Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

psinacio · Post by **psinacio** » 11 Mar 2016 12:54

Hi all,

This follows on from Help to create a query - list of all (Where Within Source) (13515).

Is there any way to automatically merge this two fields?

"Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Regards,
Pedro

Post by **tatewise** » 11 Mar 2016 14:05

What version of FH are you using?

It would help to know what your objectives are and give some examples.

I presume you are asking to merge the Source record Title and the Where within Source citation field.

Beware, if a Source record is cited more than once, then there could be more than one Where within Source field value associated with that one Source record. What do you want to happen in that case?

The merging process would require a Plugin to be written.

psinacio · Post by **psinacio** » 11 Mar 2016 16:12

Hi,

I am using FH 6.

Here is one example:

Source title: Church S. Paul

Source citation: Baptism book 1930, n. 100

I want it to be merged as a Source title only: Church S. Paul - Baptism book 1930, n. 100

The Source title is cited more than once with several different Where within fields.
I would expect to end up with several different Source titles as result.

Input:
Source title: Church S. Paul
Source citation (1): Baptism book 1930, n. 100
Source citation (2): Baptism book 1930, n. 200
Source citation (3): Baptism book 1930, n. 120
Source citation (4): Baptism book 1930, n. 133
.....

Output:
Source title (1): Church S. Paul - Baptism book 1930, n. 100
Source title (2): Church S. Paul - Baptism book 1930, n. 200
Source title (3): Church S. Paul - Baptism book 1930, n. 120
Source title (4): Church S. Paul - Baptism book 1930, n. 133

The main point here is that I am giving up using citations.
I'd rather work only with Source titles. I do believe they are easier to work... My preference..

Thanks!

PS. To create this plugin, is there any easy way to do it?

Post by **tatewise** » 11 Mar 2016 16:55

Pedro, please click the User Control Panel link at top of this FHUG web page, and on its Profile tab enter Family Historian Version 6 so it appears to the right of your postings.

OK, so essentially you are switching from Method 2 Source Citations to Method 1 Source Citations, which does have significant advantages. I presume you realise that your Output example represents 4 Source records, that will be identical except for the Title. What many users would do is put a transcript of each Source item in each Text From Source field, and link an image of the page to each Media tab. Thus providing a detailed record of each Source page.

Many users faced with this challenge will use ancestralsources:index|> Ancestral Sources to create the new Method 1 Source Citations, and then delete the old Method 2 Source Citations. In the process they often discover new insights into their database, and tidy up the details.

If you still want to use a Plugin, there is no easy way to create it, and you need to be quite computer literate. See plugins:index|> Family Historian Plugins Developer Guide. If that makes no sense at all, then I may find some time to write the Plugin, but not for a while.

psinacio · Post by **psinacio** » 11 Mar 2016 18:29

Hi Mike,

I have update the Family Historian Version to show version using the User Control Panel link at top of this FHUG web page. Let's see it works now.

Yes, I want to switch from Method 2 Source Citations to Method 1 Source Citations.
I am currently doing the transcription on the Text From Source field, and linking images to each Media tab.

As I understood there is no plugin available that does this.
Ancestral Sources can help but requires manually interaction to each source.

I will try to read the Knowledge Base > Family Historian Plugins Developer Guide to see if I can handle this.

Thanks a lot Mike!

psinacio · Post by **psinacio** » 25 Mar 2016 00:49

Hi Mike,

I tried reading the plugin guide, but it was too complex to my knowledge..
Whenever you have some spare time I would really appreciate your support creating the Plugin...

Thanks a lot!
Pedro

Post by **tatewise** » 25 Mar 2016 16:12

I have found a little time to look at this and written a prototype Plugin, but it raises a few questions.

Do your Citations only apply to Individual and Family records, and Facts?
i.e. None apply to Note records, or anywhere else.

Might any of your Citations that have Where Within Source fields, also have Text From Source or Note fields?

If so, should they be deleted like the Where Within Source, or should they be moved to the new Source record?

If moved to the new Source record, what if those fields are not empty?
Should the Citation text be prefixed or suffixed to the existing Source record text?

psinacio · Post by **psinacio** » 28 Mar 2016 11:46

Hi Mike!

You have raised very good questions and concerns I have not thought about before.

Let es see if I can cover the points:

1) My citations apply only to Individual and Family records, and Facts.
I do not recover using citations to any other records...

2) My citations that have Where Within Source fields, do not have any Text From Source or Note fields, as long as I remember.
I would say they could be disregarded. Nevertheless, maybe it would be a good idea to list which information is going to be lost if it happens during the merging process... It is not clear to me how complex this would be... Maybe a list of all the changes performed..

3) My suggestion is to merge the citations suffixed to the existing Source record text, maybe adding a comma or even a blank space...

Thanks a lot for your support Mike, I am looking forward to see this plugin working.
I have started merging my data, but this would last ages...

Pedro

Post by **tatewise** » 28 Mar 2016 14:16

Pedro, try ATTACHMENTS Merge Source and Where Within Source prototype Plugin Version 0.1 Date 28 Mar 2016.

I advise you use File > Backup/Restore > Small Backup before running Plugin.

Afterwards, use Edit > Undo Plugin Updates before closing FH if anything is unsatisfactory.

If the Plugin finds any Text From Source or Notes in a Citation then it will append them to the matching Source record field on a new line.

The final Result Set lists the old Source records, and Text From Source or local Note, against each new Source Citation.

Eventually, you may wish to delete all the old Source records that have no Citation links.

psinacio · Post by **psinacio** » 29 Mar 2016 16:31

Hi Mike!!!

It is working pretty good! It will save me a lot of time.
The final Result Set list is just great to help understanding what has been updated.

Some old Source records did end up with no citation at all and I have followed your suggestion deleting all of them.

Thanks a lot again for your support and time spent on creating this plugin!
I will explore the results a little more here but so far I have seen no issues...

Regards,
Pedro

Family Historian User Group

* Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"

Re: Merging "Source" with its related "Where within Source"