Help needed recreating Project structure

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 12 Mar 2012 18:42

Hi, Im in serious need of assistance (again!).
Yesterday I managed to move/delete my FH Project and in trying to restore my .ged file from its backup ( which luckily I had made just before)somehow have managed to get my knickers in a twist! The backup had a suffix ie date and time which I deleted and appended .ged so that my Project data folder now looks like this:

However , once again, my media files do not open and looking at the path it shows :

None of my shortcuts will open the project although clicking on the FHProject.ged opens it ok.
I cannot get anywhere using Work with External File Links as I get a greyed out option when I try to use Work within Project Folder as there isnt a Project Folder shown lower down on the File Links.
I hope this makes sense to someone as Im pulling out my last few grey hairs! Any advice much appreciated,
Dagwood

ID:6007

RSellens · Post by **RSellens** » 12 Mar 2012 19:51

Your project folder should have a file with the suffix ',fh_proj' which is th actual project. The folder of the same name should then contin the Media/Charts/etc folders along with the GED file. It sounds like you only have restored the GED file and Media folders, not the whole project.

Richard

johnmorrisoniom · Post by **johnmorrisoniom** » 12 Mar 2012 20:40

the backup file is normally a zip folder, which should be restored through the file menu, not by changing the extension

Post by **tatewise** » 12 Mar 2012 21:12

Yes, put the file extension back to .zip and within FH use File > Backup/Restore > Restore.
Select the .zip file, then choose the folder where you want to restore the .ged file.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 13 Mar 2012 08:57

Oh dear! I never save the back-up as a zip file ,I always change the option to save as a Ged. Have I burnt my bridges I wonder?
I will now search for the suffix fh_proj in my back-ups elsewhere and of course if deleted it should be in my DropBox's deleted folder.
Back later and thanks for your replies
Dagwood

Post by **tatewise** » 13 Mar 2012 10:38

Let's rewind to the beginning, now that we know you use .ged backups instead of the default .zip.

Your FH Project Project folder structure should be:

FH Project folder
FH Project.fh_data folder
Media folder
Chart folder
FH Project.ged GEDCOM
Public folder
FH Project.fh_proj project file

Your original posting shows the FH Project.fh_data folder, which looks OK.
BUT have you restored the FH Project.fh_proj project file?
It would appear not, because your other image is headed GEDCOM Folder instead of Project Data Folder.
That would explain why your shortcuts do not work, as they need the FH Project.fh_proj file.

Presumably, File > Project Window does not list your FH Project.

If you cannot get FH Project.fh_proj from backups, then it is a plain text file containing:

[Family Historian]
Version=4

Assuming your image files do actually exist in your Media folder then that should fix everything.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 14 Mar 2012 09:06

Thanks Mike , nearly there. Looks like I had dragged and dropped files accidentally in wrong place. All opening ok but not quite in right order but i think that is because I worked too late last night and haven't followed your structure 100% correctly.
I'll let you know how it goes later today
Many thanks to all who helped once again
Dagwood

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 15 Mar 2012 14:36

Back again!
I think I have all the right items in all the right places (as per Mike's last illustration) and the Gedcom file opens ok on both PC and Netbbok via DropBox however.....
When I click on FH Project I get:

When I click on the data folder I get:

If I try to open the Project using the Project panel I am unable to 'find' it and get:

As I said all opens ok via the gedcom file but I'd much rather be able to sort out why the Project does not open or appear as an option when I look at the Work with External File Links window.
Sorry to be a continuing nuisance but all help much appreciated
Dagwood

Post by **tatewise** » 15 Mar 2012 15:09

Your Windows Explorer set-up does not display file extensions.
This is evident because FH Project.fh_proj does not display the extension .fh_proj.

However, the GEDCOM filename is listed as FH Project.ged, which with the hidden extension becomes FH Project.ged.ged.
I'll bet when you double-click this file to open it in FH the header of the window says FH Project.ged.ged - Family Historian Gedcom.

Therefore, you need to rename that file from FH Project.ged to FH Project.

I always advise Windows users to adjust Windows Explorer to show file extensions.
In Windows 7 open Windows Explorer, click Organize top left, and select Folder and search options.
In the Folder Options window select the Views tab.
Scroll down to find Hide extensions for known file types and remove the tick.
While here you might like to remove the ticks from:
Display the full path in the title bar
Hide empty drives in the Computer folder
Hide protected operating system files

and also select Show hidden files, folders, and drives
Finally click OK and things are not so hidden.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 15 Mar 2012 18:28

Mike, you were spot-on with the .ged.ged observation. As soon as I deleted one .ged the Project File opened in Work with External File Links and AS opened correctly. Now I'm going to follow your advice re Windows settings for W7 on my PC and I'll look at XP on the netbook.
I'll get back with how it works out later but Many Thanks
Dagwood
ps Is the location for AS correct? It seems to be opening ok so I'm thinking it must be but your comments welcome on where it should be located.

Post by **tatewise** » 15 Mar 2012 21:46

Since you only have the one FH Project, locating the Ancestral Sources folder within that folder is fine.

For Windows Explorer settings in XP use Tools > Folder Options and select View tab.
Apart some minor wording differences, the rest is the same as Windows 7.

Post by **nsw** » 15 Mar 2012 22:02

Assuming this is the Ancestral Sources folder that includes the Backups, Logs and Settings folders then it won't use that folder unless you've changed the locations of these 3 folders to match in Ancestral Sources Tools->Options-General Settings.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 16 Mar 2012 23:05

Mike, thanks for the info re XP. All seems to be working ok other than if I open the Project window I notice that in the top left it says Current Project : FH Project but there is nothing shown in the centre panel. Is this how it should be?

Nick, your answer made me look back into My Documents on both PC and Netbook and in DropBox (common to both). I find I have 3 distinct Ancestral Sources folders each with Backup, Logs and Settings. I'm assuming that the contents for the two folders in My Docs can be copied into DropBox's AS folders as long as the location for these is changed to DropBox? Am I right in thinking this and would there be any problems with merging Settings folders or should I just leave the DropBox one as is?
One final query Nick - I notice the Back-ups are copies of the Gedcom file, how and when are these created and is there any need if I'm making back-ups to a seperate folder when prompted to on colosing the project?

Thanks guys
Dagwood

Post by **nsw** » 16 Mar 2012 23:34

Ancestral Sources will be using whichever settings folder is specified in the options on both your PC and Netbook. You need to check both and, based on what I think you are tying to achieve, make sure that they both point at the Ancestral Sources folder in the drop-box folder. The settings folder holds census templates, autotext templates, census countries and assocated individual types. You may not even have edited any of those. If you have then make sure the updated files are in the drop-box AS folder. Once you have sorted all this out you should probably remove the other AS folders to stop any future confusion.

Just before a new census, baptism or marriage entry is written to your file this backup is made. If anything ever goes wrong for whatever reason you can always use the backup to roll back. If you add 20 census records one day in AS and the last of those goes wrong for some reason then without backups all you will have is the last FH backup from the previous dau which might mean you lose several hours of work. By default AS keeps 10 backups (you can change this under Tools->Options) - the space this will take up is so negligible in a modern PC as to be not worth worrying about. Though you might prefer to point the backup folder to a location outside of your drop-box to save having to keep these syncronised (again the location of the backup folder can be specified in Tools->Options)

Post by **tatewise** » 17 Mar 2012 00:37

Dagwood said

if I open the Project window I notice that in the top left it says Current Project : FH Project but there is nothing shown in the centre panel.

Current Project : FH Project is almost certainly due to Tools > Preferences > Startup > default startup file specifying your ...FH Project.fh_dataFH Project.ged file.

The empty Project Window panel is probably because the Location below the panel does NOT specify your Project Folder:
C:UsersJimDocumentsMy DropboxFH PROJECTS FOLDER
I suspect it still specifies the installation default My DocumentsFamily Historian Projects folder.

To fix it, click on this blue link and select Choose Location... or use More Tasks... > Project List > Choose Location for Projects
Then browse to C:UsersJimDocumentsMy DropboxFH PROJECTS FOLDER and click OK.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 17 Mar 2012 09:16

Thanks Mike and Nick,
I'll follow up your points and advice.
I guess one thing I keep forgetting is that using DropBox lulls you (actually me!) into a false belief that all is centralised when in fact both AS and FH are running on seperate machines and need attention at both.
Dagwood

jsphillips · Post by **jsphillips** » 19 Mar 2012 21:04

Thank you all
I have done the GED files but it does not back up my media files and linking.
I assumed the project file is in Mydocs/Family History.
I have various projects but there appears to be only 1 fh project file with various GED files for each project therein.
Does not each project have its own project folder so I can backup this!!
Or maybe I have not created the media files correctly.
In the trees the copy files from GED come up with X'x .
Help please
Thanks
John
[frown]

Post by **tatewise** » 19 Mar 2012 22:32

John - a typical multiple Project structure is shown below.
The default FH root folder will be something like: C:UsersTestMy DocumentsFamily Historian Projects
Within that folder each Project should have its own self-contained folder such as the Example Project.
The Example folder usually only contains Example.fh_data and Public folders, and the Example.fh_proj file.
As shown, the Media folder and GEDCOM file sit within the Example.fh_data folder.

The whole folder structure is repeated in the next Project, which is Family Historian Sample Project as shown above.

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