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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about PhpGedView
Questions about Installing PhpGedView
Common Error Messages
Questions about Privacy
Questions about Languages and Character Sets
Questions about Pictures and multimedia
Miscellaneous Questions
Please be patient as we try to update the documentation. If your
question is not answered here yet, then please try the other support
options listed on the support page. If you think a question should be
here, then you are welcome to contact the developers and let them know.
What is PhpGedView?
PhpGedView is a revolutionary genealogy program which allows you to view and
edit your genealogy on your website. PhpGedView has full editing capabilities,
full privacy functions, and supports multimedia like photos and document images.
PhpGedView also simplifies the process of collaborating with others working on
your family lines. Your latest information is always on your website and available
for others to see.
See About for more information.
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Why should I use PhpGedView?
- It's Free!!
- You don't have to generate thousands of extra html files. Simply
upload your GEDCOM file and you've updated your entire site.
- It's fully compliant with GEDCOM 5.5
- Powerful searching features let you find the people you are
looking for.
- Pedigree, Descendancy, and Timeline charts just like in your
regular genealogy program.
- With customizable theme templates, your site will look the way
you want it to.
- Share your genealogy with your family, friends, and the world
over the Internet.
- Edit your genealogy online
- Allow your family members to login and view and/or edit genealogy online
- Collaborate better with your family members by working together on the same data set
See About for more information.
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What is GEDCOM?
GEDCOM is an acronym that stands for "GEnealogy Data COMmunication" and is a standard for the
exchange of genealogy data between programs. A GEDCOM file is a file that contains GEDCOM data.
A GEDCOM file is usually created by exporting it from a common genealogy application.
Almost all genealogy applications can import and export GEDCOM files.
PhpGedView uses GEDCOM as its main data format and stores GEDCOM records in its
databases and index files. This allows it to be the most compatible with other
genealogy programs and allows it to be extensible.
The GEDCOM format is a text based format (ie. you can open a Gedcom file in a text editor like
Notepad). Each line in the gedcom starts with a number followed by a TAG indicating what kind
of information is on that line. The number tells if the information on that line starts a new
record or if it is a sub line of the previous line. A Gedcom record for an individual will look
something like this:
0 @I1@ INDI
1 NAME Given Names /Surname/
2 GIVN Given Names
2 SURN Surname
1 BIRT
2 DATE 01 JAN 1900
2 PLAC Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona
This record says that the person with ID "I1" has the name "Given Names Surname" and was born
on 1 January 1900 in Phoenix, Arizona.
There are many complaints about the Gedcom standard, and more specifically about how well genealogy
applications support it. There are also efforts to come up with new XML standards for genealogical
data exchange. But Gedcom is still the current standard and is not likely to be replaced soon.
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What can PhpGedView do?
PhpGedView is the best online genealogy application. Take a look at its many
features or browse someone else's site from the site registry
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Can I run PhpGedView on my Home computer?
PhpGedView was designed for the purpose of easily putting your genealogy
on the internet, however it is possible to run it on your home computer
for local access. To do this you will either need to
download the PHPLauncher application or set up your computer as if
it were a webserver.
Follow these steps to turn your computer into a webserver:
- Download and install a webserver. I recommend
Apache. You
might be able to get windows personal web server to work with PHP.
See the php documentation for more information on trying this route.
If you are successfull, pointing your web browser to
http://localhost will
give a web page welcoming you to your new webserver. If not you will
get a file not found or host nor found error.
- Download and install
PHP.
- Follow the directions in the readme.txt
file for installing PhpGedView.
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Can I Run PhpGedView from a CD?
Follow these steps to run PhpGedView from a CD:
-
First
Download the PHPLauncher
- Download the latest version of PhpGedView
- Run PhpLauch
- Setup and Configure PhpGedView to use Index files.
- Edit your configuration and set the session save path to be the
c:\TEMP folder on your harddrive.
- Burn it to a CD!
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How can I find out if I have PHP on my website,
or if I can run php files?
First check the features and support documentation for your website
host. If you are the host server hardware administrator and need to
install php then you can download it at
http://www.php.net.
If your host doesn't provide this information then you can find out
yourself by creating a new text document called test.php and copy the
following lines of code into it:
<html>
<body>
<?php
print "<h2>You've got PHP!</h2>PhpGedView will work here.";
exit;
?>
<h2>Sorry, no php.</h2>
Upload this new test.php file to your site and point your browser to it.
If you have php on your site, you will see a message saying that you've
got php and that PhpGedView will work. If you don't have php then you
will see a message saying that you don't have php.
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What version of PHP is required to run PhpGedView?
PhpGedView requires at least PHP version 4.3.x. Some people are successful at running
PhpGedView on PHP v4.2.x but it is not supported by the development team.
To use the reporting engine, PHP needs to be compiled XML support. This is
compiled into PHP by default unless it is specifically disabled. See
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.xml.php
Some features of PhpGedView require the GD library and that PHP be compiled
with GD support. Most precompiled versions of PHP include GD support. If you
are compiling PHP your self you will need to configure it with the --with-gd
option. See http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.image.php
The advanced calendar features of PhpGedView for converting Gregorian dates to
the Hebrew or Jewish calendars require that PHP be compiled with the
--enable-calendar configuration option. See the following website for more
information: http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ref.calendar.php
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How do I install PhpGedView?
Please read the Installation Instructions on this
website or in the readme.txt
file.
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Should I use Index Files or a Database?
PhpGedView comes with two options for storing data, databases (like MySQL) and Index
files. From the visitor perspective the sites operate in exactly the
same way. The Index Files are generated to speed up access of your data.
The Database mode imports your gedcom into a database.
Now, the answer to the question, "which one is right for me." The real
answer is personal preference. But there are some compelling reasons why
one might want to use one or the other:
- If you have a large gedcom file (>5MB) then you should use a
database for speed and system performance issues. The response time of the
standard version seems to get larger as the gedcom gets larger.
- If you don't have a MySQL database on your site or have to pay
extra for it then use the Index files.
- If you don't have a large gedcom file, but just like databases,
then use MySQL.
- If you think the Sith and the Klingons have joined together to
wipe out the X-Men once and for all and Dr. X has seen that only a
boy with a lightning scar on his forehead can save them... toss a
coin... heads you use the Index files, tails you use the MySQL
database. You can always switch later.
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What file permissions need to be set?
All files need read permissions. The following files need write
permissions:
config.php
The following directories will need write permissions:
./index/
If you want to use the language editing features you will need to set write
permissions for all of the files in the ./languages folder
If you want to upload media files using the upload media section of the
admin menu then you need to set write permissions for your ./media and
./media/thumbs directory
If you want to edit your gedcom file online, the gedcom file must have
write permissions set for the PHP user.
Refer to the Installation section of
readme.txt for more information.
The method to set write permissions varies depending on your server configuration.
If you have a Windows server, you may not need to do anything at all. If you use FTP
to connect to your server, then you should look for a "permissions" or a "chmod" command.
The "chmod" command takes a series of three numbers something like 755. The
three numbers tell what permissions are for the file's owner, the file's group, and everyone.
So the setting 755 breaks down like this: Owner = 7, Group = 5, Everyone = 5. The following
table tells what each number means
| 7 | Read, Write, Execute |
| 6 | Read, Write |
| 5 | Read, Execute |
| 4 | Read |
| 3 | Write, Execute |
| 2 | Write |
| 1 | Execute |
| 0 | no access |
So the setting 755 would say that for this file, the owner can read, write, and execute the file, the
group can read and execute, and everyone can read and execute.
You should first try setting the permissions using "chmod 755". If that doesn't work, that means that
the webserver is not setup to run and the files owner and you should try "chmod 775". If that doesn't
work, then the webserver is not in the file's group. At this point you can try to change the group (this
often requires administrative rights on the server) or you can try "chmod 777". This would give everyone
access to the file.
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PhpGedView fails when building indexes or
importing large GEDCOM files with no error messages. Help?
There are two problems that could be causing this when working with
large GEDCOM files (>2MB). In order to get the information from the
GEDCOM file, the file has to be opened and read into memory. PHP has a
default memory limit of 8MB. This is a protection from rouge scripts
trying to take all of a machine's resources and disable it. Depending on
your PHP version/configuration. If you are using a large gedcom
you should probably double this amount especially while importing or
indexing. To change the amount of memory allocated to PHP, edit the
php.ini file (most likely located in /etc/php.ini on Unix or C:\WINNT\php.ini
on windows) and change the following line:
memory_limit = 8M
Change this to: memory_limit = 16M
A good rule of thumb would be to allocate 4x the size of your gedcom
file. So a 4Mb gedcom shouldn't need more than 16Mb in PHP. However an
8Mb gedcom could require up to 32Mb.
After editing the php.ini file you need to restart your webserver.
This is only helpful if you have access to edit the php.ini file, which
generally means you are the server administrator. If you do not have
this access, then you should first try skipping the cleanup options
on Step #3. If that doesn't work try to do the importing/indexing on your
home computer or split your one large gedcom into several smaller
gedcoms.
Another problem that can occur, especially on windows machines, is the
time limit can run out. PHP has a default time limit of 30 seconds.
Again this is a security measure to prevent rouge scripts and hackers
from stalling a machine. You will usually get an error message if you
exceed the time limit. You can change the time limit by editing the time limit parameter in the gedcom configuration.
It should never take more that 10 minutes. After
you have built the indexes or imported, you should reduce this back down
to prevent someone from trying to get a 40 generation pedigree chart and
stalling your server for 10 minutes.
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Can I build the indexes on my Home computer
and then upload them?
Yes. This can be helpful for large gedcoms where building an index can
take a very long time. You have two options to be able to do this.
First you can use the PHPLauncher to run PhpGedView and build your
indexes and configuration files. Just copy the index directory
from the PHPLauncher and upload it to the PhpGedView directory on your
webserver.
You can also download and use PHP to create the indexes. Follow
these steps:
- Download and install
PHP.
- Download and install PhpGedView as if you were installing it on
your site.
- Open a command prompt and go to the PhpGedView directory.
- Run the command: C:\PHP\php -q buildindex.php
This will build the indexes on your local computer.
- When it is done upload the indilist.ind, famlist.ind, and
sourcelist.ind to from the PhpGedView/index/ directory on your local
computer to the PhpGedView/index/ directory on your server.
PhpGedView on the server will automatically recognize the new
indexes and use them.
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I imported married names in the import step. Why do they do not display?
You have to set "Show married names on Individual list" to Yes. To do this go to:
Admin > Manage GEDCOMs and edit Privacy > Configuration file > Edit > Display and Layout > Names >
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I setup PhpGedView but the charts are empty
and/or I get some errors?
This usually means that your GEDCOM import did not complete
properly. You should try to import the GEDCOM again by logging in
as an administrator and going to the Admin page and then the Manage
Gedcoms area. Then click on the import link next to the GEDCOM you
need to import. If you are asked to cleanup your Gedcom, you should
click the "Cleanup" button. If you are asked to empty the
dataset click the "Yes" button.
As your Gedcom is imported, your will see a progress bar telling you
what percentage of your Gedcom has been imported. When the importing is finished
you should see several statistical messages and links off to the right that will
take you to some of the other pages.
If you do not get this information or if you get errors then you should look
at some of the other FAQ's on this page for more information on how to proceed from here.
If your question is not answered here, then you should post a message in the help forums.
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Why do I get a blank page?
If you have copied the PhpGedView files to your website and all you
get is a blank page when trying to access PhpGedView in your browser, then
this probably means that PHP is not installed on your website.
PhpGedView is written using the PHP programming language and in order for it
to run, your website must support PHP. See the PHP section
of this page for information about how to find out if you can use PHP files
on your website.
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Warning: Cannot modify header information -
headers already sent
This error is usually the result of other errors on the page beginning
before output is printed to the page. Look for other errors that appear
first on the page and try to fix them first. If you get the other
errors fixed, this error will disappear.
The most common types of errors that will cause this warning are BOM
characters in the language files, file
permissions errors, or session configuration errors. The BOM (Byte
Order Mark) in the
language files can be checked from the Edit Languages page. Refer to the
other sections of this FAQ for details on dealing with the different
types of errors.
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Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]:
open(/tmp\sess_2056cb1c9e9ebe4bee597b943e7bda56, O_RDWR) failed
This means that PHP could not write the new session data to a file for
storage between requests. There could be many things that are
causing this, but they are all unrelated to PhpGedView.
The first thing to check is that the /tmp directory or the
C:\PHP\sessiondata directory
have write permissions for PHP. The next thing to check is that
the session.save_path parameter of the php.ini file (/etc/php.ini or
C:\WINDOWS\php.ini) is pointing
to the correct location.
These settings likely have to be changed by the server administrator,
if that is not you then it could take a while for them to answer your
request. PhpGedView has a configuration parameter that will allow
you to change the session.save_path paramter just for PhpGedView
scripts. To set this, go to editconfig.php and set the Session
Save Path to "./index" or any other directory where you have given PHP
write permissions.
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Notice: Undefined variable _SERVER
This means that you are running PhpGedView on an unsupported version
of PHP. PhpGedView requires PHP version 4.3.0 or later. To
fix this, you should first contact your web host and ask them to upgrade
to a newer version of PHP.
If for some reason, your host won't upgrade their installation of
PHP, you will have to replace all instances of $_SERVER with $HTTP_SERVER_VARS
in the PhpGedView code in order to fix this error.
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SQL Injection warning when adding or editing notes?
SQL injection is a common technique used by hackers which gives them control of the database.
PhpGedView protects you from this attack, but sometimes this message can occur if PhpGedView
misinterprets some of the text coming in as an SQL command.
To solve the problem, try to look for words like INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, DROP, and TABLE
and choose alternate words or rearrange their order. The Error message should give you some clues
as to what text triggered the warning.
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Warning: mail() [function.mail]: SMTP server response: 501
This warning probably means that your email SMTP server does not support email addresses in the form
Full Name <email@address>. This error is most common on Windows based SMTP servers.
If possible, you should consult the documentation for your SMTP server to see if you can change these settings.
You may also configure PhpGedView to only use the email address instead of including the full name by following these steps:
- Login and a site administrator
- Go to the Admin page
- Click on Configuration
- Set the Use simple mailheaders in external mails to "yes"
- Click the "Save Configuration" button.
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How do I hide the names of living people?
By default PhpGedView is configured to show the names of living people but hide their
details. You can easily hide the names of living people by logging in as an administrator
and going to the Manage Gedcoms page. Then click on the edit link next to the privacy file
for the gedcom privacy settings you would like to change. Then set the "Show Living Names"
option to "No" and save the settings. When you log back out, you will find that living names
are hidden.
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How does relationship privacy work?
You can configure PhpGedView to user relationship privacy. This means that when users
login, they will only be allowed to view the information of living people that they are related to.
There are several privacy settings that control the behavior of relationship privacy.
| Setting | Description |
|---|
| Use relationship privacy | Turn on or off the relationship privacy. |
| Max relation path length | This setting controls how closely someone must be related to you in order to view
their details. It is a number based on how many steps it takes to get from you to the person you want to view. So for example
to get to your niece you would follow this path You--Brother--Brother's Daughter. This required two steps, so it would be a path
length of 2. A path setting of 4 would allow you to see second cousins along a path like You--Father--Grandfather--Grand Uncle--Grand uncle's son. |
| Check marriage relations | This setting tells whether or not you can see relationships by marriage. With this setting
checked you would be able to see everyone within the path length. With the setting unchecked you would be able to see
your brother and your brother's wife, but not your brother's wife's parents or siblings. |
More information about these settings can be found in the online help.
Note: Using relationship privacy will slow down your website while it calculates the relationships. The higher your path length setting,
the longer it will take to calculate relationships.
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Why does PhpGedView mark my great great great grandfather as private?
To increase privacy, people in your GEDCOM are automatically assumed to be alive.
Here are the rules that are used to determine if a person is dead or not:
- A DEAT record returns dead (1 DEAT Y )*
- A BIRT record less than $MAX_ALIVE_AGE returns alive
- Any date in the record that would make them older than $MAX_ALIVE_AGE
- A date in the parents record that makes the parents older than $MAX_ALIVE_AGE + 40
- A marriage record with a date greater than $MAX_ALIVE_AGE - 10
- A date in the spouse record greater than $MAX_ALIVE_AGE
- A date in the children's record that is greater than $MAX_ALIVE_AGE - 10
- A date in the grand children's record that is greater than $MAX_ALIVE_AGE - 30
For performance issues we stop at the grandchildren and do not continue on to
great-grandchildren or great-great grandchildren. Assuming an average of 4 children,
the average number of records that would be checked is 4^generations (ie. 4
children, 16 grandchildren, 64 great-grandchildren, 256 great-greats)
* Note: PhpGedView will also accept the following non standard GEDCOM generated by Legacy
1 DEAT
2 DATE UNKNOWN
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Some of the characters in my GEDCOM are not
showing up right?
PhpGedView defaults to the UTF-8 character set. If you are finding that
characters above the standard character set are not being shown
correctly (ie. umlauts, quotes, m-dashes, Hebrew etc.) then re-export your
gedcom from your genealogy application and make sure you select the UTF-8
option when you export. Then upload this new gedcom and re-import.
If your genealogy software does not support exporting in the UTF-8
format, then choose the ANSI option and then convert the GEDCOM to
UTF-8 using another program. Instructions on how to do this can be
found here.
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Does PhpGedView support Unicode (UTF-16)?
No. Unfortunately this is a problem with PHP and thus by inheritance is
a problem in PhpGedView. PHP currently does not support wide character
sets (2 byte or 16 bit character sets). However, PhpGedView does support
the UTF-8 character set which is the standard for the Internet. UTF-8 is
a multibyte character set which allows you to view many languages on the same
page. Extensive development work has been done in PhpGedView to support the
UTF-8 character set throughout the program.
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What languages does PhpGedView support?
See the About page
for more information about language support in PhpGedView.
Note: PhpGedView relies on the support of the PhpGedView user
community to supply languages. If you would like to make contributions to
the languages, then follow the instructions in the LANGUAGES section of the
readme.txt file.
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How can I convert my GEDCOM to UTF-8?
Your GEDCOM file should be encoded in the UTF-8 character set,
especially if you use special characters. Most of the current
commercial packages allow you to specify the character set when you
export your GEDCOM. If UTF-8 is not one of the supported options,
then you should export your GEDCOM first using the Unicode or Windows
character set.
A common encoding option for GEDCOMS is ANSI. PhpGedView will attempt to
convert ANSI encoded GEDCOM files to UTF-8
during the GEDCOM import, but ANSI encoding will usually corrupt characters
outside of the standard ASCII 256. So if you have special characters in your
GEDCOM file, then you probably want to export to Unicode or a Windows character
set and then use another program to convert it to UTF-8.
To convert a GEDCOM encoded in another character set to UTF-8, open
your GEDCOM file using Windows Notepad. Near the top of the file you should see the line
1 HEAD ANSI
Change this line to read
1 HEAD UTF-8
This will alert PGV and other genealogy programs that the GEDCOM is encoded in the UTF-8 character set.
Then select "File" -> "Save
As..." from the menu options. In the "Save As" dialog box select "UTF-8"
from the Encoding drop-down list.
Other text editing programs that support the UTF-8 character that you might want to
try are MS Word, WordPerfect, and OpenOffice.
PAF supports the UTF-8 character set at export, so you can also try importing your GEDCOM
into PAF and then exporting it back out again.
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How do multimedia items in Gedcom work?
The GEDCOM 5.5 spec allows for built-in support of multimedia objects through the
OBJE tag. PhpGedView looks for this tag in the Gedcom when search for multimedia items.
An example of GEDCOM code that links a picture to a person, looks like this:
1 OBJE
2 TITL A title for this picture
2 FILE C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My Documents\My Pictures\Genealogy\GrandpaJones.jpg
2 FORM JPG
2 _PRIM Y
This snippet of Gedcom code says that the GrandpaJones.jpg file is associated with this person
and for this person it has the TITL "A title for this picture." The FILE tag is the only required
piece and tells where the file was located when it was originally attached to the person. The _PRIM
tag is often added by genealogy programs to signify that this picture is the PRIMary picture, or the
picture that should be used for charts.
Obviously the original file path "C:\Documents ...\GrandpaJones.jpg" is no longer valid on the internet.
PhpGedView assumes that all media files are in the "media" directory and if would look for this picture
as "media/GrandpaJones.jpg". It would also look for a thumbnail at the "media/thumbs/GrandpaJones.jpg"
path. PhpGedView makes this conversion according to the "Media Directory" and "Media directory levels to keep"
Gedcom configuration settings. With the "directory levels" setting, you can tell PGV to look for this
picture at "media/Genealogy/GrandpaJones.jpg" or at "media/My Pictures/Genealogy/GrandpaJones.jpg". This
allows you to organize your pictures and can help prevent file name collisions.
Here is an example using a "directory levels" setting of 1:
For the following gedcom records:
1 OBJE
2 FORM jpg
2 FILE H:\PGV\media\Family1\image0001.jpg
2 TITL Title of family 1 pic 1
2 NOTE Note of family 1 pic 1
2 _SCBK Y
2 _PRIM N
2 _TYPE PHOTO
2 _SSHOW Y
Another Indi has following object record:
1 OBJE
2 FORM jpg
2 FILE H:\PGV\media\Family2\image0001.jpg
2 TITL Title of family 2 pic 1
2 NOTE Note of family 2 pic 1
2 _SCBK Y
2 _PRIM N
2 _TYPE PHOTO
2 _SSHOW Y
You should use the following file paths:
/media/family1/image0001.jpg (main image)
/media/thumbs/family1/image0001.jpg (thumbnail)
/media/family2/image0001.jpg (main image)
/media/thumbs/family2/image0001.jpg (thumbnail)
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Why are image links lost after updating a Gedcom file?
The most likely cause for this problem is with the way your genealogy application exports the image links in the Gedcom file.
Some genealogy applications, such as Family Tree Maker, do not export the multimedia links in the gedcom file at all.
For these types of Gedcom files, PhpGedView includes the "Add Media Tool" which will allow you to keep
image links in a seperate database table and add them to the Gedcom before it is imported.
Other programs, such as Family Historian, use custom links so that the image names are not the same with every export. There
is a program available that will help you to convert these types of Gedcoms. It can be downloaded here: http://www.fhug.org.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=downloadinfo&cat=GedCom&id=3
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My photos and other media files are not
showing up. What do I do?
First see the Media section of this Website and the MultiMedia Objects section of the
readme.txt for more
information about multi-media files and the media directory. Use
the following steps to get PhpGedView to recognize your media files:
- First collect all of the media files referenced in your GEDCOM
file and place them in a new directory. This can be the hard
part depending on how your genealogy software operates.
- Next create thumbnails for each of them in a separate directory
with the same file names.
- Upload the main media files to the media directory or
if you changed the location of the media directory in the PhpGedView
online configuration then use that directory.
- Upload your thumbnails to the media/thumbs directory.
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How do I set which Gedcom file to use on the URL?
Normally you would change the currently active Gedcom using the Welcome Page menu. However, you
may often want to link into a specific Gedcom from another page. This can be done by setting the "ged"
paramter on the URL. For example, if you have two gedcoms on your site: gedcom1.ged and gedcom2.php you
could link to the pedigree chart for these gedcoms using the following urls:
http://www.mysite.com/phpGedView/pedigree.php?ged=gedcom1.ged
http://www.mysite.com/phpGedView/pedigree.php?ged=gedcom2.ged
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How do I set the default theme?
- Login as an administrator and go to the Admin->Manage Gedcoms and Edit Privacy page.
- Click on the link to edit the gedcom configuration
- Find the setting for "Theme directory" (should be the second to last setting in the basic configuration settings)
- Choose a theme from the list or type the theme directory into the field and save the configuration.
Note: if you have enabled the option for users to set their own theme in the site configuration, then when users login they
will be able to change the theme in their user account settings.
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What should I do if verification email links are not correct?
If you get registration or verification emails from PGV with incorrect links in them such as
http://www.mygenealogy.com/index.php instead of http://www.mygenealogy.com/PhpGedView/index.php
it usually means that you need to change the PhpGedView configuration for the Site URL.
To fix this, login as an administrator and go to the Admin->Configuration page. Then change
the site url to the location of your PhpGedView installation. You usually only need to change this
value from its default setting if you want to use your server under HTTPS instead of HTTP.
Many people confuse this setting with the Gedcom configuration for the home page URL because they
want to include a link to their main genealogy page. This setting can be found at the
Admin->Manage Gedcoms->Edit Configuration page.
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How can I change Gedcoms using a URL?
You can change the currently active Gedcom on any page in PGV by specifying the "ged" parameter
on the URL.
Here are some example URLS showing how to do this:
- phpGedView/index.php?command=gedcom&ged=gedcom1.ged
- phpGedView/pedigree.php?ged=gedcom2.ged
- phpGedView/indilist.php?ged=gedcom3.ged
- phpGedView/individual.php?pid=I1&ged=gedcom4.ged
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Why are siblings not sorted by age?
The reason for not automatically sorting by birth date is for those families where you know the correct
ordering of the children, but do not have all of the birth dates. If we added automatic date sorting by
default someone would surely post a bug saying the children are out of order ;). The convention used by
all genealogy programs is to display siblings in the order that they are listed in the GEDCOM, though most have an option to resort the sibling order.
Starting from version 3.3 there is an option to reorder or sort the children in a family (available if editing is enabled).
To sort the children in a family, go to the family page and click on the reorder children
link. Then you can click the sort by birth date button.
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How can I prevent Search Engine Bots from using All My Available Bandwidth?
Search engine spiders (bots) are programs that search your sites so that search engines can index them
and then point searchers to your site. This is very important since it is the way most researchers will
find your site. That said, there is a way to mitigate most of the problem by selectively disallowing the
bots from part of your site. The Robots exclusion standard
(see http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/exclusion.html#robotstxt) used
by all search engines allow you to specify specific parts of your site that you want excluded from indexing.
An example of a page that can be excluded is the calendar page. All information available on this page
is available on other pages. The same goes for most trees. To exclude pages, create a file named robots.txt.
The contents of the file should look something like:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /phpgedview/reportengine.php
Disallow: /phpgedview/fanchart.php
Disallow: /phpgedview/search.php
Disallow: /phpgedview/login.php
Disallow: /phpgedview/clippings.php
Disallow: /phpgedview/sosabook.php
Disallow: /phpgedview/timeline.php
Disallow: /phpgedview/calendar.php
Disallow:/ phpgedview /images/
In this case PhpGedView was installed in the phpgedview directory. Place this file in your server root.
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