Best way to have others test a plugin

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 19 Feb 2013 01:22

I have created 4 new plugins by modifying the existing Ancestors UK Census Checker and Ancestors Canada Census Checker.

The first one is called Ancestors UK Census Checker (US Version). This is basically the same as Ancestors UK Census Checker except that it uses Ancestry.com rather than Ancestry.co.uk so that it works for those of us in the US that don't have access to Ancestry.co.uk.

The next one is called Ancestors Canada Census Checker (US Version). This uses Ancestry.com rather than Ancestry.ca.

The last two are called Ancestors USA Census Checker (US Version) and Ancestors USA Census Checker (UK Version) . The first uses Ancestry.com and the second uses Ancestry.co.uk.

Are these proposed names ok?

I have tested these quite a bit in the last couple days and they seem to work. What is the best way to make them available for others to test out before I submit them to the plugin store?

Thanks,

Bill

ID:6767

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 19 Feb 2013 07:27

You can use the WIP section in the Knowledge base.

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... :wip:index

or simply upload the plugins to your own web space or share through Dropbox or Google Drive.

Post by **tatewise** » 19 Feb 2013 12:43

On a different tack, instead of a growing number of Plugins (with naming problems and duplicated code), would a better approach be to have some options in the user interface to choose the Ancestry/FindMyPast/other websites and choose the UK/USA/Canada/other Census Records.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 19 Feb 2013 17:23

Mike and Jane,

I'll leave that one up to you. I don't have the skills to create something like that. It was hard enough for me just to modify the search string and table entries for each plug in. [smile]

So, let me know if I should continue with these or if one of you wants to tackle creating a single plugin with an options screen.

Bill

johnmorrisoniom · Post by **johnmorrisoniom** » 20 Feb 2013 08:41

I do admit that I would prefer Mike's Suggestion of one plugin with options

Post by **tatewise** » 20 Feb 2013 16:58

I think I have a workable draft version that I've put in the WiP area.

Ancestor's Census Checker V2.0

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 20 Feb 2013 17:24

Mike,

I agree this is a better solution. I'll give it a test later today.

Thanks!

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 20 Feb 2013 17:35

Bill, you need to check that the changes you had made are correctly incorporated into the templates.
i.e.
USA and Canada Census years, dates, etc in function buildDates.
Web site URL as shown in user dropdown options.

Did you need to make any other changes to templates, because those are the only two things I have altered, apart from adding the user interface.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 20 Feb 2013 19:36

Mike,

Yes, I had to change the URL template and the AREF table. What is the best way to get that info to you. Do you want me to send you my files by email? Should I just post the changes here?

You need the changes I made otherwise the USA and Canada census searches don't work (you get all results instead of just census results). Also, the 1910 USA census needs a different AREF than the other USA censuses. Also, the URL template is different for US and UK versions.

A quick test shows that your USA search is getting all results not just census results.

Let me know how to get this info to you.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 20 Feb 2013 20:23

Probably easiest way is to E-mail me all four of your Plugins as attachments to post at tatewise.co.uk

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 20 Feb 2013 21:41

Hi Mike,

OK, I sent you an email with the 4 plugins attached. Let me know if you have any questions about what I did.

Thanks,

Bill

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 21 Feb 2013 00:10

Mike,

A couple of additional thoughts.

Can the plugin window be automatically closed after clicking on Run Census Search ? If you don't like that idea, could there be an option to do that if we don't want the plugin window to still be open?

One thing has bothered me since first starting to play around with the plugins. If I have a name with a special character in it like ö or ø, then the plugin doesn't work. The URL ends up with garbage in it. Similarily, the plugin results window doesn't really like these characters either. It displays garbage. For example:

Can the plugin be made to work with these special characters?

Thanks,

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 21 Feb 2013 00:15

Hi Bill,
Got your E-mail and updated the WiP Plugin at:
Ancestor's Census Checker V2.1

I have a few questions.

(1)
Ancestors USA Census Checker (UK Version) for search.ancestry.co.uk has in ancestrytemplate the fragment &gss=ms_db
whereas
Ancestors USA Census Checker (US Version) for search.ancestry.com has in ancestrytemplate the fragment &gss=ms_db and later &gss=angs-c.

I believe the later &gss=angs-c overrides the &gss=ms_db making it redundant.
Therefore, deleting &gss=ms_db should have no effect, and my Plugin does just that.
Can you check it works OK for search.ancestry.com with USA Census Records.

(2)
In both the Ancestors Canada Census Checker Plugins the function buildDates() Census dates differ slightly from Ancestral Sources.

year=1851, date='11 Jan 1851' is omitted from Plugin
year=1851, date='12 Jan 1852' is an option in AS

year=1861, date='13 Jan 1861' but AS has date='14 Jan 1861'

year=1906, date='1906' but AS has date='7 Jul 1906'

year=1916, date='1916' but AS has date='14 Jun 1916'

Can anyone throw any light on these variations?

Bill, the answer to both your questions is YES, and should be fixed in Plugin at:
Ancestor's Census Checker V2.2

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 21 Feb 2013 03:48

Mike,

It is looking great. Thanks for having the the plugin window close after running the census search.

As far as I could tell, the USA census on ancestry.com and on ancestry.co.uk are working fine. As is the UK census on ancestry.com.

There is a problem with the Canada census on ancestry.com. It is giving 'all results' instead of census specific results. I think the URL has to have db={aref} instead of gl={aref}.

Thanks for fixing the plugin results to display the special characters correctly. However, the plugin is still building the URL with the garbage characters. For example. If I select the following entry:

Then the URL used is:

http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse. ... enancestry

and the resulting search in Ancestry.com gives this result:

Note that it ends up searching for Eli Steb E instead of Eli Østebøe. Also, the parents names have garbage and I'm guessing the place name would also have garbage if there were special characters in the place name.

Not sure on the dates for the Canada census. I got them from the original Canada plugin. Not sure where he got them. Are those dates actually used anywhere? They didn't seem to adversely affect the plugin.

Again, thanks,

Bill

johnmorrisoniom · Post by **johnmorrisoniom** » 21 Feb 2013 12:36

Had a few niggles with version 2.0, but these appear to have been addressed in version 2.2, will carry on testing though.

Post by **tatewise** » 21 Feb 2013 17:47

I believe that Ancestor's Census Checker V2.3 should fix all the reported problems.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 21 Feb 2013 20:06

Mike,

That fixes the things I've reported. I'll keeping playing around, but I don't see any problems at this point.

Thanks!

Bill

johnmorrisoniom · Post by **johnmorrisoniom** » 21 Feb 2013 20:33

I have no problems with 2.3 either.
Another thought though, Is it possible to modify this so that it checks descendants rather than ancestors?

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 21 Feb 2013 20:49

John,

I'm guessing what you mean is to check descendants 'in addition to' ancestors, not 'rather than' ancestors. I wouldn't mind an option to check descendants, but would still want to be able to check ancestors.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 21 Feb 2013 22:48

At present the Plugin only allows one Individual to be chosen via the Select Records dialogue, and then checks their Ancestors.

What if the Plugin allowed the Select Records dialogue to supply any number of Individuals.
Then you could use the Add Relatives and Add using Query buttons to include whichever Individuals you wanted to check.
The Plugin would not add any Ancestors or Descendants to this multiple selection, but if only one Individual is chosen perhaps it should add both Ancestors and Descendants automatically.

What do you think?

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 22 Feb 2013 00:50

Mike,

These ideas sound fine. If you could, it might be nice to have options so you can select if you want ancestors, descendants, or both.

Thanks,

Bill

johnmorrisoniom · Post by **johnmorrisoniom** » 22 Feb 2013 07:34

Hi Mike,
Yes That was my thinking, just an option to select ancestors of, or descendants of, )An option for both would be great).
I think option to select by query, or just add more than one individual is more than I need, but I can't can't speak for others.

Just goes to show how popular and powerful the plugins are proving to be.

Post by **tatewise** » 22 Feb 2013 12:12

OK, I thought that might be your answer.

But just to amplify my point about multiple selection, the Select Records dialogue, Add Relatives... button, allows Ancestors... &/or Descendants &/or Spouses of any chosen Individual to be selected, for as many Generations as you like, and repeated to create any grouping you like, not to mention Query and Name List selection.
So I may add the option to select via this dialogue as well.

Nevertheless, that all means that the name of the Plugin needs revising to one of the following variants:

[Check/Find/Lookup/Research/Search] Missing Census [Data/Events/Facts/Records]
e.g.
Lookup Missing Census Facts

Have you any preferences or alternatives, bearing mind that Check & Find & Search are already heavily used verbs in Plugin names?

Does anyone mind me becoming Author of this Plugin, and including acknowledgements in the user interface to Jane Taubman & Keir Strugnell & Bill Henshaw?

Bill, I've experimented with the USA Census searches on all three Ancestry web sites and discovered that the &gss=ms_db and &gss=angs-c settings are unnecessary.
Could you clarify why you believe they might be needed.
If you edit the Plugin function TblBuildDates and remove &gss=ms_db from the end of each line for USA Census, then you can check what I have discovered.

One final oddity is that for the USA 1880 Census all three Ancestry sites demand a Free Account to inspect the Free Records, whereas I can search all other USA years without an account, although I naturally cannot view the records.

N.B.
Prototype Lookup Missing Census Facts Version 2.4 is available from the WiP page.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 22 Feb 2013 19:19

Mike,

Looks good. The name you picked works for me. It says what the plugin does pretty clearly.

I think you becoming owner is an excellent idea. I was a little worried with the plugins that I had put together that maybe people would expect me to be able to make changes to them which would have been beyond my level of knowledge.

I had included those pieces of code in the URL only because I was trying to make the URL match what you get if you go to ancestry.com and drill down to a particular census and then do a search within that census. It looks like the plugin is working fine without them, so I don't see any reason to include them.

In my early testing, I found that I had the same problem on the ancestry.com site for that same census. I just signed up for a free account and then it worked fine.

Thanks for all your work on this. It works great.

Thanks,

Bill

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 23 Feb 2013 03:14

Mike,

I came across something I wasn't expecting today. In the following scenario.

- Select an individual in FH that has missing census information.
- Run the plugin
- Set it to Anyone via the Record Select dialogue
- Click on Run Census Lookup
- the selected individual is shown on the right side of the Select Records window
- Do not use Add using Query and do not select anyone else from the list on the left side of the Select Records window

I get an error saying No Missing Census found for ancestors of .

First of all, I didn't specify that I wanted to check ancestors anywhere. Does the plugin automatically check ancestors when using the Anyone via the Record Select dialogue option or is this just a carryover from the older versions of the plugin that always checked ancesors?

Also, shouldn't it have found that I was missing census information for the selected individual and displayed those missing censuses rather than giving me an error message at all?

Also, I noticed that the Add Relatives... button is greyed out. Is this to be expected? It seems to only become active if I select someone from the left side of the window, not if they are selected in FH first. If this is the expected processing, then when using this option maybe the plugin should not pass the selected individual to the Select Records window so that you have to select the person from the list so that the button is not greyed out. Or, maybe I am just confused. Wouldn't be the first time.

Thanks,

Bill

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