Map Life Facts v2.9

Post by **tatewise** » 15 May 2012 10:29

On the Geocode Location Plots tab you can list Locations by clicking on the Location: name field.
In the AddressPlace List any Place without an Address is listed starting with ellipsis.
e.g. Florida would be listed under Florida.
If it is not listed then it never occurs on its own without an Address.
So, if Florida was a Manual plot in the Place Fields only data, then Florida should have become a Manual plot in the [Address]Place data.
But if EVERY Florida entry has an Address, then it won't be listed under Florida and won't receive the Manual plot.
Would that explain the discrepancies?

The V2.9 attempt to auto-detect Manual plots relied on the Google Geocoder plotting to the same point as when each Location was originally Geocoded.
I have noticed that sometimes the Google Geocoder does revise its plot point for the same Location.
This may have led to some false Manual plots.

The inserted code was intended as a once-off quick fix, and won't exist in any future version of the Plugin.
It only transfers Manual and Substitute values in one direction from Place Fields only data to [Address]Place data.
If you leave the code in situ, then any changes to Manual and Substitute values in the [Address]Place data will be overwritten by matching Place Fields only data every time you run the Plugin.

It is not obvious to me why you would want to maintain both databases.
Having satisfactorily switched to [Address]Place data, what purpose does Place Fields only data serve?
I would be tempted to use the Erase Place Database button.
Maintaining synchronisation between the AddressPlace data variants and the Place/Address Fields only data would be challenging and arguably should include Geocode Plots as well as Manual Plots.

If you hover on the Next Plotted button the tooltip says it finds the next Plotted Lat/Lng Location entry, both Geocode and Manual.
This was to maintain consistency with previous Plugin versions of that button.
I accept this is inconsistent with the Statistics names.
Not sure whether to change the button behaviour, or rename Plotted as Geocoded in the Statistics.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 15 May 2012 11:56

Hi Mike,

I did see where they ended up in the Address...Place list. They were there, but what happened is that the bumped longitude and latitude I expected to see weren't there. Your suggestion or explanation wouldn't have explained the discrepancies because none of these places had an address. Not sure what happened. If I had bumped the longitude and latitude prior to the V2.9 auto-detect, then V2.9 would not have had my bumped values because they would have been re-geocoded? That would explain it. I thought I had checked some, but maybe I missed that fact.

I'm going to leave out the code and just re-plot my manual ones. Won't take that long. Thinking about it some more, I think you are right. I will end up using the [Address]...Place variant all the time so that is all I really need. I really like how it concatenates the address if there is one and otherwise just uses the place. There isn't really any need to worry about synchronizing between variants.

Aaaah... I missed the tool tip on the button. I think the button behavior is fine the way it is. As long as I know how it works. You might just mention this in the help in more detail as I normally don't look for tool tips like that... not sure what other people do. As far as re-naming the statistic to Geocoded, I like that idea, but not sure what others would think.

Thanks for listening to and considering my rantings and ravings. [smile]

Bill

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 15 May 2012 14:34

Mike,

Based on our 'discussions', I was thinking that the Place Fields only, Address Fields only, and Addr...Place databases were completely separate and that the Addr...Place database was used for all 4 variants of address and place. If that is true, I'm getting some results that I didn't expect.

I am starting from scratch with 0 Plotted, 0 Manual, 0 No Plot, and 0 Invalid entries.

If I select Location From: [Address]...Place and then plot an entry and then look at the stats, it now shows 1 Plotted.

I then go to Set Preference Options and click on Erase Place Database. I then click on Erase Address Database. I then exit the plugin and go back in.

I have lost my plot for the one I had plotted. It now shows 0 Plotted again.

Is this the way it is supposed to work? I would have thought the only way to erase my [Addr]...Place plots would be to click on Erase Addr...Place Database.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 15 May 2012 15:06

Yes, sorry, you are correct.
I will have a look at that to see if something has been disrupted by recent changes.

My quick first tests cannot reproduce your symptoms, so I am not sure where to look next.
You could try downloading the Plugin again, in case the quick-fix editing has upset something.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 15 May 2012 18:36

Mike,

A little more info for you that might help you track down the problem.

I plotted all my locations using [Address]...Place. This gave me totals of 1770 Plotted, 5 No Plot, and 1775 Total.

I then switched to Place Fields only and back to [Address]...Place. I then exited and restarted the plugin.

When I looked, the only things still showing as plotted were the locations that had addresses. All the ones that had a place with no address were lost. The totals were 390 Plotted, 2 No Plot, 1383 No Data, and 1775 Total.

Looking at any of the 4 variants for Addr...Place, they all show 390 Plotted. It's like it only remembers that it has plotted addresses.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 15 May 2012 20:19

The only way I can get that effect is if the 'quick-fix code' has not been completely removed.
Have you tried downloading the Plugin again to be sure we both have the same version?

Note that every time you click Locations From: Place Fields only the Plugin recreates the Places only database, but with no plots.
If there is fragment of quick-fix code left behind then all these no plots overwrite the [Address]...Place data for ...Place only entries.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 15 May 2012 21:19

Mike,

I had deleted the one with the special code and re-downloaded the plug-in and installed it prior to this problem appearing.

Here is the code from that portion of the plug-in. It looks like the special code is all gone.

if not TblLocationData[strLocName] then -- Add new Location to data
if TblLocationData[strOldName] then --~
TblLocationData[strLocName] = TblLocationData[strOldName] --~ If old data exists, transfer to new data
else --~
TblLocationData[strLocName] = { rec = 0, sub = '', lat = '', lng = '', mod = '' }
end --~
SaveLocationsData(strLocName)
end

Not sure why the Addr...Place database is getting cleared out like this.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 16 May 2012 09:15

Is it possible that you selected Address...Place or Address...[Place] by accident?
That would erase all the ...Place only Locations.

Perhaps the Locations From: options need warnings on hopping between the four Addr...Place options, because of this side-effect.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 16 May 2012 13:01

Mike,

That is so bizarre. I could have sworn I stayed on [Address]...Place, but I can't reproduce the error today. Also, yesterday, about 50% of the time when I opened the plugin, a window would automatically open displaying the help as soon as the plug-in started. I wasn't clicking on the help button or anything. Today that isn't happening either. Very strange. I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes.

I think a paragraph in the help explaining what happens when you switch to each Locations From: option from another one of the options would be a good idea. I know I didn't understand that this could actually wipe out data.

Thanks,

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 16 May 2012 13:10

The Help auto-start-up screen occurs when there are zero Plotted and zero Manual Locations.
The assumption being that you are just starting using the Plugin and need some introductory Help.
Perhaps could make it a bit more sophisticated, but it does no real harm.

Yes, the new Location From options need a bit better support with warnings and help.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 16 May 2012 13:51

OK, thanks Mike. That explains it.

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 17 May 2012 18:31

My current thinking is to have a comprehensive integrated AddressPlace database.
This would save all combinations of Address and Place found in the GEDCOM, but each combination would be saved only once.
This would save the Substitute, Latitude, Longitude & Manual status for each combination.

When any one AddressPlace variant is selected, then the appropriate subset of combinations would be listed on the Geocode Location Plots tab.
Any one Location plotted/edited/cleared in one AddressPlace variant will retain the same status in all other AddressPlace variants.

In addition to the four current AddressPlace variants there will also be:
Place only similar to Place Fields only
Address only similar to Address Fields only

The legacy Place Fields only and Address Fields only separate databases will be retained for backwards compatibility.
It might be feasible to offer an option to copy between Place Fields only and Place only, and between Address Fields only and Address only.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 17 May 2012 20:56

Mike,

This sounds good if I understand correctly. So there would only be one database for all six Locations From: options?

Does this mean that you would no longer erase things out of the database when switching from one of the six options to another? I think it is a little confusing now to have things erased from the database when you don't click on one of the erase buttons. Seems like things should get erased only when the person explicitly says to do so.

Also, would you only need one button to erase the database instead of the current three buttons? Or would you have buttons like Erase places from database, Erase addresses from database, and Erase everything from database.

Anyway, I like the idea and the names you have for the six options.

Thanks,

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 17 May 2012 22:56

There would still be three databases for the time being.
The legacy Place Fields only and Address Fields only databases for backwards compatibility, and the revised 6 option AddressPlace database as described above.
This AddressPlace database would NOT erase Location entries (as it does currently in V3.1) when switching between the 6 options.

I was thinking of some form of Purge operation on the AddressPlace database that would erase Location entries that only existed in a particular variant.
e.g.
If you chose to Purge the Address only entries, then entries that ONLY appeared in that variant, and no other variant, would be erased.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 17 May 2012 23:21

Mike,

Sounds like you have it well thought out. I look forward to seeing it when you have it all done.

Thanks,

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 21 May 2012 23:23

Map Life Facts V3.2 is now available from the Plugin Store.

This version includes the features described above.
All Locations in the AddressPlace database are retained regardless of which option is chosen, but only the subset chosen are listed.
Changing any Location in the AddressPlace database will affect all options.

There is a new Database Management tab on the Set Preference Options tab - see Help & Advice for details.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 22 May 2012 00:36

Mike,

Looks very nice and works just as expected. I really like this update.

The help for the Geocode Location Plots tab is very thorough and explains things very well.

The help for Set Preference Options still seems to show the old version. There is no help for the new Database Management tab.

Thanks for all the hard work!

Bill

Post by **tatewise** » 22 May 2012 09:14

The new Help & Advice for the Database Management tab is definitely there.
You may have to right-click on a blank part of the Help & Advice Window and choose Refresh to update your browser history.

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 22 May 2012 13:57

Mike,

Using refresh took care of it. Very strange. I've never had to do that before. All the other pages of the help showed the new version except that one.

Thanks,

Bill

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