* Using colour in Family Historian

[ronk]

Sorry to have been the one to put you on this path to adapt your (much needed) plugin to the changes FH 6.x has wrought. But sooner or later it would have been discovered. Is the rewrite of FH settings (from memory?) at program close a 6.x phenomena?

The cmd box procedure is not only messy for you to code, but also will be intimidating to some as well (I have a couple genealogical research cousins who don't even think of doing backups at all, let alone knowing what a command window is), but sounds like that's the only way to accomplish a sound backup/restore cycle, but at least that is already part of the plugin restore procedure from the user perspective.

I presume prefs.dat file might contain other settings besides color as well, right?

All of this would not be necessary if FH had included an option for backup/restore of settings in its own code. Would be nice if someone at FH working for Simon Orde could help out, either now or with the next 6 dot release, if there is one.

[tatewise]

The prefs.dat file has the same format as the Colour Scheme export/import file, and only holds those colour settings. As a workaround, the way to backup those settings is for the user to export a Colour Scheme that they can then import.

I am not aware of any other settings files that FH saves on closure, but now I have found one, perhaps I should look for others.

BTW: It would be more convenient if FH did not write the Windows Registry on closure, as that would avoid the Command procedure. Just as in the colours case, I suspect that final save is superfluous.

[ronk]

I just tried the Export Color Scheme, save it to a given folder, then proceeded to preferences for Media, Property Box, and Focus Window and clicked on installation settings, which then became active. Then closed/reopened FH, chose Import Color Scheme from the file I saved, and ask for confirmation, which I OK'd, and indicated colors restored. But, sadly, everything remained at installation colors. Closed/Reopened FH again, still no change. So. doesnt' appear to work in 6.1.4, unless I'm overlooking something.

[tatewise]

Importing the Colour Scheme just adds it to the menu. You must use Tools > Preferences > General > Colour Scheme to actually change the current colours.

[ronk]

Thank you, my mistake. For some reason it seemed logical that once it's imported, it would mean you want that scheme active. But Calico Pie actually took it one step further, allowing you to have several 'skins' right there in the menu; a nice touch. But...it wasn't intuitive to me.

As to Help, I forgot about needing double quoted words to seach (curious, why is that?) to find anything on "colour (not color) scheme". In my defense, the documentation is a bit scant, with the reference to selecting the scheme once imported from the tools menu documented in a separate area. Will be anxious to have the V6 GTMFFH6 guide.

But..it works, and I'm pleased.

[tatewise]

Putting words in "string quotes" is a standard search convention in most search engines (including Google) to treat that as indivisible search text. Otherwise, each word is searched for separately, and will find many more entries that contain any word on its own, or any words anywhere in any order.

I agree that the Colour Scheme feature is a little disjointed. It feels as it was a hurried last minute bolt on.

FYI: Users may remember that Property Box customised Tabs, when first introduced in V4, lacked several basics, such as import and export options.

[tatewise]

I have performed some testing of my Plugin and corrected some other minor side-effects of V6.1.4 such as the Too Few Data Files error for missing Tutorials.

Providing you are happy with your master backups, try the ATTACHMENTS Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin Version 2.3.5 Date 29 Mar 2016.
[EDIT: ATTACHMENT now deleted as in Plugin Store as V2.4.]

The Backup features should be totally safe, and the Restore features appear to work OK for me.
It should automatically adjust the Backup Data folder structure to accommodate an Application folder that contains the Plugin Data and Preferences folder from the \AppData\Roaming\Calico Pie\Family Historian\ folder. So at least the other Preferences files will Backup and Restore OK. The pref.dat file can also be restored manually while FH is closed.

BTW: Crossover users will hopefully be able to now use this version of the Plugin, albeit without any Windows Registry settings Backup/Restore for the time being. But if it works, then I may be able to add those later.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I will check it out on Crossover for you later.

[ronk]

Mike, ran a test with the new plugin Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings.fh_lua 2.35 after altering colors, closing FH, opening FH to make sure altered colors still present. Then ran the plugin, with restore registry option ticked, prompts to copy 'older' data over newer data, including prefs.dat, which was the last prompt. Then did the registry data, quit the plugin, closed FH, answered 'Y' to import registry data. The command box closed so quickly couldn't really see if a success indication or not. Then reopened FH, and the colors are still altered and colors were not restored, as Mike noted.

I verified the only 2 places prefs.dat exists is in the backup directory I specified, and in C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Roaming\Calico Pie\Family Historian\Preferences.


Note: Manual copy of prefs.dat from backup is required, as Mike indicated.

[tatewise]

Yes Ron, that is what I thought I implied would happen. The other two Preferences files will Backup and Restore OK, but pref.dat will not, because FH overwrites it as discussed earlier. You have to copy it by hand while FH is closed.

I have reported the problem to Calico Pie, along with the fact that the Tools > Preferences > Records Window > Colours are NOT included in the Colour Scheme.

[ronk]

Understood, just confirming your suspicions with a test. Ran another test, and this time closed FH, and manually copied the prefs.dat file from the backup folder over C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Roaming\Calico Pie\Family Historian\Preferences\prefs.dat the restored colors fine. So that's an add-on procedure for now, or alternately, color schemes export/import works fine also.

Thanks,

[Valkrider]

Mike

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work under Crossover. It runs asks where you want the backup saved and then says

'Backup completed for 0 files for 0 programs'

There is nothing in the backup folder.

[tatewise]

Colin, in the Status panel, what FH Program does it list?

Initially it should say Family Historian ... but when you click Backup ... button it should say Family Historian Version 6.1.4.0

I wonder if Crossover is returning an empty file to the CMD.EXE that the Plugin usually uses.
That would explain the symptoms you describe.
So could you edit the Plugin at about line 3383 where its script is:

if not isModal then return true end
if general.FlgFileExists(StrRegFile) then return true end
return false

and replace the middle line if general ... end with:

if general.FlgFileExists(StrRegFile) and lfs.attributes(StrRegFile,"size") > 9 then return true end

[Valkrider]

Mike

Status is blank before running the plugin and then just the error message above.

I made the change to the plugin you suggested and now get an error message as per the screenshot below.

Screen Shot 2016-03-31 at 4.55.46 PM.png (23.39 KiB) Viewed 9076 times

[tatewise]

Please copy and paste the statement, because its should be lfs and the error message is about Ifs.

[Valkrider]

Mike

Still exactly the same as originally now I have corrected the typo.

Status: Backup completed for 0 files for 0 programs

Update

I have just updated Crossover to the latest version 15.1.0 (released last night) and no difference.

[tatewise]

OK, Colin, thank you.
I have started another thread Crossover Test Reg Access (13615) to try and discover what is going on.