Very useful plugin but I have two small problems. First, how do I change the window background to that shown in the Help file? Mine looks like this:
And I notice that when typing in a location (in the box below 'click here to choose an entry') the text display cannot keep up with the typing and the characters sometimes come out in the wrong order.
I think I have fixed both those problems and Map Life Facts V3.0 is now available from the Plugin Store.
Gerry, I am interested in what PC environment you are using.
The background problem has never been mentioned before, and your button shapes have more rounded corners than on any of my Windows PC systems.
It seems likely that any Plugin that creates its own user interface will have to define the background colour as I have done.
With version 3.0, I no longer get the wrong characters when I type, but there still is a delay between when I type and when the characters appear. When I type into the Substitute field, all the buttons in the window flash on and off. I'm using Windows 7 64-bit. I don't remember having this happen in older versions of the plug-in.
Bill,
The flashing of the buttons on/off has been standard for many versions now.
It happens for almost every interface operation.
First, the Plugin deactivates all the buttons and other controls, which greys them out.
The objective is to prevent multiple simultaneous operations by clicking a second button before first button has finished.
Then the operation is performed, albeit one key press, or a simple button click.
Finally, the status is checked and appropriate buttons and controls reactivated.
I don't have the delay problem on my Windows 7 64-bit PC, but I will have a look to see if can be improved.
I can try it out on both a Windows Vista PC and a slow Windows XP laptop.
Thanks for the explanation on the flashing issue. I guess I just had not realized it was happening, probably because I wasn't looking that closely before.
On the delay in the characters appearing, is anyone else having this issue in Windows 7?
tatewise said:
I think I have fixed both those problems and Map Life Facts V3.0 is now available from the Plugin Store.
Gerry, I am interested in what PC environment you are using.
The background problem has never been mentioned before, and your button shapes have more rounded corners than on any of my Windows PC systems.
It seems likely that any Plugin that creates its own user interface will have to define the background colour as I have done.
V3.0 seems to address the issue of the window colours - thank you. Text is still slow to appear but the problem of characters appearing in the wrong order also seems to have been resolved - thank you again.
Generally I have had no problems with Windows programs operating in the Parallels environment so I hope that the new FH Plugins will behave as well.
Yes, that would be enough.
I think I have updated the Plugin to be more efficient when manually editing/nudging Substitute, Latitude & Longitude values, and the delay has gone.
As a side effect it also makes Geocoding a little more efficient too.
On the FH Users Mailing list it has been suggested that the Address Place option should include ALL Address and Place fields:
Address Place where both Address and Place exist (as in current version)
Address where Address exists but NO Place (as in current version)
Place where Place exists but NO Address (these are extra with the enhancement)
I never use 'Address...' as my addresses never have city, state, or country so they really can't plot anyway. As for 'Address Place', I like it the way it is. For the same reason, I wouldn't use lone addresses without places.
I'm not sure I completely understand on your suggestion. How about options like this?
'Address and Place...' only if both address and place are coded
'Address or Place...' if either address or place is coded
'Address...' only if address is coded (plot ALL addresses, but don't use the place even if coded)
'Place...' only if place is coded (plot ALL places, but don't use the address even if coded)
Is that saying the same thing?
The last option is the one that I would always use. I really want ALL places to plot in this case, not just those with no address.
On the Set Preferences tab there are three Locations From options.
Place Fields plots EVERY Place field (no change planned).
Address Fields plots EVERY Address field (no change planned).
Address Place plots Address and Place fields combined.
Currently, this plots EVERY Address field with its associated Place field.
i.e. The set of Locations includes: Address Place where both Address and Place exist in a Fact. Address where only an Address exists in a Fact.
I plan to supplement this set of Locations with: Place where only a Place exists in a Fact.
This way, every Fact with an Address or a Place will be plotted.
Whereas at present Place fields without an Address are omitted.
I see. I did misunderstand. This sound fine. I probably still wouldn't use the 'Address' or 'Address...Place' options as I have quite a few addresses with no place field coded and these can't really plot for me.
How about the other option I mentioned 'Address and place...'. Would this be a good addition? I would like to be able to plot those addresses I have that also have a place coded. Right now I can't plot them.
If you choose Address...Place then this will plot every Address that also has a Place.
With my proposal it would also plot every Place without an Address.
Yes, any Address without a Place may result in No Plot, or it might actually plot, but does it matter that there are some No Plot entries?
For many users the purpose of plotting is to then create maps.
An option of Address & Place would omit all Facts without both fields and so these would not appear on maps.
If you choose Address...Place then this will plot every Address that also has a Place.
Yes, but it also plots addresses that don't have a place and these end up plotting incorrectly most of the time for me. For that reason, I might not use this option very often. I don't mind the ones that don't plot. Maybe I am the only one that uses addresses the way I do. If it is something that other people want, then by all means you should go ahead and add it. You should code the plugin to work for the most people, not just for me. [smile]
Maybe what I really could use would be an option that would plot all places. If there is no address, it would just use the place. If there is an address, it would use both the place and the address fields concatenated. That would always give me the best possible location.
Combining suggestions from various avenues, my latest proposal for the Address...Place option is to offer four sub-variants:
Address...Place will include every Fact with both an Address AND a Place value. Address...[Place] means the Address field must exist but the Place field may be empty. (This is the current V3.0 Address...Place option) [Address]...Place means the Place field must exist but the Address field may be empty. [Address]...[Place] means either, but not both, fields may be empty.
In each case the Address...Place concatenation will form the Location to be plotted.
In all but the first variant, either the Address part or the Place part may be empty.
Bill, the [Address]...Place variant will offer what you want.
i.e. Plot every Place, with the Address prefixed if it exists, but exclude any Address with no Place.
This sounds just right. Gives everybody an option that will work for them. Thanks for listening to all of us and incorporating ideas into your plugin. Not every programmer is so willing to make changes.
That has fixed the problem for me with the lag in the characters appearing in the Substitute field. Also, I tried the [Address]...Place variant and it works great, does just what I wanted. Thanks for both of these.
I have a question. I have a lot of manual places that I have entered in the Place Fields only option. Is there any way to have the [Address]...Place variant know about these so I don't have to go in and redo all these too?
Bill, if you are happy to temporarily edit the Plugin then this should do it.
Use Tools > Plugins > More >>, select Map Life Facts and click Edit.
Use Edit > Find to locate local function doBuildLocationsList()
Scroll down about 45 lines to locate if not TblLocationData[strLocName] then -- Add new Location to data
Then use Copy & Paste to insert the lines below immediately above that line. Do not worry about empty blank lines or other white space layout.
if strLocName:match('^ ') then
local strLocPLAC = strLocName:gsub('^ ','')
local tblLocPLAC = TblLocationCode['PLAC'][strLocPLAC]
if tblLocPLAC['mod'] == 'Manual' or tblLocPLAC['sub'] ~= '' then
TblLocationData[strLocName] = tblLocPLAC
end
end
This not only copies Manual plots but also Substitute values for every matching Place.
If you do NOT want Substitute values then remove the or tblLocPLAC['sub'] ~= '' condition.
When happy with the results, then delete those inserted lines, or just download the plugin again.
Thanks for the special code. I tried it out, but saw some weird results.
Some of my manually changed entries in the Place Fields only database are not plotting the same in the [Address]...Place database. These are entries that had no address, only place. I had bumped the location and I'm not seeing the proper results in the [Address]...Place map. Also, the statistics didn't seem to add up right. The Place Fields only database was showing 125 manual entries and 0 no plot entries, but the [Address]...Place database was showing only 119 manual entries and still 0 no plot entries. Not sure what was going on.
Then I was also seeing things that I had never manually plotted or put in a substitute value for showing up as manual in the lists for both databases (pink). Not sure how that happened, must have been when I initially tried to get my already manually bumped entries into the list a few releases ago.
In any case, I think the best thing for me now is to just start over. This will take a few days because of the geocoding limit.
I did have a few questions though.
Is the code that you gave me only a one time thing to initially load the manual entries? In the future when I add new places into FH would I have to manually update them in each database in the plugin? It would be nice if when a manual entry was made in one database, it also carried over to the others. [smile]
When I click on Next Plotted, it sometimes takes me to the next manual entry, not the next plotted entry. Since plotted doesn't include manual in the statistics, I thought Next Plotted would not include manual either. Am I misunderstanding how this should work?
On the Geocode Location Plots tab you can list Locations by clicking on the Location: name field.
In the Address Place List any Place without an Address is listed starting with ellipsis.
e.g. Florida would be listed under Florida.
If it is not listed then it never occurs on its own without an Address.
So, if Florida was a Manual plot in the Place Fields only data, then Florida should have become a Manual plot in the [Address] Place data.
But if EVERY Florida entry has an Address, then it won't be listed under Florida and won't receive the Manual plot.
Would that explain the discrepancies?
The V2.9 attempt to auto-detect Manual plots relied on the Google Geocoder plotting to the same point as when each Location was originally Geocoded.
I have noticed that sometimes the Google Geocoder does revise its plot point for the same Location.
This may have led to some false Manual plots.
The inserted code was intended as a once-off quick fix, and won't exist in any future version of the Plugin.
It only transfers Manual and Substitute values in one direction from Place Fields only data to [Address] Place data.
If you leave the code in situ, then any changes to Manual and Substitute values in the [Address] Place data will be overwritten by matching Place Fields only data every time you run the Plugin.
It is not obvious to me why you would want to maintain both databases.
Having satisfactorily switched to [Address] Place data, what purpose does Place Fields only data serve?
I would be tempted to use the Erase Place Database button.
Maintaining synchronisation between the Address Place data variants and the Place/Address Fields only data would be challenging and arguably should include Geocode Plots as well as Manual Plots.
If you hover on the Next Plotted button the tooltip says it finds the next Plotted Lat/Lng Location entry, both Geocode and Manual.
This was to maintain consistency with previous Plugin versions of that button.
I accept this is inconsistent with the Statistics names.
Not sure whether to change the button behaviour, or rename Plotted as Geocoded in the Statistics.
