* Creating a web site with FH

[Nick-V]

I use FH to maintain data and connect to media. I upload the GEDCOM to web sites for record and tree matching. I have used PHPGEDVIEW to present info however this is less straightforward than I'd like to use and to maintain so I am trying to get the most out of the standard web site features of FH.

I use the Table of Contents significantly to present the many-to-many relationships using simple Ancestor and Descendant outline reports that link to family and individual records. I also provide links to a few PDF files to present charts (a pain to maintain) and have links to certain other data. I use a custom CSS to correct text formatting inconsistencies (font-family), the Map plugin (also has CSS issues) and the Improve Website plugin just to provide a search on the Index page.

Considering there are 3000+ individuals and no database (therefore lots of static HTML files) the result is quite adequate and meets the goal of being straightforward. However:

1) The How Related report reports "How [missing] is related to [missing]" when on the table of content but works fine when used normally even when output to HTML. (EDIT: reported as bug)

2) Is there a way to save the web configuration without having to generate (or generate then quickly cancel) a new web site...save only occurs when Save Settings is ticked...there is no save button. (EDIT: generate to a different folder with just one person selected for speed or just cancel)

3) Is there a way to save more than one web configuration without having to use a plugin to backup and restore all FH settings? (EDIT: settings are saved in ..\Settings\CreateWeb.fha)

4) Is there a more automated and dynamic way to present charts than to output them periodically as PDF files? (EDIT: No. It would be good if the web creation wizard could create PDF charts based on an entry in the Contents list)

5) Occasionally on completion of web generation I hit the Close button and it then does more generation. A restart of the software resolves this. (EDIT: bug reported, happened a couple of times but not recently.)

6) On some reports I present all pictures in rows at the top. When resizing Chrome browser (not tried IE) sometimes I get a row with just one image on the right as if the calculated spacing is incorrect. (EDIT: confirmed as an issue not just with Chrome. Separately, it would be better if the standard CSS file packed images closer)

7) It would be great to be able to list and link to people from reports of Locations, Addresses, Occupations, Sources, etc. (EDIT: perhaps a locations list with expand buttons to people although scalability issues arise.)

8) On the Web Improvement plugin it would be more appropriate if the enter key had the effect of Start Search rather than Clear Search.(EDIT: easily done by modifying the _nameindex.js file after each run as discussed below. Hopefully, the next version will remove the need to edit this)

9) I can't find this now, but when presenting facts as a textual paragraph a nasty large gap appeared between facts when the date of an occupation was missing. (EDIT: still looking for this)

10) Is there a way for this forum to email members when replies are made to topics? (EDIT: when logged in there is a "Subscribe Topic" option at the bottom left of the page)

(EDIT: items below added later)

11) On creating a web, it appears all files are first deleted from the output folder. Perhaps the mystyle.css, which is not FH generated, should not be deleted as it may have taken some effort to design! (EDIT: files kept in a subfolder of the web are not deleted. a path could be made to ..\keep\mystyle.css in the subfolder.)

12) I have ~90 items in my table of contents and wish to organise these. At present I use ALL CAPS for headings (no formatting exists) and a web link to "." to create a blank line (no blank lines exist). It would be good to have one additional report item called "Heading" that uses the standard CSS formatting for FhHdg2 and can contain text or null to create a blank line. (EDIT: Enhancement request sent to FH)

13) Centring (of footer and top images) different on Contact and Statistics pages. Using step 7 of the wizard I've added a centred Facebook image link under the menu bar and a footer at the bottom. These appear in the same place on the Home and Index page and on all reports map pages. However, they jump right a few pixels on the Contact and Statistics pages. (EDIT: unavoidably, this happens to centring when the RH scroll bar appears (or disappears on short pages like Contact and Statistics. Use of a margin-left tag provides improved controls discussed below.)

Thanks for any efforts to provide workarounds, fixes and enhancements.

[ColeValleyGirl]

10. Scroll down to below the post and look for "Subscribe topic".

[Nick-V]

10. Many thanks - done !

[tatewise]

1) That is a bug I have easily reproduced, so that needs to be reported to support@family-historian.co.uk.

2) No, but temporarily selecting a subset of Individuals at Step2 and a different Folder at Step 8 makes it a bit less painful.

3) If you are talking about the Step 3 Templates, then you can create as many Custom Report Types as you like and choose which pair you want for each website. If you are talking about the Create a Website Wizard settings, then the Make a Family Tree CD/DVD option saves a separate set and produces identical files, or you can manually take copies of the ...\<project>.fh_data\Settings\CreateWeb.fha file. BTW: The Backup and Restore FH Settings Plugin does not help with these settings because they are stored within each Project folder and not the C:\ProgramData folder or Registry.

4) No, I agree this is a drawback of FH.

5) Do you mean the Close Wizard button or Close FH? Could you give more details of the symptoms - what do you mean by 'does more generation'?

6) I get similar symptoms in Firefox when there is more than one row of images. I notice that <div class="fhimgblock fhimgrow"> above each row has no fhimgblock definition in fhstyle.css. Report it to support@family-historian.co.uk.

7) Agreed.

8) I guess you mean the Index of Names Search Filter. In Firefox the Enter key does nothing by default, but the Clear Search and Start Search buttons take focus by using the Tab key and then the Enter key actions the button in focus. Maybe Chrome puts the lefthand Clear Search button in focus by default, in which case swapping the buttons might fix it. I am not sure if XMTML/Java Script allows the focus tab order to be defined. I will have a look.

9) I guess you are talking about Narrative Reports? Might be difficult to resolve without more specific details. With more details, report it to support@family-historian.co.uk.

[Nick-V]

Mike...your response was really helpful, thanks for your time. I've emailed support@ with all bugs and enhancement requests referring to this thread.

1. Thanks for recreating and confirming I'm not going mad!
2. Yes, I'm now outputting to a temp folder first so cancelling the output is less destructive.
3. I'm referring to the wizard settings so it is useful to know I can set up multiple projects as a workaround.
4. Yes a significant drawback...a graphical web output is the greatest shortfall if one wishes for more comprehensive features than offered by e.g. Ancestry - I wonder what other inexpensive software does and how
5. I mean Close the wizard. I will look more carefully next time (could be a while) but suspect something gets corrupted with use (as resolved after a software restart). Last time it started creating new family or individual pages again!
6. Thanks for recreating and confirming
7. Requested
8. I am. Interesting, I tried Chrome again. On loading page and entering text, the enter key causes a clear. However, after a subsequent entry or even a page refresh it does nothing. In IE 8 (windows 2003 latest) IE pops up an error stating "cannot load page http://bla/_nameindex.html" and after an OK it clears the screen. IE 11 on windows 8 always simply clears the box. Yes setting focus if possible would be good.
9. Yes...I will make better notes if I see it again.

There are 6909 objects in my web folder for a site reported to have 2308 pages, 3087 people, 2092 pictures, 6 files and I count 2487 map pages. It appears to generate in an acceptable time of several minutes while drinking coffee etc. and perform adequately but I see potential scalability issues. Again, I wonder what other inexpensive package software might be used to complement Family Historian in the area of web creation. Simple to use and maintain, relatively flexible to configure but perhaps with a simple database and certainly some charts and links to people from locations and other such data.

I'm quite committed to producing a reasonable web site as might be others, and after some years with PHPGEDVIEW found it messy to maintain and use. I'd encourage contributions to the thread by anyone with experience to share !

[tatewise]

8) I think I have found a fix for the Enter key problem, which has the benefit that it behaves the same in IE and Firefox, such that pressing the Enter or Return key invokes Start Search.

If you want to try the fix, edit the _nameindex.js file on about line 31 such that "type":"button" becomes "type":"submit":

Code: Select all

var start = $("<input>").attr({"type":"submit","value":"Start Search","style":"width:9em"});

I am not really surprised that IE 8 does not like the script.

Have a look a links:index|> Member Web Sites especially The Next Generation (TNG) which is popular with users and not too expensive, although I do not use it.

[Nick-V]

11) On creating a web, it appears all files are first deleted from the output folder. Perhaps the mystyle.css, which is not FH generated, should not be deleted as it may have taken some effort to design!

It might be an idea to always add a reference to mystyle.css in every file rather than optionally:

a) the file name would always be the same
b) users would not have to add it in the wizard.

Reported to support@ as an enhancement request.

[Nick-V]

Mike...excellent, the simple change of "button" to "submit" fixes it in Chrome and IE11 (8 still dies as expected). Many thanks.

All I need to do is remember after every site creation to replace files with my three custom files:

mystyle.css (point 11 above)
mapfacts.css (until a new version comes)
_nameindex.js (until a new version comes)

[Nick-V]

12) I have ~90 items in my table of contents and wish to organise these. At present I use ALL CAPS for headings (no formatting exists) and a web link to "." to create a blank line (no blank lines exist). It would be good to have one additional report item called "Heading" that uses the standard CSS formatting for FhHdg2 and can contain text or null to create a blank line.

Enhancement request sent to support@

[ColeValleyGirl]

Re 4 GedMill from http://www.logicmill.com/ includes a 3 generation navigation chart for each individual but... it isn't supported any more and even the 'open-source code' seems to have vanished.

That said, it works on GEDcom files, and might be something you want to investigate. (I've not tried it with 'foreign characters' in the GEDcom so can't swear it copes with all native FH6 output but tatewise most likely has a plugin for that...

http://www.colevalleygirl.co.uk/Family%20Tree gives you a feel for what it does, but be aware this is the result of combining FH and GEDmill output via a scripting editor that nobody here will be using. Work is underway in a plugin that will do the same but I'm not committing user rt to a timetable ( I can't duck the thrown items fast enough).

[Nick-V]

Thanks Helen - you have a well presented site - pretty!

I'm going to try and keep things standard, supported and simple (moving away from PHPGEDVIEW) even if that means loosing a little function. And actually, with some bending and compromise, the output from FH is not too shabby and very straightforward.

On my list to investigate further is the web sites of other FHUG members at http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=links:index - I want to learn what they have managed to achieve. Also, TNG software, which may be better than PHPGEDVIEW but still requires export, PHP, MySQL and all that.

[tatewise]

12) Table of Contents
Have you tried the Improve Website or CD DVD HTML Plugin Content Tables tab?
This can create a separate ToC page for Pictures &/or Reports &/or Downloads, and add a menubar item for each one, and a shortcut to them from the Home page.
See the Plugin Help & Advice for details.

[craigmollekin]

I believe Webtrees is the successor to PHPGedview.

http://www.familytreephp.com/ is very easy to use.

I used Gedmill here: http://mollekin.net/molleken/home.html I have a copy of the software if you want it.

[Nick-V]

Mike, yes I tried that plugin and like how it changed the menubar. However, my problem goes further than sectioning pictures and downloads:

Given the many-to-many nature of a family tree, and the lack of charts to help with navigation, I am currently using very simply ancestor (bottom-up) and descendant (top-down) outlines reports containing names, dates and places only. This hierarchical navigation style combined with the searchable index page has received some feedback as being simple. Given the large number of reports, I wish to group by family branch.

Craig, thanks for the offer of Gedmill software...I'll be looking at your site shortly...

Last time I looked at Webtrees they were simply taking over support of PHPGEDVIEW and had not got round to enhancements of simplifications. It appeared not much different in terms of use or maintenance but its been a while so I'll take another look.

I'll also look at familytreephp, although I suspect it is still PHP and MySql perhaps it is far simpler than webtree and more comprehensive than FH. Right now I'm putting all efforts into FH and kind of winning my personal battle of simplicity versus function.

[Nick-V]

13) Centring (of footer and top images) different on Contact and Statistics pages. Using step 7 of the wizard I've added a centred Facebook image link under the menu bar and a footer at the bottom. These appear in the same place on the Home and Index page and on all reports map pages. However, they jump right a few pixels on the Contact and Statistics pages.

I've tried to investigate but cannot find the difference between these ages. I suspect it is related to page margins but where? I did note that tags "fhpage_Home", "fhpage_Contact" and "fhpage_Stats" are missing from the CSS file but don't think this is the connection.

Will wait for any feedback before reporting a bug.

[tatewise]

13) I cannot detect any problem with centred header/footer, except that if the page is long enough to need a vertical scroll bar, then that affects the centring, because the screen width is effectively reduced.

If I reduce the browser height so that there always is a scroll bar, then the centred item is rock solid on all tabs.

BTW: I've tried Firefox and IE.

In Step 8, I am using in the <body> section, below the menu bar:

Code: Select all

<center>
<img src="loading_black.gif" />
</center>

and at the end of the <body> section:

Code: Select all

<center>
<p>footer text</p>
</center>

[Nick-V]

Again I think your explanation is correct. The Statistics and Contact pages are short with no vertical scroll bar which impacts centring! All other pages are longer than a screen.

Shame as my centre logo jumps to the right....maybe I should not centre but set a left margin or tab or something...will experiment...

[tatewise]

Try adding something like .Margin {margin-left:30em;} to your mystyle.css file.

Then under Advanced... button replace <center> with:

Code: Select all

<div  class = Margin>
 < ........... />
</div>

Then whatever is in that <div> section will be indented exactly 30em.

To avoid the scroll bar effect any element must be a fixed distance from left margin in order to remain static from page to page. That is why the Logo and Menu-bar are against the margin.

The extra spaces around class are essential if that section is to be included in Map Life Facts generated map pages because the Plugin extracts all between <body> and first <div class= as the Header & Menu-bar. So by using <div class = it does not exactly match <div class=

[Nick-V]

Yep got it thanks!

[Jane]

With regard to number 11, just put your css file (any any other files you want always available) in a sub-directory of the website folder, that way they are not deleted when you regenerate and can be added to the head section in your web preferences.

Number 3: I believe all the web site settings are held in a file called CreateWeb.fha in the settings directory, so you could easily write a plugin to allow you to manage multiple sets of settings.

[Nick-V]

Jane, many thanks...two very useful tips.

11) This works well for my logo.png and mystyle.css. For the clarity of others, at the moment I still have to move in the patched _nameindex.js until a new version of the Web Improvement plugin comes out. And I still need to have a folder (could also be a sub folder of the web) of the files that I have made available for download on the Contents page.

3) I'll probably leave plugins to you and Mike. But knowing the specific name of the file is useful as I might keep versions of it rather than versions of the entire project.

[Nick-V]

Final feedback (for now) perhaps useful to others relating to HTML that you might include in web pages under the ADVANCED button in step 8 of the wizard. I am not a technician but these work for me!

at the end of the <head> section to:

1) enter a code for google webmaster tools
2) add a description for search engines
3) add keywords for search engines
4) refer to a custom CSS style sheet as documented elsewhere

Code: Select all

<meta name="verify-v1" content="PUT YOUR CODE HERE" />
<meta name="description" content="PUT YOUR DESCRIPTION HERE" />
<meta name="keywords" content="PUT, YOUR, KEYWORDS, HERE" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css" />

in the <body> section, below the menu bar to:

1) add a link in a specific position under the menu, in this case to a Facebook Group using an image

Code: Select all

<div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/YOURGROUPNAME/"><img src="facebook.png" style="margin-left:3px; margin-top:3px alt="FB" /></a></div>

at the end of the <body> section to:

1) put a centred footer with a mailto hyperlink

Code: Select all

<hr /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="mailto:YOUR@EMAIL.COM">YOUR FOOTER TEXT</a></div>

[craigmollekin]

Thanks, Nick Does the mailto hyperlink appear on all pages (including individuals) or just the Home page? I like the Facebook link too.

[Nick-V]

Craig...all of the HTML stuff you enter is applied to all pages generated by FH.

Facebook provides a collection of images you can attach BTW...like my preference "Find us on Facebook"

[craigmollekin]

Brilliant, thanks