Family Descendant Tree add-on

[Bob2000]

I am using Gramps 3.2.4-1 (my o/s is Ubuntu 9.10)

I have generated two graphic SVG files (call them graphic A and graphic B) using Craig Anderson's Family Descendant Tree add-on.

For both A and B, under Tree Options, I chose 4 generations and checked 'start with the parents first'. Under Print, I chose 'do not scale report'. I have selected a big paper size (A0).

I generated Graphic A and Graphic B - no problem. They both show 5 generations.

I want to use Inkscape to join A and B manually (A above B, so that equivalent generations are in the same column). The problem is that two SVG graphic files are different widths. The fonts look the same size but the boxes containing the names are smaller in B than they are in A.

Are there any settings I can choose so that the boxes A and B will come out with identical widths?

[Craig J. Anderson]

> Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 06:15:11 -0800 (PST)

> From: Bob2000 <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [Gramps-users] Family Descendant Tree add-on
>
> I have generated two graphic SVG files (call them graphic A and graphic B)
> using Craig Anderson's Family Descendant Tree add-on.
>
> For both A and B, under Tree Options, I chose 4 generations and checked
> 'start with the parents first'. Under Print, I chose 'do not scale report'.
> I have selected a big paper size (A0).
>
> I generated Graphic A and Graphic B - no problem. They both show 5
> generations.
>
> I want to use Inkscape to join A and B manually . The problem is that two SVG
> graphic files are different widths. The
> boxes containing the names are smaller in B than they are in A.
>
> Are there any settings I can choose so that the boxes A and B will come out
> with identical widths?

Hi, I'm Craig, the creator of this report.  As it is still an add-on, I would be the best to address this issue.

The widths of the boxes are based off of the maximum text length within the report.  So naturally two reports will (should) have different box sizes.  The best way to battle this IMHO is to choose 'Scale report to fit page width only' instead of 'do not scale report.'  This will make sure that the boxes are the same width as they are both scaled to the same page width.  This will regretfully make the text sizes a little different as those scale different as well.

Hope this helps.  If you have any other questions, just ask.  and I'm working hard on a new version and inclusion into Gramps.

thanks and please help with improvements.

  Craig A.

P.S. I would like in the future to have an option like this.  Show all of Moms family (out to her cousins) in one report, Dads in another, and then my family.  All in one package.  It would look SWEET on the wall.

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[Bob2000]

Thanks for your reply, Craig.

I think that your add-on is excellent so this is in no way a criticism. I'm just trying to make it work to suit my need.*

I tried your suggestion. For some reason the boxes weren't exactly the same width. The difference was about 1.5%. (I'm using Inkscape 0.47 to open the SVG files.)

And, as you say, the fonts were different size (although you can subsequently change font size manually fairly easily).

I shall experiment with other output options to see if I can get closer to what I want. (Perhaps a dummy entry of maximum text length?)

Thanks for your help.

*You have a tree option 'start with the parents of the selected first'. If there was an option 'start with the grandparents of the selected first' then my required output would be generated with no further work required.

[Craig J. Anderson]

> Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:42:14 -0800 (PST)
> From: Bob2000 <[hidden email]>
> Subject: Re: [Gramps-users] Family Descendant Tree add-on
> Thanks for your reply, Craig.
>
> I think that your add-on is excellent so this is in no way a criticism. I'm
> just trying to make it work to suit my need.*

That is exactly why I have made it.  The current graphical reports didn't cut it (for me).

> I tried your suggestion. For some reason the boxes weren't exactly the same
> width. The difference was about 1.5%. (I'm using Inkscape 0.47 to open the
> SVG files.)

1.5%?  Hmm.  I can see that with how I calculated the widths this will happen.  I could calculate the widths differently.... 
I guess it would make sense.  I'll look into it.  Oh, I'm currently on another project, so don't look for it soon.

> I shall experiment with other output options to see if I can get closer to
> what I want. (Perhaps a dummy entry of maximum text length?)

I had thought of this too, but with how widths are calculated....  mileage may vary.

> *You have a tree option 'start with the parents of the selected first'. If
> there was an option 'start with the grandparents of the selected first' then
> my required output would be generated with no further work required.

wonderful.  we want the same thing.  but with this option, lines start crossing and I have no way to prevent it.  and it looks really really bad.  Is this why you want a report A and report B together?  Report A for Moms side, B for Dads?  Sorry, but this is my only solution at this time.

I even want to go further.  Page A have Dads Dad tree and Dads Mom tree.  Page B has Moms Dad and Moms Mom tree.  each ending with my grandparents stating their name and they are on my cousin report.  and page C would be my cousin report.  All on the wall.

but you gave me some ideas.
1 Another tab to run a second report on the same page for someone else (your Report A and B)
2 or another tab to save report(s) to a file and then print them all to paper.
I thought I was crazy for thinking about this, but you gave me a good reason.  I can't say when/if this will happen.  and I don't ever see more than two reports needed to be done at the same time (so probably option 1).

Thanks for giving me the sanity test.

Craig A.

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[Bob2000]

Craig J. Anderson wrote

> <snip>

> I tried your suggestion. For some reason the boxes weren't exactly the same
> width. The difference was about 1.5%. (I'm using Inkscape 0.47 to open the
> SVG files.)

1.5%?  Hmm.  I can see that with how I calculated the widths this will happen.  I could calculate the widths differently....  
I guess it would make sense.  I'll look into it.  Oh, I'm currently on another project, so don't look for it soon.

> I shall experiment with other output options to see if I can get closer to
> what I want. (Perhaps a dummy entry of maximum text length?)

I had thought of this too, but with how widths are calculated....  mileage may vary.

Craig - I just tried entering a dummy entry that would appear in both trees A and B. I made the dummy birth date/place a longer string than any other in the database.

It worked! I am now combining the SVG files in Inkscape. The boxes have the same dimensions and the same font size. Excellent!

Craig J. Anderson wrote

> <snip>

wonderful.  we want the same thing.  but with this option, lines start crossing and I have no way to prevent it.  and it looks really really bad.  Is this why you want a report A and report B together?  Report A for Moms side, B for Dads?  Sorry, but this is my only solution at this time.

Actually, my Report A is Mum's Mum and Report B is Mum's Dad but our aim is the same. I need to use Inkscape to combine and edit A and B so that lines don't cross. I can see why this would be hard to paginate automatically.

Craig J. Anderson wrote

I even want to go further.  Page A have Dads Dad tree and Dads Mom tree.  Page B has Moms Dad and Moms Mom tree.  each ending with my grandparents stating their name and they are on my cousin report.  and page C would be my cousin report.  All on the wall.
but you gave me some ideas.
1 Another tab to run a second report on the same page for someone else (your Report A and B)
2 or another tab to save report(s) to a file and then print them all to paper.
I thought I was crazy for thinking about this, but you gave me a good reason.  I can't say when/if this will happen.  and I don't ever see more than two reports needed to be done at the same time (so probably option 1).

Sounds terrific. Keep up the good work!

For me, Gramps isn't so appealing without your add-on. I don't know how other users of the program get satisfaction from the 'standard' graphical reports.

P.S. The other thing I do in Inkscape with your SVG output file is this:
You know the grey shaded boxes behind each person's details box? I change the colour from grey to light blue for males and to pink for females. It gives a nicely understated but clear indication of the ancestor's sex. It may not be to everyone's taste but it looks cool to me.

[Bob2000]

I am trying to produce a SVG file but neither Inkscape nor Image Viewer likes it. ('Failed to load the requested file...')

I can produce the pdf file Ok.

The tree is quite bug (7 generations) and I think that its something to do with the pagination. Are there any 'reliable' page settings that I could try in order to produce a SVG file, please?

[Johnny-2]

Bob2000 <[hidden email]> writes:
> I am trying to produce a SVG file but neither Inkscape nor Image
> Viewer likes it. ('Failed to load the requested file...')
>
> I can produce the pdf file Ok.
>
> The tree is quite bug (7 generations) and I think that its something
> to do with the pagination. Are there any 'reliable' page settings that
> I could try in order to produce a SVG file, please?

Which version of Gramps are you using? I have played around a bit with
these options to print a tree with 20 generatrion and it works ok in
3.2.3 version.

I didn't like the multipage output due to grouping (didn't try this for
svg, so maybe this is your issue?), so I selected A0 or custom size to
get the output and split it manually in Inkscape to the desiredd number
of pages and layout. More manual work, but family groupings were more
structured.

--
Johnny

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[Bob2000]

Johnny-2 wrote

Which version of Gramps are you using? I have played around a bit with
these options to print a tree with 20 generatrion and it works ok in
3.2.3 version.

I didn't like the multipage output due to grouping (didn't try this for
svg, so maybe this is your issue?), so I selected A0 or custom size to
get the output and split it manually in Inkscape to the desiredd number
of pages and layout. More manual work, but family groupings were more
structured.
--
Johnny

I'm using 3.2.4-1. My choice of page size doesn't seem to affect this issue.

I've just tried an earlier back up of my tree and found that it produces an SVG file with no problems.

So the Family descendant report doesn't like my more recent, bigger tree. When I use the 'check database' tool on it, everything seems ok.

Groan...Anybody with a similar problem?

[Bob2000]

Bob2000 wrote

I'm using 3.2.4-1. My choice of page size doesn't seem to affect this issue.

I've just tried an earlier back up of my tree and found that it produces an SVG file with no problems.

So the Family descendant report doesn't like my more recent, bigger tree. When I use the 'check database' tool on it, everything seems ok.

Groan...Anybody with a similar problem?

I've narrowed the problem down to one long marriage place name (66 characters, including spaces). If I remove this place name, the problem goes away.

[I found the problem by creating the report for successive generations. Then when I found which generation caused the problem, I narrowed it down to the family by running the report for each family.

When I looked at the PDF output for this family, I saw that the marriage place was corrupted.]

Conclusion: Family Descendant Tree add-on can't handle long marriage place names.

It's still an excellent add-on though, in my opinion.

[Benny Malengier]

2011/1/28 Bob2000 <[hidden email]>

Bob2000 wrote:
> I'm using 3.2.4-1. My choice of page size doesn't seem to affect this
> issue.
>
> I've just tried an earlier back up of my tree and found that it produces
> an SVG file with no problems.
>
> So the Family descendant report doesn't like my more recent, bigger tree.
> When I use the 'check database' tool on it, everything seems ok.
>
> Groan...Anybody with a similar problem?
>

I've narrowed the problem down to one long marriage place name (66
characters, including spaces). If I remove this place name, the problem goes
away.

[I found the problem by creating the report for successive generations. Then
when I found which generation caused the problem, I narrowed it down to the
family by running the report for each family.

When I looked at the PDF output for this family, I saw that the marriage
place was corrupted.]

Conclusion: Family Descendant Tree add-on can't handle long marriage place
names.

Please post a bug ticket for this on the bug tracker.
Normal solution to those kind of problems is to ellipsize long names (long name...) or to word wrap on a fixed length.

Benny
 

It's still an excellent add-on though, in my opinion.
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[Paul Franklin-5]

Bob,

You should know that the Family Descendant Tree report has
been massively rewritten for inclusion in the next (3.3)
major release of gramps (scheduled for March 2011) -- and
its two underlying "library" files.  At that point it will
no longer be an "add-on" and no longer privately maintained.
As such, the rewritten files are already in "trunk" (the
development source tree which will become 3.3 soon), in case
you feel comfortable about working on the "bleeding-edge."

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[Bob2000]

Paul Franklin-5 wrote

Bob,

You should know that the Family Descendant Tree report has
been massively rewritten for inclusion in the next (3.3)
major release of gramps (scheduled for March 2011) -- and
its two underlying "library" files.  At that point it will
no longer be an "add-on" and no longer privately maintained.
As such, the rewritten files are already in "trunk" (the
development source tree which will become 3.3 soon), in case
you feel comfortable about working on the "bleeding-edge."

Thanks for letting me know.

I wasn't sure what the previous poster meant by posting about the bug in "bug tracker". If indeed it is a bug...I feel uncomfortable about extrapolating this one experience without haven't carried out more testing.

I'm very pleased to hear that the report will be included in the new release. It will really augment the program.

[Bob2000]

Bob2000 wrote

Conclusion: Family Descendant Tree add-on can't handle long marriage place names.

It doesn't like the "&" character in the marriage place name either (as I found out today).