* Map Life Facts help

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ColeValleyGirl
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Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

Mike, the Map Life Facts help pages opens as soon as I open the plugin, which is annoying and unnecessary, especially as it opens a new tab every time, and maximises a minimised browser window -- how do I turn it off?

And while we're on the subject of plugin options, is there a way of disabling the automatic version check in your plugins (other than by hacking the code). It's equally annoying; although I appreciate that others might find it useful, it's a pain in the neck if you want to do something quickly and are in the habit of running the plugin 'Check Installed Plugins Against the Store' on a regular basis.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by Mark1834 »

I trialled the update check in my source splitter plugin, but removed it from the final version that will be submitted to the store as I found the startup lag and occasional error message unacceptable.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

Mark,

I know why Mike includes it -- there are users who will never check for a new version, and then report errors in an old version that have already been fixed. I just wish it were optional.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by Mark1834 »

I’m just a little uncomfortable duplicating something that’s available already in Jane’s plugin, and another menu option doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm, but I readily agree that I might see it differently if I had dozens of plugins to support rather than a small handful!
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by Mark1834 »

Suggestion - keep the check automatic, but do it just once a month. Reading the last checked date will be virtually instantaneous.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

I've moved this to the Plugin Discussions forum and appreciate the feedback.
The idea of only performing the version check once a month or so sounds reasonable and fairly easy to implement.
It is a shame that idea was not mentioned last year before I updated all my plugins for FH v7.
It will now probably have to wait until each plugin needs some other fix too.

Many of my plugins have performed that check for years without complaint.
I wonder if the FH v7 Plugin Store is slower at performing the check now.

Helen, I can certainly review the Map Life Facts initial Help page but I think it is conditional on your settings.
Most plugins do not now produce a Help page until the user clicks the Help & Advice button.
That Map Life Facts initial Help page advises users about the need to create a Google Maps account.
It should only appear with the API Key Required advice window that explains the options.
When a Google Maps API Key exists or Leaflet Maps are chosen the Help page is not produced.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

Mike, sorry, but I have a valid Google Maps API key set. I've also set the Map Panel Mode to Leaflet and it still happens.

It does however seem to vary with the Project I have open. In my main project which is mostly geocoded, it doesn't appear. In my plugin test harness projects, which is not geocoded, it does appear. And in the Family Historian Sample Project, it appears -- but if I geocode everywhere, it doesn't show up the next time I run the plugin.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

Ok, let me review those scenarios.

Presumably, you are never getting the API Key Required popup advice window.

Exactly which Help page is presented?
Is it the Map Life Facts Google Maps Geocoder page or some other page?
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

No, I'm not getting the API Key Required popup.

The help page I get is https://pluginstore.family-historian.co ... life-facts
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

Yes, that is by design as requested by new users who wanted an initial 'splash Help page when there were no geocoded Places, so they knew how to get started.

If just one Place is geocoded (either in the Project if that is where the Database is held, or in the Plugin Data folder) then no Help page is displayed.

I assume your plugin test harness projects have the Map Life Facts geocoding held in the Plugin Data locations file.
So just plot one location to update the Plugin Data locations file and that initial Help page won't get produced.
That won't change the project GEDCOM file, just the Plugin Data folder file.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

tatewise wrote: 18 Jun 2021 11:22 Yes, that is by design as requested by new users who wanted an initial 'splash Help page when there were no geocoded Places, so they knew how to get started.
Perhaps mention it in the help so other users dont get blind-sided by it? Or is it already mentioned -- I couldn't see it. And maybe open it in a separate smaller window - more akin to a proper splash screen? Only ideas, which you are free to ignore, although I do think that covering unusual behaviours (like this) in the help is... well.. helpful. :D

If just one Place is geocoded (either in the Project if that is where the Database is held, or in the Plugin Data folder) then no Help page is displayed.

I assume your plugin test harness projects have the Map Life Facts geocoding held in the Plugin Data locations file.
So just plot one location to update the Plugin Data locations file and that initial Help page won't get produced.
That won't change the project GEDCOM file, just the Plugin Data folder file.
No, they're in the Project.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

I'll check what the Help says about it and mention the 'splash' page as necessary.
I can only apologise if it is missing but I had a lot of Help pages to update over the last few months.

I don't think a plugin can open a small separate default browser window to display a Plugin Store Help page.
Anyway, that would take even longer than using an existing browser window that is already open.
So I presume you mean a small fhMessageBox() or IUP window to display the 'splash' advice, which could simply say that new users should press the Help & Advice button to discover how to get started.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

tatewise wrote: 18 Jun 2021 11:43 I'll check what the Help says about it and mention the 'splash' page as necessary.
I can only apologise if it is missing but I had a lot of Help pages to update over the last few months.
I don't think a plugin can open a small separate default browser window to display a Plugin Store Help page.
Anyway, that would take even longer than using an existing browser window that is already open.
As I said, I may have missed it -- apologies if I did. My first thought was to look in the FAQS.

Using an existing browser window is problematic for me because I work with a lot of separate browser windows open but minimised (one per concurrent 'activity' each with lots of tabs). The plugin help very often gets added to the 'wrong' window and if I'm not careful, I can close the window to dismiss the help and lose all the work I have underway on those tabs.

If/when I have time I'll root around in the depths of Luacom to see if it is possible to open a separate browser window.
So I presume you mean a small fhMessageBox() or IUP window to display the 'splash' advice, which could simply say that new users should press the Help & Advice button to discover how to get started.
That would work well for me (with an option not to show it again?) (And maybe a Help and Advice button so they can click straight through?)
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

May or may not be helpful, but my Research Planner plugin opens its html help in a separate browser window if you want to take a look at that code.

However, that relies on the Internet Explorer webcontrol, so it might be better to use an iup.olecontrol with the webview2 control (which would have the virtue -- I think -- of being consistent with the internal browser in v7.0.6).
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

See attached Map Life Facts Plugin Version 4.8.1 Date 21 Jun 2021.
[ Attachment is deleted as superseded later. ]

I think it implements the features discussed in this thread:
  1. 'Check Version In Store' is only performed about once per month.
  2. The initial 'splash' Help page is only displayed when the Plugin is first run, or after clicking Restore Defaults.
  3. The FH Place record status 'Blocked/No Auto-Geocode' is honoured by the Plugin.
    It is classified under No Plot with both Latitude & Longitude displaying Blocked.
    ( Locations the Plugin cannot geocode are also classified No Plot but with Latitude & Longitude empty. )
    When Geocode Plot All/Some Locations are used those Blocked locations are skipped.
    But Geocode Plot This Location will perform the Plugin geocode regardless.
    The user can enter Blocked into both Latitude & Longitude to set Blocked status.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

The splash behaviour is much better -- thank you.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by AdrianBruce »

Mike - thanks for this. I've given it a test and it seems to work pretty much as you describe. I'm locked out of my TARDIS right now so can't test the "once per month" :) but otherwise, when I ran Plot All, the Blocked places are skipped correctly. I can also Block a place from the plug-in now - excellent idea.

The only oddity is this one for a place "the Caucasus Theatre" (of war, post-WW1). Here's the original situation:
Screenshot 2021-06-22 120153 7 plus 1.jpg
Screenshot 2021-06-22 120153 7 plus 1.jpg (96.45 KiB) Viewed 5765 times
See above - the place is marked up "Not Found" - possibly from the Internal Geocoder??? That's fine.
Screenshot 2021-06-22 120837 after OLD.jpg
Screenshot 2021-06-22 120837 after OLD.jpg (156.92 KiB) Viewed 5765 times
After running the old plug-in, the Caucasus place has been geocoded (as above) and has no status. That's OK.
Screenshot 2021-06-22 121743 NEW After ALL GC.jpg
Screenshot 2021-06-22 121743 NEW After ALL GC.jpg (95.26 KiB) Viewed 5765 times
After running the new plug-in the Caucasus place has been geocoded (as above) but the status is left as "Not Found" - which is clearly not right.

Otherwise that looks fine, thanks.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

Thank you for the feedback, and that problem should be fixed in the attached Version 4.8.2 Date 22 Jun 2021.
[ Attachment is deleted as superseded later. ]
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by AdrianBruce »

That's fine now Mike, thanks
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

I am considering a few further small changes to the Geocode Locations Plot tab...

In the Latitude & Longitude fields where it currently says either Blocked or No Plot to replace No Plot with Not Found to align with the FH Place record Status. The Statistics above will still combine those two states into the No Plot count.

Any No Data locations with empty Latitude & Longitude fields will align with an empty Status in FH Place records.

Merge the Clear Latitude & Clear Longitude buttons into one Clear Lat/Longitude button, and add a Set Blocked button to set the Blocked status and thus save users having to type Blocked.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by AdrianBruce »

Your button related and Lat/Long related suggestions seem fine to me.

As for the Statistics, I confess that my head goes spinning every time I try to read the explanations. I think I know that the meanings differ depending on whether I keep the data in the Place Records (I do) or not, but having the legend "0 Plotted 1328 Defined" never makes any sense to me (surely the whole point is to plot stuff on a map? :( ). I think that for my case it actually means "0 Tentative 1328 Fully Plotted". Is there any chance that the legends can be adjusted depending on where I keep the data (if that's all there is to it?) Or is it fixed?

I always end up working out what the Statistics mean by going back to my Place data and seeing what combinations match the numbers... The problem with even that, is that it's not something I do frequently, so several months later the nuances have gone again.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by BillH »

I wholeheartedly agree with Adrian on this. I always get confused and have to look at the help and my head starts to spin. Could we maybe have them labeled differently. Maybe Tentative and Non-Tentative? Maybe something like Plotted / Tentative and Defined / Non-Tentative, even if this has to use two lines?

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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by tatewise »

Thank you for the reminders, as I had intended to align the plugin field names with FH.
Don't forget to hover the cursor over any field to get a popup tooltip explaining its purpose.

Now non-Tentative plotted Places show as Plotted on the left of the Statistics and are usually the majority.
Any Tentative status Places are shown as Tentative in the Statistics.
i.e. Those two Statistics have been swapped over.
As you progress to the right the Statistics entries become less and less plotted.

The Substitute field is now named Standardized.

All the button legends now reflect these new names.

The other changes I described yesterday are also implemented.

Try the attached Map Life Facts Plugin Version 4.8.3 Date 24 Jun 2021.
Last edited by tatewise on 24 Aug 2021 15:52, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Attachment deleted as later version is in the Plugin Store.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by BillH »

Mike,

Thanks, that is much clearer. I like having the two positions swapped like that.

At first it was a little confusing that Plotted means "fully plotted lat/long" and Tentative means "tentative plot lat/long". I think of both as being fully plotted (they both have been geocoded and have lat/long values). I'm sure I'll get used to it over time.

Thanks again.
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Re: Map Life Facts help

Post by AdrianBruce »

That looks good thanks, Mike. It's more understandable now.
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