* Export GEDCOM file plugin

[joanchop]

Have a problem with the updated Export GEDCOM plugin in that when I hit run, it says 'running', and nothing happens other than a blank window appearing. Have deleted the plugin and re-installed but same problem occurs. Can you help please?

[tatewise]

Sorry about that Joan. Can you supply some other details please.

Presumably the previous Plugin version ran OK on the same Project?

Does this latest Plugin run on the Family Historian Sample Project?

Is the blank window titled Export Gedcom File Help & Advice?

Does that blank window obscure another window underneath?

Can you minimise or close that blank window?

Do other Plugins of mine run OK and can you click their Help & Advice button?

Which Windows version are you using (Vista, 7, 8. 10)?
Has that changed recently?

Please just Run and then Cancel the Write Reg IE Shell Version Plugin and tell me what IE Shell Version is indicated.

[joanchop]

Hi Mike
Thanks for a quick return. Have recently restarted my PC as had problems installing updated Ancestral Sources.
Not sure about Windows 10 as an OS as having to restart most times when trying to instal, or even make a new folder.
To answer your questions-
Previous plugin ran fine, no problems.
Latest plugin runs on the Sample Project.
The blank window, which can only be seen on the task bar, has the plugin heading and a button, which I cannot read, too small, and I can close it. Does not obscure another window.
Other plugins run fine, including yours.
Fire Fox is my browser, do you still wish me to download and run plugin 'Write Reg IE Shell Version'?
Thanks for your help.
Regards
Joan

[davidm_uk]

Not sure about Windows 10 as an OS as having to restart most times when trying to instal, or even make a new folder.

If your Windows is that flaky I'm not sure I'd want to do any serious (family history or other) work on it, you might lose something important. I was pleasantly surprised how well my Win10 upgrades (on 2 PCs) went, and I've so far not had any reliability problems. I must admit to having previously set up an escape route back to Win7 though.

[tatewise]

Since everything else works OK, there must be something unusual about your Project.
It may be the Plugin settings file that has got upset, so let's try deleting it.

Assuming your Project is called Project, use File Explorer and navigate to:
...\Documents\Family Historian Projects\Project\Project.fh_data\Plugin Data
and delete Export Gedcom File.dat file.

[joanchop]

Hi Mike
Thanks for the information. It's worked!! Now I can leap ahead!! By the way have also optimised, defragged and updated the PC, so hopefully it will run a lot smoother!!
Many thanks
Joan

[johnmorrisoniom]

Hi Mike,
Just tried running V2.6 and then 2.7 in FTA and GSP mode and get an error as follows

[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:532:
Unable to open file in "wb" mode.
C:\Users\John\Dropbox\FH Projects\MorrisonV6\Public\Export\MorrisonV6 GSP UTF8.ged
C:\Users\John\Dropbox\FH Projects\MorrisonV6\Public\Export\MorrisonV6 GSP UTF8.ged: No such file or directory

stack traceback:
[C]: in function 'error'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:532: in function 'OpenFile'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6469: in function 'ExportGedcom'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6349: in function <[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6345>
(tail call): ?
[C]: in function 'MainLoop'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."] in function 'ShowDialogue'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6420: in function 'GUI_MainDialogue'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6569: in main chunk

I had to manually update from 2.6 to 2.7 as the check against store plugin reported "Export Gedcom File Name not found".

[nshortland]

Mike,
I updated to 2.7 today. When I attempted to export in ANC format, UTF8 With BOM, Wipe-All media, I received the following error message and an empty .ged file and the plug-in hangs with greyed-out text. Any thoughts?
Nick

[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:5374: attempt to concatenate field '?' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:5374: in function <[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:5370>
[C]: in function 'gsub'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:5438: in function 'doAnalyse'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6488: in function 'ExportGedcom'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6349: in function <[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6345>
(tail call): ?
[C]: in function 'MainLoop'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."] in function 'ShowDialogue'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6420: in function 'GUI_MainDialogue'
[string "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\..."]:6569: in main chunk

[tatewise]

Sorry about those problems; they have taken a while to investigate.

@Nick
My analysis suggests this is the first time you have run the Plugin on the Project in question in its current state. Is that correct?

The problem is related to a FAMily record that has a link to a HUSBand or WIFE who does not exist as an INDIvidual record with a matching Record Id.

Does FH File > Validate report or fix any problems?

The only other explanation I can think of is the the FAMily record comes before the INDIvidual record in the Gedcom file, which would only apply if it was imported from another product, or has been edited by hand.

I will resolve the Plugin crash in a future update that I plan to post here in the next day or so, but that will simply replace such problem links with the Husband/Wife name [unknown record].

@John
There has been a recent problem with the Plugin Store due to a change in Wordpress that added a trailing space to an uploaded Plugin name. That has been fixed for the Download file, but still seems to have upset its database, which causes Export Gedcom File to be not found. I will follow up that issue with Calico Pie.

The Unable to open file in "wb" mode is a problem with write access to the Export folder or the .ged file.
Have you only recently moved your Projects to DropBox?
Does that Export folder exist in the \MorrisonV6\Public\ folder on DropBox now?
Can you write files to that Export folder?
Does the problem affect other Projects?

There have been no changes to the Plugin in that area for a long time, so it appears to be a new file management condition that is upsetting it.

[johnmorrisoniom]

Hi Mike,
Solved:
I had last used the plugin on my Desktop computer and not run it before on my laptop.
The path to the export folder is absolute, so when run on my laptop, that path does not exist.
On Desktop, My Documents is D:\My Documents.
On Laptop it is in the default Location under Users on C: Drive.
Regards
John

[tatewise]

Thanks for resolving the problem.
Nevertheless, the Plugin should not crash, so will make it report any file path problem via a popup message in next version.

However, the Plugin should not be saving the Export folder path as an absolute path.
It should be saving it relative to the Project Public folder and relative to the PC name.
So it should automatically adapt when Project migrates from PC to PC.

Please examine the Export Gedcom File.dat file in the the Plugin Data folder on both laptop and desktop:
C:\Users\John\Dropbox\FH Projects\MorrisonV6\MorrisonV6.fh_data\Plugin Data\Export Gedcom File.dat
D:\My Documents\Dropbox\FH Projects\MorrisonV6\MorrisonV6.fh_data\Plugin Data\Export Gedcom File.dat

Post what it holds near the beginning similar to:
return {
-- Table: {1}
{
["WarnColor"]="255 0 255",
["TATE7-Path"]="PublicPath\\Export",
["TATE7-FontY"]=65535,

It is the ["....-Path]="...\\Export", line or lines that are important.

[johnmorrisoniom]

Initially after being run on the desktop, the Lines are:

-- Table: {1}
{
["WarnColor"]="255 0 255",
["JOHN-DESKTOP-Path"]="PublicPath\\Export",
["BodyColor"]="0 0 0",

but lower down there is also:

-- Table: {2}
{
["RMT"]={3},
....,
["Path"]="D:\\My Documents\\Dropbox\\FH Projects\\MorrisonV6\\Public\\Export",
["RWW"]={13},

But after setting the export folder on the Laptop and a successful run, these have now changed to:

-- Table: {1}
{
["WarnColor"]="255 0 255",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-BarsX"]=65535,
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-HelpX"]=65535,
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-MainR"]="763x456",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-Path"]="PublicPath\\Export",
["FontHead"]="Segoe UI, Bold 9",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-HelpR"]="1000x700",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-FontY"]=65535,
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-FontR"]="0x0",
["RiskColor"]="255 0 0",
["Option"]={2},
["FontBody"]="Segoe UI, 9",
["BodyColor"]="0 0 0",
["HeadColor"]="0 0 0",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-HelpY"]=65535,
["History"]=" 2.7 ",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-BarsR"]="0x0",
["SafeColor"]="0 128 0",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-BarsY"]=65535,
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-MainY"]=292,
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-FontX"]=65535,
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-MainX"]=578,
},
-- Table: {2}
{
["RMT"]={3},
.....},
["Path"]="C:\\Users\\John\\Dropbox\\FH Projects\\MorrisonV6\\Public\\Export",
["RWW"]={13},

Regards
John

[tatewise]

Yes, that illustrates the Path relative to PC Name and Project Public folder.
However, since the whole Project is synchronised via DropBox, then the Export Gedcom File.dat files should be the same on both Desktop and Laptop.
The copies on both Desktop and Laptop should both contain a set of ["JOHN-DESKTOP-..."]: and ["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-..."] settings.
e.g.
["JOHN-DESKTOP-Path"]="PublicPath\\Export",
["JOHN-DESKTOP-HelpR"]="1000x700",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-Path"]="PublicPath\\Export",
["JOHN-HP-LAPTOP-HelpR"]="1000x700",

The ["Path"] setting lower down should adjust to the local PC full path, but only when the Plugin is run on that PC.
Until then it should still refer to the full path on the other PC.
i.e. It will be the full path for the last run of the Plugin on either PC.

If that is not behaving correctly, then I will need to revisit the design.
[ P.S. Have just run some intensive testing and it appears that the design does have a flaw that will be fixed in the next version.]

[tatewise]

Try the ATTACHMENT Export Gedcom File Plugin V2.7.1 Date 08 Aug 2016.

That should add the following features:

• Correctly support Plugin sticky Settings for Projects synchronised via OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. Settings such as Export folder, and Window size & position are local to each PC, but the rest are global.
• If the Export folder is illegal, then it is shown in red and the Export GEDCOM... button disabled, instead of crashing.
• If the HUSBand or WIFE in a FAMily record cannot be identified then [unknown record] is used, instead of crashing. Some other scenarios are similarly improved.
• Some Gedcom Draft 5.5.1 export options have been added for FACT tag and FORM & TITL tags.

[ATTACHMENT now deleted as updated in Plugin Store.]

[tatewise]

The problem of some Plugin names not found in the Plugin Store and associated Check Installed Plugins Against The Store issues have now been resolved by Ros at Calico Pie and Jane Taubman.

I notice that the ATTACHMENT Plugin V2.7.1 has been downloaded at least 8 times.
If you have synchronised Projects on two PC, please check the Export folder and Plugin window positions are correctly preserved on both PC, and the Plugin runs OK on either PC in turn.
Please report back here with your findings.
The synch settings design change needs to be rolled out on some other Plugins of mine, but I need to be sure it is foolproof.

[tatewise]

John, has the Plugin ATTACHMENT resolved your problems?

[johnmorrisoniom]

Hi Mike,
Sorry been very busy.
No problems so far with updated plugin.

[tatewise]

The Export Gedcom File Plugin Version 2.8 Date 19 Aug 2016 is now in the Plugin Store.

This not only fixes the problems reported earlier, but also adds full Gedcom Draft 5.5.1 export modes using FACT, EMAIL & WWW tags, Media FILE, FORM & TITL tags, and the Gedcom VERS tag.

See plugins:help:export_gedcom_file:version_history|> Export Gedcom File ~ Version History.