GenoPro Support Forum

Any reply to this suggestion?

Subsequent to my 24-3-06 few posted topics, I’ve been deeply thinking about the 3 existing “name indexes” and about the whole report presentation and, as I said “unless I miss something”, I believe Genopro only need to provide 1 Name Index and also could get away with any other lists popping-up in the right pane (places for example). This will surely entail the review of the report architecture or part of.

I did the following montage for my dream suggested home page, also showing some other suggestions:

1)      In this suggested architecture, any indexes/lists (names, families, genomap(s), pictures, contacts, places, citations, occupations, education, …) will only be shown as above, i.e. in the left pane. It is for this reason that I removed the blue folder icon (toc_tree.jpg), because obsolete to me, and crossed out the alphabetical surname index.

2)      My above right pane is the text that I entered in the description field associated with the Tools -> Generate Report -> Document tab. In case some users prefer to leave the description field blank, it would be a good place for Genopro to show their own logo, banner and background of their choice.

3)      I reduced the sizes of the icons from 36 pix to 24 pix. Thus allowing, after deletion of toc_tree.jpg, to add-up, in my case, an extra 3 icons: the citation one and 2 made-up Occu and Edu. If more icons are required, Genopro may slightly increase the height of the heading frame and start a 2^nd row of icons.

4)      I added a language drop-down selection menu. I don’t want to expand too much on this feature as it depends on Genopro’s handling philosophy about these language report skins. Personally it is what I will provide allowing users to keep, stored somewhere in a file, the preferred login language.

5)      Handling of other indexes: Places for examples (typical for basically all other indexes):

I picture that when clicking on a place within the left pane, there is no need to pop up another list in the right pane. If you click a place of marriage (and one of the listed couples if that particular place has several marriages entries), the couple in question should pop-up in the right pane. Simple as that.

6)      General note on all the indexes: Genopro should make all indexes consistent and of the same appearance. Up to Genepro to provide index type as above or of the expandable/collapsing type. I prefer and therefore suggest the later.

7)      Home page icon: Already stated in another topic: Proper reset of initial both panes and closing of any open genomap image.

Actually I don't have any sample report. The picture shown is only a screenshot of my normal actual home page, but modified with my graphic editor.

You'll have to read in detail all my points to get the general idea, which is basically:

1) keep all indexes and lists in the left pane.

2) make popping up, in the right pane, whatever you clicked in the left pane.

To complement this topic, have a look also on my other related topics which also remain unanswered: 10212, 10766 & 10767.

- 10212 will become irrelevant if you decide to get away with the toc_tree.jpg icon and the associated index.

- 10766 & 10767 are complements and/or kind of duplicates to this topic.

Thank you.

Edited: Sunday, June 11, 2006 by GenoProSupport

1. The left hand pane is named 'toc' and as its name suggests it is for 'table of contents' or indices only. The two forms of the name index allow the user a choice of navigation. In a large family tree the flat name index becomes very long, having a tree index allows the user to drill down to the required last name more easily by first selecting the initial letter of the last name, and then selecting the last name in order to see individuals with that same last name. The disadvantage is that a large index can be slow to respond. The alphabetic surname list presented on the home page also provides similar navigation to a required last name, but perhaps as you suggest, doesn't belong on the home page. It should be possible to put the initial letters at the head on the name index and the surname lists in the appropriate points of the name index, allowing it to be removed from the home page. I believe the best approach would be to have configuration options to choose name index and/or tree index and whether the name index contains the alphabetic index as well. To a certain extent this will depend on the size of the family tree.
   
   The existing lists differ from the corresponding index in the amount of detail. Places and Sources for example can have associated pictures. However many places and sources have little extra information. This is why they are presented in a single detail pane on the right hand side rather than each place or source having its own page.


2. Certainly the GenoPro connection should be more obvious, I suggest the righthand side of the header pane.


3. There should be room for the extra icons, particularly if the font size of the title is reduced. You suggest pages for citation, education and occupation. Do you envisage and index and a more detailed list like sources & places? If so could you privide and outline of the content of each.


4. My preference would be a separate fronting page giving a choice of languages, linking to separate reports in each of the languages required.


5. As explained in 1) above, the places index points to a more detailed view the place and is not just another list. An alternative would be to have a collapsable index and only link to a detail page when there is more detail available e.g.pictures or notes etc.


6. Indices have a similar look other than the tree index. A configuration option should be available to supress it if not required


7. Agreed. I'll look into providing this.

Ron, thanks for your long reply.

It’s not easy to explain by writing. Edited screenshots, as I did in this initial topic, is better and more obvious but it’s gonna take ages. Therefore I’ll narrate. Bear in mind I’m not a programmer and you may find in my explanations some impossibilities and/or some technical difficulties, in the case, as you mentioned, of a large tree. I added some of your suggestions:

1)      home page:

a.       header pane:

-          icons on the left + 1 new language/flag icon (click -> drop down menu of available languages -> select -> reset home page and whole report with new language). The list of available languages and the default language may be kept in a small, say, “lgconfig.xml” file. Another topic mentions several languages within the same narrative report. In this case, if there’s too many languages involved, I picture the report may be a bit too crowded. Genopro to decide.

-          Main title -> font reduced

-          Right side -> Genopro logo

b.       left pane (LP):

-          The actual expand/collapsable name index (the one associated with toc_tree.jpg) but with the following modif: only provide individuals names. To me there’s no need for family details, edu and occu histories as these items can all be found in the RP individual report itself. This will “lighten” the index in case of a large tree.

c.       right pane (RP):

-          2 cases:

1.       a welcome message like my screenshot

2.       if no welcome message from user, the Genopro banner.

2)      Individual page, upon clicking the individual icon:

a.       In the LP, expand/collapse name index -> select.

b.       In the RP, selected individual to pop up (as existing).

3)      Family page, upon clicking the family icon:

a.       In the LP, a new family index of the expand/collapsing type to be provided with only families. Nothing else.

b.       In the RP, selected family to pop up (as existing).

4)      Places page, upon clicking the atlas icon:

a.       In the LP, a new place index also of the expand/collapsing type to be provided. This is actually, if not mistaken, a combination of your 2 files toc_places.htm and places.htm. Index closed -> Click on a place -> reveal all individuals and families associated with that place -> select.

b.       In the RP, selected item to pop up (ind or fam). Assuming an individual has just been open in the RP, if a comment/photo is present for his/her, say, birth place, clicking on his “violet” birth place link will pop up his/her birth place data/info/comments/photo in the SVG pane. If technically impossible to use the SVG pane, the data may pop up in a separate window (similar window when clicking on a photo, but bigger).

The individual still being in the RP.

5)      Education page (Genopro to decide the implementation), upon clicking the education icon:

a.       Same as places: new education exp/col index in LP comprising all individuals having an education data -> select -> ind pop up in RP -> click education link -> data pop up (copy of diploma, college class photo, …) in SVG pane or in new window.

6)      Occupation page (Genopro to decide the implementation), upon clicking the occupation icon:

a.       Exactly the same as places and/or education.

7)      Sources, upon clicking the source icon:

a.       I never really thought about this subject but it could be, I suppose, identical or similar to places, edu or occu, with also an expand/collapse index/list in the LP.

8)      Contact, upon clicking the contact icon:

a.       The same principle.

9)      Genopro may also provide other icons for, say, some kind of statistics, or whatever else related to Genealogy.

In conclusion, Ron, you’re gonna have quite some recoding to do if Genopro decide to implement these suggestions but, at the end, I think the report will be more consistent (all expand/collapse indexes in the LP), simpler and more straightforward.

The use of all lists/indexes of the expand/collapse type should better suit large trees.

Up to Genopro now.

Miscellaneous suggestions:

1) Don’t forget, when you select a new ind and/or a new fam from the LP, to make any open SVG pane, closed prior to pop up any new ind or fam.

2) Another detail to look at, in the case of a report made of separate languages, is:

Presently comments can be entered a bit everywhere (main comment (the one to appear in the home page), birth, death, comments for photos, …). Let’s say I wrote all my comments in French and the report is made of 2 separate languages French and English (selected with the flag icon). What about if I select English? -> All comments will be shown in French! Please think about a way to also let the user enter the comments in other language(s).

The answer is may be to group/gather all comments under, say, a  separate “comment.htm” file which could be copied to another skin directory and then easily and simply edited/translated by the user, as presently the comments are scattered a bit everywhere in the htm files.

Thank you.

The use of expandable 'tree' indexes I suggest is an either/or option at generation time - either all flat indexes or all tree indexes, leaving the choice to the user. Perhaps people will want flat indexes for small family trees and 'tree' indexes for larger ones. Removing the extra 'weight' of the lowest detail level as you say should improve performance.

I like the idea of using the 'pop-up' frame for place & source but not unsure about education/occupation as I think all info is already available on the individual page except place data which could be accessed in a similar way to place of birth, i.e. a place 'pop-up' frame. 

As you say all this could take a while to recode. Some changes are already available for beta 16d, like closing 'map/pop-up' frame automatically when 'Home' icon clicked or new entry selected from index pane, also collapsible cross-reference lists for the places and sources pages and a few other bits and pieces like GenoPro logo in a slimmer header. If Dan is happy for other changes to go ahead it could take some weeks as I am off on holiday shortly.
If anyone has further comments or preferences on the suggested changes please post as soon as possible.

In answer the Maru-San the idea behind the picture size was that main subjects have large pictures. I placed them on the left as they looked isolated on the right because of the little amount of information. I'd like to have pop-up place info as per jcquasp's suggestion. Then I could have large pictures there but smaller ones the full places page.

With regard to your query on comments and languages, I believe there was a suggestion that GenoPro should cater for multiple language comments within the existing 'properties' dialogs (automatic translation would be great!) The report generator could then chose the correct comment according to the language of the report.

Eventually, the report generator will be capable to host multiple languages within the same skin.  The name translation is another feature to automatically translate one name into another language.

Edited: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 by GenoProSupport