Family Historian User Group

I have been using the Lookup Missing Census Facts plugin to help with 1939 Register searches and have found it very useful.

Until yesterday had been able to sort the list by clicking the heading 'findmypast.co.uk' which then put all the entries for different censuses together. However, this facility now seems to have stopped working and I cannot get the list to sort. I am not aware of any changes to my computer or to my method of working.

Has anyone else had the same problem or can anyone suggest a solution? I know it's not necessary to sort the list but I do find it more convenient.

The Plugin has not changed, so it can only be something local to your PC.
Have you updated or changed your default browser?
Try clicking on other column headings as they all have a sort capability.
Then go back to the ancestry or findmypast column.

Thanks for the reply, tatewise.

As far as I am aware nothing has changed on my computer or my browser.

The other columns still sort - just not the one I want. As I said, it's not a major problem, just a bit of an irritation and a puzzle.

Are you saying that neither the ancestry.co.uk nor the findmypast.co.uk columns will sort?

Which browser are you using? Check Help > About *** to show the exact version.
e.g.
In Firefox use Help > About Firefox or if no menu bar use Open menu top right, click ? Open Help Menu, and then About Firefox.

Do all the columns have underlined headings with small white up/down triangles?
When you click a heading to sort, does one of those white triangles turn black?

I have tried this using my usual Chrome (v.49) and also IEv.11. I find that most columns respond every time to the mouse-click to initiate sorting, but two columns do so only occasionally, which is certainly odd behaviour. The two "unreliable" columns are findmypast.co.uk and Family Date. For these two columns, sorting will sometimes work when one or more other columns has been sorted; all other columns always work first time.

EDIT: When there is a failure to respond to the mouse-click, the Chrome Console has the following:

When it does not work do one of the white triangles still turn black or not?

After a little experimentation, I get the same effect in Chrome Version 49.0.2623.87 m and IE Version 11.0.9600.18204, and sometimes on ancestry.co.uk column too! Then the white triangles do NOT turn black.

Interestingly, in IE 11 the file listed in the status bar at bottom usually remains displayed when the sort works, but when it does not that status bar clears!? I don't know what that means.

Perhaps there is something in the sorting script that some browsers do not like?

I have never noticed a problem with Firefox.

The triangles both remain white. The only change is the generation of the error messages in the Chrome Console.

I wonder if the JS problem may arise when a column contains some values that look like dates and other values that do not.

The JS copes with a wide variety of formats, including money and numbers as well as many forms of date, and defaults to a plain text sort. It determines the type of sort from the first non-empty field in the column.
As long as there is a recognisable date within the field it should use that and ignore the associated names such as England/Wales or Register. It specifically discards all text after a 4-digit year prior to sorting.

As far as I am aware the ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk columns should always have a date in every field.

Other columns with dates may also have empty fields, but they are specifically handled too.

What is odd is that the same data sometimes works OK, although the sort algorithm compares pairs of fields, so depending on the starting order, some types of data may or may not need comparing. However, it always seems to work OK in Firefox

tatewise wrote:Are you saying that neither the ancestry.co.uk nor the findmypast.co.uk columns will sort?

Which browser are you using? Check Help > About *** to show the exact version.

Do all the columns have underlined headings with small white up/down triangles?
When you click a heading to sort, does one of those white triangles turn black?

I am using Firefox 45.0.1

I had previously disabled ancestry.co.uk as i was only interested in the 1939 Register. When it was enabled it sorted properly.

I did some further experimenting. I am using the 'All relatives of a chosen person' option in the plug in. If I run the plug in with myself or either of my parents or any one of 3 of my grandparents as the chosen person the findmypast.co.uk sort doesn't work. If my maternal grandmother is the chosen person the sort does work.

In all instances all the other sort headings work.

As I said, it is not a major problem, just a bit of a puzzle.

I would like to try and resolve that puzzle.

Please post either a screenshot or just enter the first few findmypast.co.uk column values.

Are there any values in that column that do NOT start with a date?

Is it possible to identify values in that column that exist for the failing cases, but do not exist for your maternal grandmother?

I have found some time to investigate this problem, and have found a cause, and a solution.
The Plugin added leading space characters in Date fields, where either the day or month was missing, to make formatting for sorting easier. However, recent web browsers are now stripping those leading space characters, which upsets the sorting. So I have replaced them with no-break-space codes   that are not stripped and restores correct sorting.

This correction will be in the next Plugin release.

See new Plugin in Lookup Missing Census Facts (13629).

Lookup Missing Census Facts Version 4.0 Date 15 Apr 2016 is now in the Plugin Store and fixes the web page column sorting problem.

Mike,

Thank you for solving this puzzle.

I am sorry that I did not respond to your request for a screen shot but, unfortunately real family life as opposed to family history got in the way of things for a while.

I am off to download the new plug in.

Thanks again.