* Map Life Facts plugin with Bing Maps support

[jelv]

You could create a query with query type Place, adding whatever columns you think are needed then save the results as CSV, text or PDF.

[tatewise]

The way to export a Named List is to run the Query > Flags and Named Lists > Named List Members.
Then in the Result Set use the Save Results to File icon and choose PDF, CSV, or TXT.
However, that only works for Individual records in the list.
As John suggests you can create a similar Query but for Place records instead.

I see what you meant about the D: drive. The way FH runs plugins sometimes involves library modules.
In this case, performing an HTTP URL Request requires the Luacom library.
The Luacom library script is loaded as a temporary file d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp
That may be a hidden folder path or a temporary path that gets automatically deleted when FH closes.
It is line 382 of that script which is experiencing the error.

I cannot explain why FH is using your D: drive \my\lua\... folder to hold such temporary files.
Maybe we need to ask CP for an explanation.
FH has a habit of using the last folder you used in FH as the default for all future file operations.
Is it possible you used the D: drive for an FH file-related operation such as Backup?

Anyway, try the attached Map Life Facts plugin test Version 5.3.1 Date 28 Nov 2023.
It has extra error message reporting for the COM Error scenario.

[jelv]

The attached query gives you everything that appears in the default layout of the records window, places tab plus a bit more including splitting the place parts.

[tatewise]

As I only need the problem Places that have been added to a Named List, the Rows filter tab needs:

Add if =IsInList(,["Enter List Name"]) is true

Just like the Query for Named List Members.

[trevithick]

Thank you jelv for the Query. I wouldn't have known how to create it, and thank you Mike for the Row Filter.

The only thing my D: drive is used for is automated backups. The only times I look at D: is to verify the existence of backups and the occasional mounting of a backup for the purpose of recovering of a file. There are no visible FH or lua folders or files.

I'm puzzled by the results of the query because obviously you, and I were expecting a Result Set populated with problem places, yet it is blank. I have a Place Name List, and yet when I follow your instructions for exporting that list, as soon as I select it, I again get a blank result set.

Looking at the Standard Places Tab there are over 13,000 Places. One of those is an "Unidentified Place", and another is a Date, so clearly there is bad data in the database.

What really puzzles me is that I spent hours standardizing Place Names a year ago, and now almost non are standardized.

Running the updated Map Life Facts, the Plugins Dialog Box shows that Map Life Facts is still running, and it hasn't stopped with errors, but it appears to be finished with 0 Plotted, and 2321 Pending. A thermometer or some visual clue would be nice to tell that the plugin is truly still doing calculations.

[tatewise]

The only thing my D: drive is used for is automated backups. The only times I look at D: is to verify the existence of backups and the occasional mounting of a backup for the purpose of recovering of a file. There are no visible FH or lua folders or files.

The use of the D: drive remains a mystery that needs to be investigated later.

I'm puzzled by the results of the query because obviously you, and I were expecting a Result Set populated with problem places, yet it is blank. I have a Place Name List, and yet when I follow your instructions for exporting that list, as soon as I select it, I again get a blank result set.

Please post a screenshot of your Named List of Place Names that FH does not like so we can resolve the problem.

Looking at the Standard Places Tab there are over 13,000 Places. One of those is an "Unidentified Place", and another is a Date, so clearly there is bad data in the database.

What really puzzles me is that I spent hours standardizing Place Names a year ago, and now almost none are standardized.

It is difficult for me to explain such changes to your Place records.
By 'standardized' do you mean having a fixed number of comma-separated parts: Town, County, State, Country
However, most of the Place records in your screenshot have no Updated date, so they have never ever been edited. I suspect they were imported from some other product.

Running the updated Map Life Facts, the Plugins Dialog Box shows that Map Life Facts is still running, and it hasn't stopped with errors, but it appears to be finished with 0 Plotted, and 2321 Pending. A thermometer or some visual clue would be nice to tell that the plugin is truly still doing calculations.

It is the Map Life Facts plugin dialogue window that is running waiting for you to click a button or something.
It won't stop running until you Close Plugin or when an error is reported.
( It is the same as the FH program running but doing nothing until you click a button or something. )
To geocode some Locations click one of the Geocode Plot ... buttons.
Have you read the user guide in the Help & Advice pages that explain how the plugin works?

[trevithick]

Hi Mike,

By standardized Places, yes, I mean town, county, state, country. The only imports I've made are small gedcoms from WikiTree, but that wouldn't explain few Places being updated.

I believe I read the Help & Advice back when I first installed the Map Life Plugin more than a year ago. I will do so again.

I understand that any and all programs seemingly just sit there waiting for user input, a button click for example. In a previous post, you said that you thought it would attempt to continue when I launched the plugin again. I probably misunderstood your meaning.

[tatewise]

Sorry, I should have said the plugin would attempt to continue geocoding from where it failed when you click the same button as you clicked originally.
When the geocoding starts it may produce error messages if anything goes wrong. Please post some screenshots.
If there are too many errors you may have to abort the plugin using Windows Task Manager.

As a matter of interest, what settings are on the Set Preferences Options tab Location Plot Options tab?
A screenshot excluding the API Keys and the map pane would help me.

Regarding standardised Place names that no longer exist, have you backups of Projects that might help?
Does the File > Projects Window list multiple Projects? If so, are you running the correct Project?

[trevithick]

Mike - I have made a discovery that may help many when geocoding locations. Map Life Facts will not run properly, errors, when a VPN is running.

My home town had been geocoded, but after running Map Life Facts yesterday, the geocoding disappeared.

I just paused my VPN, and Map Life Facts is busily geocoding Tentative locations.

[tatewise]

Thank you for the feedback but I'm not sure I fully understand and would like more details.
When reporting problem faults it is extremely useful to provide explicit error messages, screenshots, etc.

You say Map Life Facts will not run properly, errors, when a VPN is running. Please post the error messages.

You say your home town had been geocoded, but after running Map Life Facts yesterday, the geocoding disappeared. Please explain where it disappeared. From the Map Life Facts dialogue or the FH Places records?

As requested yesterday, what settings are on the Set Preferences Options tab Location Plot Options tab?
A screenshot excluding the API Keys and the map pane would help me.

Also, what are your FH Tools > Preferences > Map Window settings?
Have you ticked Block Refresh for Non-tentative Geocodes as advised when the plugin Place Records option is chosen?

[trevithick]

I use a Virtual Private Network (NordVPN specifically) that encrypts internet traffic. Some web sites, and apparently Map Life Facts will not function properly when the VPN connection is active. I am able to Pause it for a period of time, or close the connection. Pausing will allow me access to those sites, and Map Life Facts is mostly happy then.

I have attached three screen shots:
MLF Location Plot Options
MLF Opened and not Geocoding with no errors
MLF Opened and doing nothing but a Scripting Error occurred

The other information requested will have to be in the next Reply do to attachment size limits.

[trevithick]

Follow up with Mike regarding questions and errors.

I misspoke when I said Map Life Facts wont run when the VPN is running. It does run, occasionally producing a scripting error as shown in the previous reply. I should have said it will not Geocode when the VPN is active.

When I attempt to Geocode a location with the VPN active, it produces the Failed to Complete WinHTTP Request error and removes the Lat and Long from the Map Life Facts dialog box.

After pausing the VPN, Map Life Facts will successfully Geocode a location and repopulates the Lat and Long dialog box of Map Life Facts.

My FH Tools > Preferences > Map Window settings did not have the "Block Refresh for Non-tentative Geocodes " option ticked. It is now.

[trevithick]

Mike,

Thank you for all your support!

Now that I have Map Life Facts working; the key is to pause/disabled the VPN, I have a question and a couple suggestions.

If the plugin encounters the "Failed to Complete WinHTTP Request" error, would it be appropriate to pop a dialogue box telling the user that if they are using a VPN that they need to pause it?

When going through the thousands of Geocoded locations, I am using the plugin interface to copy the geocoded Location to the Standardized Location, but that causes the geocodes to disappear. If I edit the Standardized Location the geocodes disappear telling me that the plugin is first trying to geocode based on the Standard Location if it exists, and resorts to the Location if not. Would it not make sense to have it automatically re-geocode after copying the Location to the Standard Location? I can see that if plugin is not event driven that it might not know that the Standard Location has been edited. Re-geocoding would mean one less button click in an endless task.

Perhaps a more difficult task would be to copy some Locations to the Standard Location. An example of why I would not want all is that I use "Albemarle, Albemarle, Colony of Virginia, British Colonial America" as my Location, and would not want to simply copy that. For the Standard Location I follow Jane's advice with the modern Standardized Location of "Albemarle, Albemarle, Virginia, United States".

[tatewise]

If the plugin encounters the "Failed to Complete WinHTTP Request" error, would it be appropriate to pop a dialogue box telling the user that if they are using a VPN that they need to pause it?

Thank you. I'll consider how best to advise users that the plugin seems not work with a VPN.
I believe you have only been geocoding using Bing. I wonder if a VPN affects Google and Geoapify too!

When going through the thousands of Geocoded locations, I am using the plugin interface to copy the geocoded Location to the Standardized Location, but that causes the geocodes to disappear. If I edit the Standardized Location the geocodes disappear telling me that the plugin is first trying to geocode based on the Standard Location if it exists, and resorts to the Location if not. Would it not make sense to have it automatically re-geocode after copying the Location to the Standard Location? I can see that if plugin is not event driven that it might not know that the Standard Location has been edited. Re-geocoding would mean one less button click in an endless task.

Perhaps a more difficult task would be to copy some Locations to the Standard Location. An example of why I would not want all is that I use "Albemarle, Albemarle, Colony of Virginia, British Colonial America" as my Location, and would not want to simply copy that. For the Standard Location I follow Jane's advice with the modern Standardized Location of "Albemarle, Albemarle, Virginia, United States".

Using the plugin Copy Location to Standardized button should NOT clear the Lat/Longitude values.
So your request for an automatic re-geocode is unfounded. Can you check what is happening.?
Editing the Standardized location has to clear the Lat/Longitude values because they may no longer be valid.
If it exists then the Standardized location is used for geocoding as is the case in the FH Map Window.
You only need to enter a Standardized value when the Location value does not geocode correctly and you want automatic geocoding. The Standardized value has to be a place found on modern maps which are the source of the automatic geocodes.

BTW: I encountered an error message that stated d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp like you and like you I have no such folder path. So, it seems that is some internal error text and not a real path.
Could you please report your error messages to CP for an explanation of that d: drive path.

[ColeValleyGirl]

I wonder if a VPN affects Google and Geoapify too!

I wouldn't be surprised -- it even affects FHUG. We regularly have to advise users who have failed to register, or are having problems posting, to turn off their VPN.

[trevithick]

Mike and ColeValleyGirl,

Yes, now that I remember way back, I had to pause my VPN to register for the site. Web pages that are for registration or logging in, especially banking sites require pausing the VPN.

Mike, I will report the "d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp" error to CP. I will have to hunt for their address, but I assume that it will be on the Family Historian website.

I wish I could shoot a short video to show the Geocoding disappearing when I click the Copy to Standardized Location button, but screen shots will have to do. I've gone through hundreds of them just this morning, and each and every time Geocoding is cleared.

Are you saying that Standard Locations are only used for Geocoding when Geocoding fails with the Location? If so, am I wasting my time assigning Standard Locations to all my Places?

[trevithick]

Mike, I found a way to do a short video. Hopefully it will work for you. Copying the URL to my browser worked...
https://clipchamp.com/watch/BvhDESSyCbW?

It shows a Geocoded Location clear the Geocodes when I click the Copy to Standardized Locations button, and then Geocode again. It's just over 20 seconds.

[tatewise]

Use FH Support Ticket System: https://support.calico-pie.com/open.php

Both the plugin and FH work the same way for geocoding.
If there is a Standardized location defined then that is used for geocoding.
Otherwise, the Location place name is used for geocoding.

So there is no point in them both being the same.

I've realised you have your Place Fields synchronised with FH Place Records.
You are correct the Lat/Longitude do get cleared in that case - let me check why tomorrow...

I keep asking what settings are on the Set Preferences Options tab Location Plot Options tab?
A screenshot excluding the API Keys and the map pane would help me.

[trevithick]

I sent the screenshot of the Set Preferences Options tab Location Plot Options tab in the post from December 1st, 2023, 9:47 am. The API Keys are blotted out.

Here it is again.

[trevithick]

Mike, I just acquired the Geoapify API, and it is not VPN sensitive. It works just fine with the VPN active. The Google API refuses to work today. Probably do to all the Geocoding I did yesterday.

[tatewise]

Sorry, I forgot you posted those settings last week

Thanks for the feedback regarding Geoapify working with a VPN.

Anyway, on inspection, the plugin script distinguishes between a Plotted location and a Tentative location.
Plotted locations get their Lat/Long cleared when Copy Location to Standardized is used.
It has been that way for a long time, but I cannot explain why, and there seems no logical reason, especially as the reverse operation of Clear Standardized does not affect the Lat/Long value.

I have a modified prototype plugin that does not change Lat/Long when Copy Location to Standardized is used.

It also adds the VPN advice you suggested to the Geocode Error message and allows Cancel to abort the process.

So please try the attached Map Life Facts plugin Version 5.3.2 Date 04 Dec 2023.

[trevithick]

Mike, the v 5.3.2 release of Map Life Facts worked just as you stated. I changed back to Bing for geocoding and left the VPN running and attempted to geocode. I got the error message with your warning about VPN at the bottom.

Pausing the VPN, I could geocode successfully, and copied both unplotted and plotted locations with the geocoding remaining in place.

Thank you very much!

I looked through the first 6k lines of code yesterday, and what a language lua is. It makes coding in vba for Microsoft Access look like child's play. I don't think I'm up to it anymore.


I heard back from CP today, and they claimed that the bad path "d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp" is not caused by FH, and that I should contact the VPN provider. I wrote back telling them that both you and I have received the error, and that I don't know that you're running a VPN. I'll see what they come back with.

[tatewise]

I don't advise judging Lua by my large complex plugins, that use many advanced techniques.
Choose some much smaller and simpler plugins, starting with the Tools > Plugins window How to Write Plugins which has some example scripts. See also Getting Started Writing Plugins. For simple operations, Lua is not so different from VBA or most other programming languages.

The "d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp" path occurs when using the luacom library module.
I have inspected the CP FH installed file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Family Historian\Program\Lua\luacom.dll
it contains the text d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\ amongst many error messages and specifically the text d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp exists. So the error message with that d: drive path would appear to come from the installed luacom library script. Please report that finding to CP.

Is it worth reviewing your use of the Copy Location to Standardized button?
The general geocoding strategy is outlined in the Help page Map Life Facts Geocode Location Plots Tab especially under Manage Location Plots which suggests when the Standardized field is needed.

If the Location: Place name geocodes satisfactorily then the Standardized field need not be used.
If necessary, nudge the marker to change the status from Tentative to Plotted.
A Plotted Location: is easily omitted from future auto-geocodes in the plugin and in FH.

It is only when the Location: Place name does NOT geocode satisfactorily that the Standardized field is needed.
That is often because the Place name contemporary with the date of the fact no longer exists on the modern maps used by geocoders, so you must enter a modern equivalent Place name in the Standardized field.
The Copy Location to Standardized button can help create the Standardized field value, which will inevitably need to be edited and geocoded again. So, clearing the Lat/Long is typically not a problem because it was its unsatisfactory value that triggered the need to use the Standardized field initially.

[ColeValleyGirl]

The "d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp" path occurs when using the luacom library module.
I have inspected the CP FH installed file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Family Historian\Program\Lua\luacom.dll
it contains the text d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\ amongst many error messages and specifically the text d:\my\lua\luacom-master\src\library\tluacom.cpp exists. So the error message with that d: drive path would appear to come from the installed luacom library script. Please report that finding to CP.

I think you've got a fundamental misunderstanding, Mike. Line 382 of tluacom.cpp seems to be part of luacom's error handling; the fact that whoever build the dll did it from source on d:\my\lua\luacom-master is a red herring.

The important thing is the actual error message: "The server name or address could not be resolved" which seems to be a VPN problem.

[jelv]

Having a path shown in the error message is confusing. If I receive an error message referring to the D: drive I'd assume it related to something on my computer. Or, if the path specified was not on my computer, I'd think that either something was missing or there was a setting pointing to the wrong place.

If the point of the path/module being in the error message is for CP's use if they need to investigate issues, the same could be achieved by giving every error a unique number instead of the path and remove any confusion.