|
|
|
Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/17/2005 10:45:46 PM
Posts: 3,
Visits: 0
|
|
Hello. I was unable to find any discussion of this in these forums, so hopefully I'm not asking a redundant question here. My question is in two parts. The first is; can what I describe below be done using the current version of GenoPro, and the second part is; if not, can I request it as a feature to be added.
I have been looking at various web portals to allow multiple users to edit information in a single database, packages like phpGedView and others. For minor changes these user interfaces are not too bad, but for serious work I definitly prefer the GenoPro GUI. I've been using the free version for about 5 minutes and I'm hooked. Can I set it up so that instead of using a .gno file, the program starts by doing a database query and saves any changes back to the database?
Thank you for your attention, and please let me know if I did not explain my request in great enough detail.
John
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Master
 
Group: Customers
Last Login: 10/7/2008 9:19:28 AM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 552,
Visits: 7,287
|
|
Can I set it up so that instead of using a .gno file, the program starts by doing a database query and saves any changes back to the database?
No you can't, as far as I know. :?
GenoPro only creates and work with its gno file. Moreover - when you put the .gno file in the internet you can only view it and not edit it. What you can do is update it on your computer and upload it again.
For your request - Dan should answer if this can be done or not.
|
|
|
|
|
Legendary Master
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Today @ 6:12:04 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 3,488,
Visits: 14,607
|
|
GenoPro 2.0 was designed to be capable to use an SQL database instead of its .gno and/or file format. Supporting SQL to store data is not that difficult, but requires a bit of work.
First, the SQL tables must be created. If you take a look at the Tag Definitions (Menu -> Tools -> Tag Definitions), GenoPro can generate the SQL statements to create the tables automatically. I did this for a corporate customer during my last consulting job in 1998.
The next thing is to offer a way to connect to the SQL database, typically via a connection string. This may be a registry key to remember the SQL server, username and password, however it may be a small ini/xml file containing the connection string. I have to keep in mind the SQL feature will be used in the corporate world where hundreds of machine may use the same SQL server, and perhaps different databases on the same server. I want a solution "easy to deploy".
Another essential feature is to have a built-in mapping mechanism to convert a column name to another. The idea of an SQL database is to have integration with third party tools. A third party tool may use a different column name than the permanent tag name GenoPro uses. A solution for this would be to have an XML file containing the mapping of a GenoPro tag to an SQL column.
<TagMapping>
<Tags id="Individual">
<TagData name="name.first" sql_column="FirstName" />
<TagData name="name.last" sql_column="LastName" />
</Tags>
</TagMapping>
|
As you can see, this is not a friday-afternoon feature. The most important thing is to have a real test case. In other words, I need a customer who will be willing to test this feature and give feedback for usability and reliability. The key for success is to have a solution easy to use, so the customer considering an SQL database to store his/her genealogy tree can do it with a few minutes of work.
I am aware of tools using SQL databases such as phpGedView and The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding© ("TNG"). These are nice tools complement to GenoPro. Once the SQL interface is working, I plan to contact the authors in addition to provide an easy mechanism for a GenoPro user to benefit from those tools.
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/17/2005 10:45:46 PM
Posts: 3,
Visits: 0
|
|
...The most important thing is to have a real test case. In other words, I need a customer who will be willing to test this feature and give feedback for usability and reliability. The key for success is to have a solution easy to use, so the customer considering an SQL database to store his/her genealogy tree can do it with a few minutes of work....
If by real test case you mean a GenoPro Gold user with a desire to see this working and a few systems to test on, then you have yourself a test subject. If you want a large corporate network with hundreds of machines, I don't think I'll be able to help. 
John
PS. I'm not a paid user yet because I considered the SQL integration a must have, if you respond that I'm an OK test subject then I'll upgrade tonight. My current setup is a MySQL server running on Linux connected to my private network. I have experience programming in C and C++ but very limited experience with MS Windows internals, please let me know what I can do to help.
|
|
|
|
|
Legendary Master
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Today @ 6:12:04 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 3,488,
Visits: 14,607
|
|
I mean a customer willing to try and use a SQL (such as MySQL) to build a genealogy tree. The only way to find out if there are problems is to use the feature. I prefer a small customer to do the testing because the communication and flexibility is usually better and faster than a large enterprise. On the other hand, the SQL feature have to scale for a larger customer.
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Master
Group: Customers
Last Login: 10/7/2008 9:19:28 AM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 552,
Visits: 7,287
|
|
I'm willing to be a test subject, too.
Can you specify in detail what you need us to do?
Do we create our own SQL based tree or you will give us the tool and we use it to create the tree?
|
|
|
|
|
Legendary Master
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Today @ 6:12:04 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 3,488,
Visits: 14,607
|
|
Great. I have to finish the Beta schedule at http://www.genopro.com/beta/ and then I will post a message for those to get started. First, I will write a tool to generate the SQL statements to create the tables. There is no need to do all this work while the application can generate the SQL code. Then I will have to figure out a method to let the user select which family tree to fetch/update from the SQL database.
|
|
|
|
|
Famous Writer
Group: Customers
Last Login: Today @ 12:56:59 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.4
Posts: 433,
Visits: 3,384
|
|
Hi Dan,
I would be interested in trying SQL but have no idea how it works.
I managed to get my head round PHP with a struggle to put a message forum on my family tree web site at http://www.beath.net but no one has used it yet so it seemed a waste of time for the moment.
I have been using Legacy untill now but am thinking of only using GenoPro once the Report Generator is ready as the Beta version has all the fields I need.
I am not sure of the advantages of SQL and even though I installed MYSQL on my computer I can't see how to set it up and create a database.
I am always willing to learn something new even at 60 yrs!
Iain
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/17/2005 10:47:15 PM
Posts: 6,
Visits: 0
|
|
| I had a quick look at the tag definitions. Was it your intention to use the tag definitions as the columns in the tables or did you intend changing the structure so that it fitted in to a relational database?
|
|
|
|
|
Legendary Master
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Today @ 6:12:04 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 3,488,
Visits: 14,607
|
|
I am not sure yet. I am thinking of having all the user-defined tags stored as text in the XML format. Perhaps, a column could be reserved to store the data of all user-defined tags. I don't want to drop the user-defined tags, however I dont' want to create additional tables on the SQL database.
|
|
|
|
| | |