I was wondering if anyone has experience with a program called TNG - The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding. Despite the rather awkward name, I’ve looked at a few sites that use this software, and have been very impressed.*
Rather than creating and storing a lot of individual Web pages, TNG produces them ‘on the fly’ using data from a GEDCOM file, as well as from any photos, videos, text files, etc…that you specify. There’s also a feature that pulls up a Google Map for your locations. One of the advantages to this approach is that you don’t need to build new pages or edit old ones when your research turns up new information – just upload an updated GEDCOM.
My main concern is that whatever provider you use to host your site has to have PHP (a scripting language) and MySQL (a database). According to the TNG Web site, you don’t need to know anything about PHP or MySQL, but “anything you do know will be a bonus.” Perhaps if someone on here has used this before, they could let me know how much technical know-how is required.
The company that produces TNG seems like a one-person operation, but that isn’t always a bad thing, and the price (US$29) is certainly quite reasonable. Again, any first-hand reports about technical support, etc... would be much appreciated.
Thanks –
Tim
* I should clarify that I’m impressed with the layout and presentation of the TNG sites I’ve looked at, if not always with their content. The demonstration on the company site includes a lot of ‘submitted’ LDS entries with ancestry going back to Adam and Eve, and some of the User Sites seem equally questionable. It’s like the acronym GIGO – garbage in, garbage out – not something that FTF members need to worry about :D .
Rather than creating and storing a lot of individual Web pages, TNG produces them ‘on the fly’ using data from a GEDCOM file, as well as from any photos, videos, text files, etc…that you specify. There’s also a feature that pulls up a Google Map for your locations. One of the advantages to this approach is that you don’t need to build new pages or edit old ones when your research turns up new information – just upload an updated GEDCOM.
My main concern is that whatever provider you use to host your site has to have PHP (a scripting language) and MySQL (a database). According to the TNG Web site, you don’t need to know anything about PHP or MySQL, but “anything you do know will be a bonus.” Perhaps if someone on here has used this before, they could let me know how much technical know-how is required.
The company that produces TNG seems like a one-person operation, but that isn’t always a bad thing, and the price (US$29) is certainly quite reasonable. Again, any first-hand reports about technical support, etc... would be much appreciated.
Thanks –
Tim
* I should clarify that I’m impressed with the layout and presentation of the TNG sites I’ve looked at, if not always with their content. The demonstration on the company site includes a lot of ‘submitted’ LDS entries with ancestry going back to Adam and Eve, and some of the User Sites seem equally questionable. It’s like the acronym GIGO – garbage in, garbage out – not something that FTF members need to worry about :D .
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