* AS / FH and TNG Gedcoms

[LeslieP]

Thanks all! Apparently I wasn't missing a magical feature, just misunderstood some of the screenshots here.

I was hoping maybe the media tab could show "fact media" like the notes tab shows "fact notes", but it only shows media attached at the individual level. Since I don't attach more than images of the person at the individual level, that tab won't really be useful to me, I'll continue to use the popup window.

Frankly I haven't really gotten comfortable with the media aspects of FH yet (there's so much else to focus on), so I find myself longing for the ease of use of the Rootsmagic media attachment process. That's like the only thing I find myself longing for. I'm sure I'll get over it once I get used to the way FH does things.

Thanks again.

[tatewise]

Yes, my guide was aimed at several people that did not seem to understand all the options and Nick had omitted to mention some of the options and settings.

I don't understand the point of displaying Media after uploading GEDCOM to website software because (except for TNG) websites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast, ZoomPast, etc, do not automatically upload Media linked to GEDCOM at all.
GEDCOM is a format for GEenealogy Data COMmmunication and does not define how the data is displayed in a product.
There are currently three GEDCOM specs in popular use, namely v5.5, v5.5.1 & v7.0, with subtle differences.
The key definitions of Individuals, Families, and Facts are essentially the same in all three.
However, the format for specifying Media differs between v5.5 and v5.5.1 & v7.0.
FH uses v5.5.1 but some other products still use v5.5 or don't support Media at all.
There are also two styles of GEDCOM Source Citations which here in FHUG we refer to as Method 1 Source record focussed and Method 2 Citation focussed. FH & AS support both but are somewhat biased toward Method 1.
The FH File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File... command tends to retain the FH mode of GEDCOM options which may not be best suited to other products for the finer points of Source Citations and Media.
On top of all that each product adds customised features to the GEDCOM file format that other products don't recognise.
My Export Gedcom File plugin tries to overcome those obstacles by customising the exported GEDCOM and Media files to make the best use of the destination product features. It is a continuously developing plugin as new products become available and new features are added to existing products that users wish to use.

[kevync1985]

Yes, my guide was aimed at several people that did not seem to understand all the options and Nick had omitted to mention some of the options and settings.

I don't understand the point of displaying Media after uploading GEDCOM to website software because (except for TNG) websites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast,....
On top of all that each product adds customised features to the GEDCOM file format that other products don't recognise.
My Export Gedcom File plugin tries to overcome those obstacles by customising the exported GEDCOM and Media files to make the best use of the destination product features. It is a continuously developing plugin as new products become available and new features are added to existing products that users wish to use.

Thank you I will try playing with your GEDCOM Plugin to see how it works for my needs for TNG.

Kevin

[KFN]

I don't understand the point of displaying Media after uploading GEDCOM to website software because (except for TNG) websites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast, ZoomPast, etc, do not automatically upload Media linked to GEDCOM at all.

Because, today media is not part of the GEDCOM specification (blobs we’re dropped) I would expect the “automatic” transfer of media to be problematic with the requirement to first adjust the file path in the GEDCOM then find and load each image on a desktop computer where each image could be in a lot of different places, multiple drives, or even in the cloud.

The online software (maybe not the same type you are describing) I use makes this a little easier but is not perfect when your images are on different drives, but if they are in a logical file structure, the “fixing” of the file path (stripping out the drive letter and some directories) in the GEDCOM is straightforward, then a simple FTP of the image directory goes rather fast.

In v7 of GEDCOM a GEDZip package can include images. I suspect that the file path structure will need to be “fixed” to support various importing programs including websites!

[tatewise]

We will have to just wait and see which products support the GEDZIP 7.0 package format. It is not mandatory.
It uses the industry standard compressed ZIP folder format where each zipped media file name is the same as the FILE tag value in Media records. See GEDCOM 7.0 specification Chapter 4. So nothing specifically needs to be "fixed". Websites simply need to be capable of unpacking ZIP files.

[KFN]

So nothing specifically needs to be "fixed". Websites simply need to be capable of unpacking ZIP files.

Fixing would only need to be done if the file path includes things like program specific directories or if files are saved with long and deep paths that could be shorted to better use the structure of a website.

For example:
In the GEDCOM
D:/users/username/documents/software name/images/…

Could be better on the website as
www/images/…

The same for importing into a program on the desktop.
They may want their images in a specific directory rather than in the directory from the other program!

[ADC65]

As far as I can see, this already happens; that is, the GedCom file produced with a GedZip file refers to folders created internally within that GedZip file. For example:

Code: Select all

1 FILE media\ext\Photo - Cook, Herbert Stanley 01.jpg
2 FORM image/jpg
2 TITL Photo - Cook, Herbert Stanley 01

And within the GedZip file, a folder structure of media > ext has been created, which is not where the file is stored on my hard drive.

How receiving programs, such as Ancestry or TNG for example, deal with that is a function of those programs and hopefully options will be available, or defaults used.

[KFN]

ADC65,

I deal in the wild with a lot of GEDCOM files that include full path, including drive letter, so these are things i see and “fix” in my long experience with GEDCOM!

[kevync1985]

ADC65,

I deal in the wild with a lot of GEDCOM files that include full path, including drive letter, so these are things i see and “fix” in my long experience with GEDCOM!

Concerning GEDCOM v7.x -- and media files -- it will be interesting how relative & obsolete MEDIA PATHS are handled. Sometime one might want to maintain the sub-folder structure and other times you may want keep media in one single folder. Maybe the gedcom will have options when importing and exporting for that. TNG has options for that even with 5.5 file paths.

[tatewise]

Presumably, the GEDCOM Media record FILE paths and the ZIP Media file paths can be treated simply as unique 'labels' in matched pairs, so any application that handles the GEDZIP file can convert/map those 'labels' in a multitude of ways.
They don't have to be treated as real file paths. Most ZIP unpacking programs offer similar mapping options.