* Export Gedcom File new features

[ronk]

Mike,

Using BeyondCompare text comparison software, here are the Gedcom output changes detected between Export Gedcom v3.2.14 and v3.2.15 with FTM, LFT, RMT, and TNG. The plugin options should have stayed the same between versions. Note that only LFT and TNG have the plugin NAME with version, as well as Calico Pie and Family Historian referenced, whereas FTM and RMT have SOUR of FTM and ROOTSMAGIC respectively.

The FTM OBJE to PHOTO was a good change! With v3.2.14, FTM 2017 was not loading any preferred/primary/default photos in their Ancestry-like graphical display, but v3.2.15,with the tag change, they are loading properly. A welcome improvement to the FTM export.

FTM---------------
1534 tags changed from
1 OBJE @Mnnn@
to
1 _PHOTO @Mnnn@

LFT----------------
changed from
2 NAME Export Gedcom File Plugin Version 3.2.14
to
2 NAME Export Gedcom File Plugin Version 3.2.15


TNG---------------
changed from
2 NAME Export Gedcom File Plugin Version 3.2.14
to
2 NAME Export Gedcom File Plugin Version 3.2.15

1534 tags added...
2 _PRIM Y

RMT----------------
1534 tags added...
2 _PRIM Y

Ron

[tatewise]

Assuming you were using (FILE~ABS) mode that looks good.

The _PHOTO tag in FTM is its way of identifying primary photo.

There would appear to be 1534 Individuals with a primary photo in FTM, RMT & TNG.
I thought LFT had no such feature, but digging deeper in knowledge that it imitates TNG in many ways, I find it also uses 2 _PRIM Y so tried adding that too but seemed not to be recognised.

Some products (FMP, FTM, RMT, etc) work best if they appear to have been sourced by themselves and thus support more Gedcom dialect features than if SOUR is FAMILY HISTORIAN.

Those that retain SOUR as FAMILY HISTORIAN now have a NAME tag to identify the Plugin version used.

[ronk]

Firstly, Yes, FTM File~ABS was being used.

With TNG, having an issue Export Gedcom v3.2.15 and _PRIM Y tags.

Before, since my first photo (not census,document or headstone) was the primary photo, I was using TNG's option on import to ASSIGN default photos to first photo, and that worked OK, since I had photos in sequence but not necessarily ahead of other Media.

Now, however, the first media item with FH preference '1' appears as the default photo, which let's say for example might be a census image, not a photo. So, I let TNG do the ASSIGN, with an option which is supposed to override any existing default photo, but it isn't doing so. No matter what I try, I cannot get the first photo to be default once the other has been set by the _PRIM Y tag.

It appears this may be a TNG issue, since the overwrite existing defaults with the first PHOTO is not working as expected. In the meantime, I will need to either 1) have an export option to not output the _PRIM Y tags, or 2) get ALL of my preferred photos to '1' amongst the other media I have, which is a massive undertaking.

I'm also alerting TNG's author to see if there's an issue with the override option.

[tatewise]

I think I understand.

When talking about photo, census, document, etc, you are referring to the 1 _TYPE PHOTO or 1 _TYPE DOCUMENT designations derived from FH Keywords in CAPITALS.

In FH presumably the Preference 1 image that might be a census image, not a photo, is the one shown in the Focus Window and Diagrams and Reports for a person? Now TNG is imitating that preference. Is that correct?

(Legacy & RootsMagic would be the same.)

[ronk]

No, those tags are not used, but rather, e.g,1 OBJE @O118@ and the media paths, e.g. 1 FILE Media\documents\D19771109 Krzmarzick,HenryE obit.jpg determine on import to TNG which 'collection' the media are put into, in this example, into the documents collection. In FH,since all media items appear together in the Focus Window, the wrong image is appearing (residual from my migration from LFT) as the first media item, but I've ignored up until now. TNG was correcting this for me by taking, after import is completed, the first 'PHOTO collection' media item as the default photo. However, it isn't overriding what is now there. Before, I'm surmising, there were no default photos detected w/o the _PRIM Y tag, so TNG's assign default worked fine.

I've passed a note to TNG's author about this possible bug. So, FH is doing things correctly but has exposed this issue, both in TNG in the order of media items I have in FH.

I can easily strip the _PRIM Y tags with an editor macro, if need be, as a temporary measure I do realize this is also my issue, since the FH media preference is not correctly set for many persons.

If in FH, I could use a query listing of all persons with their default or preference '1' media or just the media filename (it is prefixed by photo/doc/census/headstone), it would highlight how big an issue this is to correct.

[tatewise]

OK, you have managed to circumvent the problem only because the (FILE~ABS) and (FILE~REL) modes had not honoured the 2 _PRIM Y feature until now. All the other Media modes have employed the 2 _PRIM Y feature since V2.1.

Since this is the only change in V3.2.15 you could revert to V3.2.14 from Export Gedcom File plug-in V3.2.11 (15136) and don't upgrade to any Plugin Store version until the problems are resolved.

Keep us informed of any developments, or if you need any further assistance in sorting things out.

BTW: Presumably in TNG there is a way of setting the primary image that results in the 2 _PRIM Y being set.
So surely there must be a way of altering that setting or removing it altogether.

[ronk]

Yes, using v3.2.14 for TNG is my current plan, but, I want to correct the preferred media order in FH, since I have the same issue now with v3.2.15 in FTM (but better than before since there were NO default photos. I can see about an FH query to look at the magnitude of the issue, and get it corrected. I can tell already that less than 600 of 14000 persons even have 2 or more media items (pics) in the individual view sorted by pics.

A question:if there is any media linked to a person, must there then be a primary media item; e.g., even if no photos, but only documents? Forgive my ignorance of FH in this regard. I will do more reading, promise.

[tatewise]

On the Media tab of Individual Property Box when you Edit any image, there are Exclude from Diagrams/Reports options.

The Exclude from Diagrams option governs whether the image is excluded from Diagrams and the Focus Window.
That setting also governs which image is given the 2 _PRIM Y tag.
Remember Plugin Help & Advice says:

For each Individual record, the most preferred Media tab item without Exclude from Diagrams set, gains the _PRIM Y tag to identify the primary photo.

If that leaves no images, then none are displayed, and none get the 2 _PRIM Y tag.

BTW: It is somewhat unusual to have documents on the Individual Media tab that would usually only hold photos.
The documents would usually be on the Source record Media tab and associated via Citations.

[ronk]

The fix of reordering the preferred media was to, as mentioned, use the FH Individual record listing sorted by Pics,etc. Turns out most were in the right first spot, and only 167 images had to be moved up in preference to '1'.

As to why documents (and headstone images) are in the media tab of the focus properties window, it is because that's the way the media images were initially entered in LFT. There, an '*' on the media image designates the default photo, and for all but those 167, it was already at the front of the media of all types so came across that way with the import from the LFT export to FH.

The media types are separated by foldername as well as filename prefix to facilitate the import and presentation within TNG, both in its individual screens and in other media screens. The FH presentation, in graphical display still presents default photos and also, now, FTM. The predominant documents are census and parish records, with non-conventional notation of sources in the notes of the media.

I am now content with Export Gedcom v3.2.15 and the 2_PRIM Y tags as it is.

Ron

[tatewise]

Excellent - another satisfied customer!

[ronk]

Update: TNG's author today confirmed that the 'override existing defaults' was only doing so for photos, but not documents, headstones, etc, if they had been imported with _PRIM Y tag. A correction patch was provided and it will be corrected in the next release. However, with the FH data maintenance I've done as described above,at this time I shall not use the 'override' since I am satisfied with what Export Gedcom v3.2.15 plugin is now providing.

[tatewise]

That sounds fine.
Further testing of the Plugin with the 2 _PRIM 2 amendment for (FILE~REL) and (FILE~ABS) modes revealed a minor problem in (***~LMO) modes where the Exclude from Diagrams option was being ignored.
That is now fixed.
Also the 2 _PRIM 2 tag is now working for (LFT) Legacy, but only in (***~LMO) modes, as Legacy appears to ignore that tag for all (***~ABS) modes.

The fixes are in attached Export Gedcom File Plugin ZIP Version 3.2.16 Dated 26 Jul 2017. [Attachment now deleted]

If nothing else comes to light, I hope to publish this week in the Plugin Store.

[ronk]

Mike,

In Legacy 7.5, Export Gedcom v3.2.16 LFT export is causing only the default photos (1) to appear in LFT, in other words, it appears that any OBJE after the 2 _PRIM Y is being skipped, though they are in the Gedcom.

I am using the FILE~ABS option, so it doesn't seem that LFT is ignoring the 2 _PRIM Y tags; at least not in version 7.5.

I have tested FTM, RMT and TNG and results look good.

Export Gedcom v3.2.15 worked fine.

Ron

[tatewise]

I was using the Legacy v9.0 free standard edition.
Can you try some other Media options with Legacy v7.5 please, especially the (***~LMO) modes?
Do you have cases where 2 _PRIM Y is NOT on first Media object?
Maybe Legacy v7.5 only allows one OBJE link. I've never tested it with (FILE~ABS) which is very recent.

If the (***~LMO) modes work OK, then the Help & Advice can describe what happens in other modes for each Legacy version.

Have you tried FTM in both (+) Full Data and (-) Brief Data modes as they are very different.

I'm updating the Help & Advice and got through all Output Formats for products up to (FMP) FindMyPast.

[ronk]

I could try LFT FILE~REL, but will have to point to the proper folder at import time. I used to use that a while back before ABS came to my knowledge.

I do have Legacy 9, but prefer the older Legacy 7.5.

I used the FULL DATA on the FTM, and you wish me to test the BRIEF DATA, right?

UPDATE:
I initiated the BRIEF DATA but halted it, was very slow, and found all media was being copied to the EXPORT folder.
I ran the LFT FILE~REL, but will not see the results until later today, and will update you then.


Ron

[tatewise]

I doubt if (FILE~REL) will be any different to (FILE~ABS) or any of the (***~ABS) modes as they all use 1 OBJE @O123@ links to Media records. Only the (***~LMO) modes use 1 OBJE local media objects without any Media records.

Yes (-) BRIEF DATA mode please for FTM.

[ronk]

Will retry these options later today; some options changed when I ticked FTM BRIEF DATA to cause media to be copied.
Also, LFT ~LMO, don't those copy all media as well to the EXPORT folder?

I share common media folders for all media for FH,RMT,FTM and LFT, hence the FILE~ABS, except FILE~REL for TNG.

But I can test with the media copying, if you need that. FTM BRIEF DATA can be set to FILE~ABS, which ticking it changed.

Ron

[tatewise]

The default for FTM is (ALL~ABS) in both Full Data & Brief Data modes.
But you have probably changed that setting in the past and Full Data has inherited that.
If you can use various Media modes that would be useful.

Yes, all modes except (FILE~REL) and (FILE~ABS) and (WIPE~ALL) will export Media image files to the Export folder.

But Media image files and Media records are two different things, if that was your thinking.

[ronk]

Actually, I suspect FTM BRIEF DATA inherited that, since I've never used it with FTM. And I know what the image files vs. records are; I have over 3000 image files and all will be copied to the EXPORT folder with those other modes. I have to allow space and time for that, and then find them on the import to LFT. In the long term, I certainly wish to return to the FILE~ABS links option for an ongoing procedure.

Will post results tonight.

Ron

[ronk]

Didn't think I would have time, but all media seemed to import properly with the LFT PART~LMO option, but with the undesirable effect of all media being linked from the FH EXPORT folder. The 2 PRIM Y tags were recognized as well. Exporting took ~3 minutes, of course seemed a long time compared to less than a minute with ABS links.

The FTM -BRIEF on the other hand, seemed zippier in performance after import to FTM 2017, and default photos appeared to be in place properly. Without looking it up, what is the key difference between FULL and BRIEF?

Ron

[tatewise]

Now those Media files exist, any future exports should be much quicker, probably about same as (FILE~ABS).
The Plugin is clever enough to know they don't need copying all over again.

FTM FULL uses extensive Notes containing mimics of GEDCOM tags.
See plugins:help:export_gedcom_file:ftm_family_tree_maker_2014|> Export Gedcom File ~ (FTM) Family Tree Maker 2014.
FTM BRIEF does not, and is much more like most other exports for other products.

[ronk]

Ah, I was wondering why I was getting 'mimic's of the Gedcom records in FTM....Thank you for explaining. It seems everyday you have to refer someone to READ more documentation. I'm as guilty as anyone, you have the patience of a saint.

Since I have LFT 9, I tried FILE~ABS and had the same result as LFT 7.5; with OBJE recs after the 2 _PRIM Y being skipped.

As to LFT and PART~LMO, understood, that's good that it knows about the media files, but also if there's been an image change, say outside FH, such as an image replaced? And hope I don't need to have a second set of media files. And I have a third set, with thumbnails, I for TNG because, for the web, I apply watermarks to all images.

Any chance to fall back to not outputting 2 _PRIM Y for LFT FILE~ABS since it isn't working in LFT 7.5 or 9? The rest of the top level testing has been done, meaning I don't go through and examine every aspect of the imported results. Primarily I rely on the text comparison utility to tell me what has Gedcom records changed from version to version.

Just tested, I can have an editor macro easily remove the 2 _PRIM Y tag lines from the LFT FILE~ABS output, then all appears fine in LFT 7.5

[ronk]

One LFT testing addendum: An additional behavior noticed with v3.2.16 LFT FILE~ABS is that most of the notes are missing as well, likely skipped along with the other photos perhaps?

Never mind what I just deleted here (hope you hadn't read it yet)...my columns were hiding the full RIN in Legacy.

Lastly, the RMT option, the 2_PRIM Y was noted in the RM 7.5 log as unrecognized.

Ron

[tatewise]

OK Ron, I will review those issues when I get time, as it school holidays and sometimes busy with grandchildren, etc.

[ronk]

No problem, I have grand children as well. I have easy workaround for the LFT issue with FILE~ABS (remove the 2_PRIM Y)and now using v3.2.16 LIVE!

Thanks for all your work which is much appreciated!

Ron