* FH6 Gedcom export to TNG

[kentoll]

I've been using FH since it's original release, and use it to create GeDComs for upload to my TNG (The Next Generation) website.

I Updated to V6 a couple of days ago and am generally very pleased.

However, tonight I tried to upload a GeDCom I revised yesterday - just added about 6 (living) people with birth dates & marriages & a single new source. Whilst the file uploaded to the holding area in TNG, the import failed. This was quite repeatable.

As it overwrote the existing Tree on the website with a blank file, I re-loaded a backup from a few months ago. Uploaded perfectly!

TNG is off the hook for a while...

...but what is different about V6 GeDComs?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Ken

[kentoll]

Just spotted a difference in the GeDComs:

1 CHAR ANSI

is now

1 CHAR UNICODE

Could it be that simple? Why would an upgrade change it? (I thought upgrades kept settings)

K.

[kentoll]

Yep, that was it.

It now seems I have to export a file when I need one, instead of just copying the one from the project folder

K

[LornaCraig]

See this thread about how to export to TNG: Gedcom is Massive (11975)

[tatewise]

To answer the question about: 1 CHAR UNICODE ~ Why would an upgrade change it?

FH V6 now supports the full Unicode character set instead of the restricted 256 ANSI characters, as has been requested near the top of the FHUG Wish List for sometime.

[kentoll]

Mike, thanks for your reply, but I didn't make my query clear - sorry.

I appreciate that the change was requested - that wasn't my beef. It was the fact that the default setting was changed, rather than being User selected. I now realise that you can't retain ANSI because of the way Unicode has been implemented.

If my understanding of UTF-8 & ANSI is correct, I should be able to get away with changing the 1 CHAR entry back to ANSI, as I don't currently use anything other than the basic "English" characters. That should give me time to sort out why TNG isn't happy with UFT-8.

Seasons Greetings

Ken

[tatewise]

No that won't work.
Just editing the 1 CHAR value to ANSI does not alter the actual GEDCOM file encoding, which will still be UTF-16 Unicode (it does not use UTF-8 encoding).
It will only confuse TNG (or any other program) even further.

I recommend you use the Export Gedcom File Plugin, which has a specific option for TNG, because I knew this problem would arise.
It offers both the default ISO encoding as well as UTF-8 alternative encoding for TNG.

[Jane]

If you don't want to use Mike's plugin for some reason you can use the Standard UTF-8 export on the Export Gedcom Option.

It's important to remember the Unicode change is right through the program so in order to optimise loading and saving speed storing the information in UTF-16 is by far the most efficient.

[tatewise]

Jane, I am certain that export mode won't work too well, because of all the custom tags used by FH V6, especially the _PLAC Place Records, that are incompatible with TNG and many other programs including FH V5.

[Jane]

My post was more a general response to his complaint that the file was recorded as UTF-16.

[tatewise]

Ken had not actually got that far, because (reading between the lines) he is assuming that Unicode meant UTF-8 and wondered why TNG could not read it.

[kentoll]

Thanks Mike & Jane.

Clearly I wasn't paying attention - I hadn't realised it was UTF-16. Sorry.

Plugin installed and tested ok.

Ken