* Order facts in diagram by date

[ColeValleyGirl]

I'd like the ability to order whatever facts are included in a diagram's text scheme by date rather than group them by Tag as is the only option at present. (Including All Facts and Attributes is overkill and ends up with unacceptably large diagram boxes in most cases).

[tatewise]

Perhaps the <all events & attributes> specific Item needs a Fact selection option similar to most Reports.
But then you have little control over how each Fact is presented.

Otherwise, there are a number of design considerations to clarify.
Check the Edit Text Scheme dialogue and review the Type of Available Items.
Clearly Attribute and Event have associated Date or Time Frame as per Property Box Facts tab.
But what about Calculated, Data, Identifier, and other Types? How should they sort?
Also you can create any Type of <Custom Item>. How should they sort?
Even Birth, Marr, Death standard Text Scheme has Spouse Name if 'One Box Per Marriage'. How should that sort?

It is actually far more complex than the Property Box Facts tab.
So it is not yet clear to me how a Wish List entry should be formulated.

[Jane]

Personally I would rather see a "hook" to allow diagram text to be generated by a plugin, that way you could do anything you wanted.

[tatewise]

You mean like Wish List Ref 547 Run Plugins via Expressions?

Although, for less advanced users, writing a Plugin to format Diagram Text would be daunting.

I was thinking more along the lines of Narrative Report Sentence Templates but even that idea needs refinement.

An alternative might be to assign a Time Frame and Sort Date to each and every Text Scheme Item.
That could be an ordinal Time Frame number, plus a Date or a Data Ref that defines a Fact Date (or Sort Date) which dynamically determines the order within the nominated Time Frame.
All items with the same Time Frame number but no Date would retain their order as per the Used Items list.

[davidf]

It would be really helpful if one or more of you could volunteer to help with a 'Wish List Blitz', working from oldest request to newest, with an aim to formulate the Wish List item contents so it can be added to the Wish List (or discarded if no longer needed, or there is insufficient input to understand the requirement).

Well, this is the oldest! So, let's try and review it as requested (despite the venerability of those who have already posted!)

• Validating that the requirement isn't already met satisfactorily (including by features in FH introduced after it was raised). No, still unmet
• Formulating the text of the request (or requests), including
  • reaching a consensus on what is actually wanted
  • specifying the requirement
  • Identifying related items already on the Wish List

What is wanted?
The ability to display a timeline of events/attributes in a person's life in a diagram property box, - sort of a text scheme that does Fact[1+]
Questions?

• Which Facts:
  • All facts?
  • Selected Facts? - Just the facts specified in an existing text scheme? So, just take them and sort by date - the option to do so being a checkbox in the text scheme?
• How to achieve it?
  • That's "solutions" and CP's role!
  • Can it be done by plugin? Only if we get enhancements that allow plug-ins to be hooked to elements (separate wish list - but does that remove need for this WLR?). Can we get plug-ins to act as glorified mega-functions (yes)?

Items on the wish list that impact:
Wish List Ref 547 Run Plugins via Expressions?

Now up to the original poster to comment?

[ColeValleyGirl]

• Which Facts:
  • All facts?
  • Selected Facts? - Just the facts specified in an existing text scheme? So, just take them and sort by date - the option to do so being a checkbox in the text scheme?

Whatever facts are included in a diagram's text scheme

A checkbox option would be fine.

I don't believe a plugin is a user-friendly solution, but if somebody wanted to write one if/after item 547 was implemented, this might be unnecessary. Until then, it is.

[davidf]

Wish list Requirement

Diagrams to have option to present facts in strict fact date order

Requirement

An option to chose to present the facts selected in a text scheme in date order rather than tag group order.

Benefit

Allows users (and output readers) to view a timeline for individuals in a diagram.

Notes

1. This might be achieved by a checkbox on the Edit Text Scheme Dialogue
2. Undated items to be at the top after Name etc.
3. Attributes to be listed by start date
4. Sort dates where given take primacy over "fact dates"
5. Least specific dates to come before more specific dates (e.g. 1874, then Q1 1874, then Jan 1874, then 23 Jan 1874)
6. Order of same dated items to be determined by the order in the Text Scheme.
7. Format of items to be determined by their Text Scheme entries.
8. Nested Items to include the Superior Lines for each occurrence:

   

   Marriages of Henry VIII

   Screenshot from 2022-12-13 14-21-56.png (10.71 KiB) Viewed 2292 times

   Rendered as:
   • Marriages and Relationships
     -- Catherine of Aragon
     -- -- Married 1509
   • Marriages and Relationships
     -- Catherine of Aragon
     -- -- Divorced 1553
   • etc.

Discussion Topics
None?

Other Wish Lists
None - although there is discussion of other improvements to Diagrams and Text Schemes

[ColeValleyGirl]

Looks good to me. Would it be simpler to refer simply to matching the order on the Property Box Facts tab?

[davidf]

Would it be simpler to refer simply to matching the order on the Property Box Facts tab?

I'm not sure it would. The text scheme allows you to state which facts are to be diagrammed - i.e. not everything in the Property Box Fact Tab. It's for CP, but given that I think I want them to refer to the text scheme to determine both which items and what format, do they also want to be referring to the Property Box Fact Tab?

As an aside - to be carried forward as a separate wish list request if it ignites anyone's interest - I have pondered whether it could be useful to have a diagram, with fixed height boxes, fixed Name & b&d dates Header and vertical Scroll Bars - which showed the Property Box Fact Tab for each individual.

[tatewise]

This thread keeps focusing on Facts (Events & Attributes) in the Text Scheme whose order is not too difficult to envisage.
What about all the other Available Items that are possible in a Text Scheme that are not Facts? How do they get sorted?
i.e.
There are 6 Calculated types of items such as Ahnentafel Number and Relationship to Chart/File Root.
There are 7 Data types of items including <Custom Item...> which could be almost anything.
There are 7 other various types of items such as Custom Id and Record Id.

[ColeValleyGirl]

This thread keeps focusing on Facts (Events & Attributes) in the Text Scheme whose order is not too difficult to envisage.

Might that be because that's what I asked for?

Let us eat the elephant a bite at a time...

[ColeValleyGirl]

Would it be simpler to refer simply to matching the order on the Property Box Facts tab?

I'm not sure it would. The text scheme allows you to state which facts are to be diagrammed - i.e. not everything in the Property Box Fact Tab. It's for CP, but given that I think I want them to refer to the text scheme to determine both which items and what format, do they also want to be referring to the Property Box Fact Tab?

Definitely only the facts to be diagrammed, but CP already have logic for ordering in the Facts tab -- why not apply it to the facts to be diagrammed for consistency?

As an aside - to be carried forward as a separate wish list request if it ignites anyone's interest - I have pondered whether it could be useful to have a diagram, with fixed height boxes, fixed Name & b&d dates Header and vertical Scroll Bars - which showed the Property Box Fact Tab for each individual.

Definitely a separate request -- there in a tendency to try to include everything and the kitchen sink in some of the requests, which make it less likely that they'll be satisfied (and complicates the voting process -- "I want X but definitely not Y, and not having Y is much more important, so I won't vote at all".)

[tatewise]

I don't understand how the other types of items that appear in Text Schemes can be discounted.
When the Attributes and Events get sorted what happens to those other items?
Do they all get shuffled to the top or to the bottom or what? They cannot just be ignored.

Items entered using <Custom Item...> might be Facts or any other type of data or a combination.

It is not clear how items are identified as Attributes or Events in order to sort them.
What characteristics of the Template determine that a Fact is involved and the sort criteria?
It is easy when there is one obvious Fact data ref such as %INDI.BIRT% but what if there are more than one or a conditional statement that shows one of two alternative facts?
e.g. =CombineText("",FactSentence(%INDI.DEAT%,,PRINCIPAL),"",FactSentence(%INDI.BURI%,,PRINCIPAL))

[ColeValleyGirl]

Where are they sorted now? Leave as is.

[tatewise]

Currently, they can appear anywhere interleaved between Facts. The order of the items determines their display order.
They are not sorted at all.
When the Facts are sorted presumably they can shuffle up and down changing their order depending on their Dates, etc.
The sorted order of the Facts will dynamically vary from box to box.
I don't see how the current position of those other items helps to determine where they appear in the displayed list.

[ColeValleyGirl]

I'm not going to boil the ocean, Mike. Let FH sort them as it wishes.

[davidf]

I just suggested that

• Undated items to be at the top after Name etc.

Doesn't that cover it?

if an item is in a text scheme and has a date it goes in the time-line in sort date or date order
If an item in a text scheme does not have a date it appears at the top after the name (in the order in which it was in the text scheme)

So you have:

1. Name(s)
   1. Primary Name
   2. First format change (usually to a smaller font)
   3. Other names if %INDI.NAME[2+] is specified
2. Other items in the text scheme without a date (but with some form of meaning*) in scheme order
3. Dated items in the text scheme in date order (with an item's sort date taking priority)

* Some non data items (such as in my example "Marriages and Relationship" "section header") will need to appear - they have "user understandable meaning" but no data - but they are in a group with data. Lines that do something like format changes get lost - everything (after the Primary Name) will appear in the first defined format after the primary name (which we usually want bigger) as I show above?

So add to the Requirements notes:

• The Primary Name appears in the Scheme's initial format
• Everything else appears in the format described by the first format change

Is going beyond this specifying solutions?

[ColeValleyGirl]

@davidf,+1

[tatewise]

So at last we are talking about the requirements of items other than Facts., such as Names and formatting, etc.
Many of the standard Text Schemes have the following items:
Name = %INDI.NAME:FULL%
Name = (=GetContextInfo(DGM_MARR_INSTANCE))
<gap>
<picture marker>
<font = Ariel, 8 pt; text colour is Black>
Name a.k.a. = a.k.a. %INDI.NAME[2+]:FULL%
Life Dates = =LifeDates(,STD)

Spouse Name if 'One Box per Marriage' = Spouse: %CUR~SPOU>NAME:FULL%

<gap>
Notes, Individual = Note: %INDI.NOTE2[1+]%
Notes, Shared = Note (shared): %INDI.NOTE[1+]>TEXT%
Notes, Spouse Family = Note (family): %CUR~FAMS>NOTE2[1+]%

Would you be happy for all those Notes to move up below Names? They are usually last in the list.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Would you be happy for all those Notes to move up below Names? They are usually last in the list.

Not bothered -- start or end.

[davidf]

Wish list Requirement
Amended 20:25 13-12-2022

Diagrams to have option to present facts in strict fact date order

Requirement

An option to chose to present the facts selected in a text scheme in date order rather than tag group order.

Benefit

Allows users (and output readers) to view a timeline for individuals in a diagram.

Notes

1. This might be achieved by a checkbox on the Edit Text Scheme Dialogue
2. Undated items to be at the top after Name etc., except for (non-fact) notes which are to be at the end
3. Attributes to be listed by start date
4. Sort dates where given take primacy over "fact dates"
5. Least specific dates to come before more specific dates (e.g. 1874, then Q1 1874, then Jan 1874, then 23 Jan 1874)
6. Order of same dated items to be determined by the order in the Text Scheme.
7. The Primary Name appears in the Scheme's initial text format
8. Everything else appears in the format described by the first text format change
9. Other Format of items (indents etc.) to be determined by their Text Scheme entries.
10. Nested (Grouped) Items to include the Superior Lines for each occurrence. For instance:
    
    Rendered as:
    • Marriages and Relationships
      -- Catherine of Aragon
      -- -- Married 1509
    • Marriages and Relationships
      -- Catherine of Aragon
      -- -- Divorced 1553
    • etc.

Discussion Topics
None - apart from this thread?

Other Wish Lists
None - although there is discussion of other improvements to Diagrams and Text Schemes

[ColeValleyGirl]

davidf wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 2:33 pm
Wish list Requirement
Amended 20:25 13-12-2022

I'll be happy with that, David. Give it a day or so to see if anyone else suddenly takes in interest after 4 years of crickets, and then I'll create the Wish List entry -- unless Mike beats me to it.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Wish List Item 591 has been raised.