

Once confirmed, it copies that Fact to all selected Individual records excluding the original Owner record.
It works the same way for Family Facts and Family records.

Finally it produces a Result Set of all the new Facts.

Either the Source record or the target Individual records can be pre-selected before running Plugin.

BTW: It could be extended to find the Fact that cites the Source and is within the latest Updated record. This would support a Method 2 Source or a Method 1 Source with multiple Facts, where new Facts are being added.

[jimlad68]

David, just tested with some added text, bit scary with no messages or results, but seems to work fine, I even tried 2 facts with [*] together, a custom event and an immigration. However if someone was to do it 'for real' they should test further

I would imagine this could be very useful in many scenarios.

[jimlad68]

Mike, just given yours a quick test as well and seems fine. The advantage of Dave's plugin (a different starting point) is that by choosing the fact, you can use an existing source that has already been used multiple times, with yours, it has to be a 'once used' only source, so if you subsequently wanted to add more facts you would not be able to use the same source. I think your BTW: alludes to that.

[tatewise]

A few comments on David's effective quick and dirty plug-in:

• Be aware that as well as Facts, also Names and UDF and Parents Family and Spouse Family child items can have a local Note that might start with [ * ] although that is unlikely. So use fhIsFact(pc) to restrict to just Facts.
• To loop through a list of selected records use for i, pcop in ipairs (seltbl) do which even copes with an empty list.
• Use CopyChildBranch(pselfact,pcop) and you avoid preceding fhCreateItem() line.
• Consider what happens if the Fact is a Family fact akin to Marriage or Divorce?

Effectively, David is using a variant of one of my earlier possibilities:

The trickiest bit is choosing the Fact because there is no built-in selection process like there is for records. So the chosen one Individual would be scanned for all Facts to be presented in a drop-list for the user to choose one.

But Helen was happy to always have a Method 1 Source for the new Fact.

[DavidNewton]

Thanks for the comments Mike and Jim. As I implied this was an interim effort and the logic was following the OP's request, namely choose a fact (already entered I assumed) mark it in some way (I choose [*] but it would be a simple matter to ask for an input for the marker if [*] is unsuitable) and then copy the fact to a chosen list of individuals. As noted by Mike marking the fact in some way makes things much easier. In addition all sources for the fact are copied.

Regarding the 'silent operation' I rarely write plug-ins for use by others so I tend not to produce output other than error messages when appropriate, my apologies..

However, now that there is another version, thank you Mike, my task is done.

David

[jimlad68]

David, unless Mike incorporates your 'starting point' I think your version is complimentary rather than superseded, accepting the limitations pointed out by Mike.

Have you any other 'goodies' hidden away!

[ColeValleyGirl]

I never cease t be amazed by the generosity of members of these forums with their time and expertise.

I'll test both plugins in the next few days as I can envisage scenarios where both are useful.