* Import from Legacy ~ Address Media

[laz_gen]

Hello all

I am a long time Legacy user who has decided to migrate to FH. I have purchased the full version of FH 6.2.7

I have been lurking on the forum for a while reading the excellent advice but have not seen anything for my problem.

I have a large Legacy database (60,000+) and almost 3000 media items so wish to get the best possible migration and minimise the remedial tidying up.

I understand the distinction between Place and Address and have always entered Places as geographical locations and Addresses as buildings, churches, cemeteries etc.

Within Legacy I have attached a number of media items to Addresses, mostly church and cemetery photos. Following a gedcom import (using GEDCOM 5.5.1) I notice these media items are showing as UDF entries in FH.

Drilling down on one of these UDF items it is shown as Individual / Christening / Address / OBJE / _FILE with the path and filename being stored under _FILE.

I have looked at the Address list within FH and don't see a way to attach media items to FH Addresses as I have done in Legacy.

Is this something I will have to leave behind or is there a way to move these cemetery/church photos to link with a FH Address.

I have looked at the available plugins but nothing jumps out at me.

Regards
Robin

[Jane]

It sounds as if Legacy has simply attached the files to the individual facts, so it's possible a plugin could be written to convert them to media records and add them to the Facts, you can attach images to Facts, and by extension to the address, but obviously it's not automatic for new facts.

[tatewise]

Robin, have you followed the how_to:import_from_legacy|> Import from Legacy Family Tree (LFT) guide?
That recommends exporting in GEDCOM 5.5.1 only format.

GEDCOM and FH do not allow Media to be attached to Address fields, which is why they appear as UDF.
In FH you can attach Media to Facts or to Places, and as Jane says a Plugin could make that adjustment.

There are many Legacy migrants here, and they may have further advice about possible options either in Legacy prior to export or after importing to FH.

However, I have experimented with a GEDCOM import from Legacy with Media attached to an Address, and confirm that it becomes a UDF that was trying to be a Local media Object (LMO).
I just happen to be developing a Plugin for converting LMO to Media records, and with a little tweaking it also copes with these Address UDF LMO.

Ensure you have at least a File > Backup/Restore > Small Backup before using the Plugin.
Download and install the attachment Move Local Media to Media Records Plugin Version 0.1 Date 26 Feb 2019.
Then run it via the Tools > Plugins command.
It still leaves behind some UDF but the Media record becomes linked to the parent Fact.
All the UDF are resolved as advised in how_to:handling_unrecognised_data_fields|> Handling Uncategorised Data Fields (UDF).
( Attachment now deleted as in Plugin Store. )

[laz_gen]

Jane & Mike

Many thanks for your prompt replies with advice. Yes I have been reading and following the advice in the "Legacy Import" knowledge base articles, and experimenting with the various export options within Legacy including removing all non-standard facts from the export schedule, even selecting GEDCOM 5.5.

I have downloaded, installed and run the plugin but not sure if the outcome is correct. In Legacy I had a single Address entry for a church and the media item (church photo) was attached to that Address.

After running the plugin the Media List screen shows a separate entry for each link to that church whereas I was expecting to see a single entry for the church with a total representing the number of links to it.

As an example I have an Address for St. John the Baptist Church at Midsomer Norton and after running the plugin I have 2700 entries for that church, (about 30 screens) where I was expecting a single entry with 2700 links, representing all the baptisms, marriages and burials for that church.

Is this the intended outcome?

Robin

[tatewise]

Let me first say that the Plugin is a prototype and your feedback identifies functionality that could be improved.

It would appear that Legacy has a separate data entity for an Address, much like FH has a separate record for each Place and allows Media to be linked to a Place record, and the Place record linked to multiple Facts.
It would have been neat if FH handled Address data in the same way, but it does not.
So in the GEDCOM file Legacy chose to replicate the Media against each and every instance of the same Address.

The Plugin currently just mirrors those multiple Media entries, but as Media records.
While developing the Plugin I did think about merging entries that resulted in identical Media records.
But decided that could be left to the user after running the Plugin, never imagining there might be 2700 copies
Manual merging can only be performed in pairs, so 2700 would take a while

So let me look at implementing that feature to automatically merge identical Media records.

I hope you realise that Edit > Undo Plugin Updates reverses the changes, or you can restore a Backup or a Snapshot, so that a revised Plugin can start from scratch.

[laz_gen]

Mike

Would it be possible for your plugin to create the media record the first time it encounters the media object then with all subsequent encounters for it to link to that newly created media record rather than creating another duplicate record.

Before I run the plugin I had 2749 media records and after it rose to 13812.

Robin

[tatewise]

Yes Robin, that is what I've promised to investigate in my previous posting.

[laz_gen]

Mike

I do appreciate your thoughts and your time looking into this and I realise I may have rather a unique problem with my large record numbers.

I have no concerns about backups and data loss at this stage as I am still at the experimental phase. My working data is still in Legacy so I have imported the gedcom a great many times into FH, deleting the project after each experiment and starting again with a fresh import.

Robin

[tatewise]

I have updated the Plugin in a number of ways.

If it finds any Local Media Object (LMO) that is identical to an earlier one, then it reuses the same Media record rather than create a new duplicate record.

If it detects that Media files were copied into the Media folder on import, then it copies the LMO linked Media file too, and sets the Media record to a relative File path, e.g. Media\filename.type
Otherwise, it leaves the LMO linked Media file in its external position, and sets the Media record to that absolute File path.

One or two extra defensive checks have been added.

So try attachment Move Local Media to Media Records Plugin Version 0.2 Date 26 Feb 2019.
It will automatically overwrite the previous version.
( Attachment now deleted as in Plugin Store. )

[laz_gen]

Again my thanks to you Mike.

That updated plugin now works perfectly.

All the media that were attached to Address records from Legacy are now recorded in FH with a single media record and many links to that record from each individual .

Kind regards
Robin

[tatewise]

The Move Local Media to Media Records Plugin Version 1.0 Date 07 Mar 2019 is now in the Plugin Store and the recent prototype attachments here will soon be deleted.

The how_to:import_from_legacy#once_the_project_is_in_family_historian|> Import from Legacy Family Tree (LFT) > Once the Project is in Family Historian section now advises use of that Plugin.

[laz_gen]

Thank you Mike. I will be giving it a try as soon as it is approved for download in the plugin store.

Good to see it incorporated into the advice given to Legacy migrants. I'm sure many will find it to be useful.