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Online Genealogy Viewer

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  • Online Genealogy Viewer

    Hi,

    Since I am new to this forum, let me introduce myself. I am a hobbyist genealogy researcher looking for my ancestors and relatives. I went back to the 18th century with some of my ancestor lines.

    I am a professional programmer and in my free time I also write software that I find useful for my genealogy research. A while back I created an "all-in-one" chart report for GenealogyJ (open-source genealogy software not maintained anymore). The report was useful for other people but it had some problems.

    Currently, in my free time (which I have little of), I'm working on an online tool for visualizing the genealogy tree. You can open your own GEDCOM file (exported from any genealogy software) and see an interactive chart. Click to focus on a person and display their ancestors and descendants. It doesn't have a lot of features but I find it useful to visually see relationships and be able to quickly change focus to different people.

    The website is here: https://pewu.github.io/topola-viewer

    It is free and open-source software with source code on GitHub: https://github.com/PeWu/topola-viewer

    Before trying with you own data, have a look at some example GEDCOMs found on the Web:


    Note that in contrast to genealogy sites like ancestry.com or geni.com, this tool does not send any data to the server. When you open a file from your computer, all your data is processed only in the browser on your computer.

    Let me know if it is useful for you and if you would like to see something more in the tool.

    Thanks,
    Przemek

  • #2
    A blank page in IE11 but opens ok in Firefox

    UPDATE tried open from file using Firefox but again, nothing but a blank page.
    Last edited by GallowayLass; 29-01-19, 23:22.

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    • #3
      Is there a size limit? I just tried to open a random one I have and just got a blank page (in Chrome).
      Caroline
      Caroline's Family History Pages
      Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

      Comment


      • #4
        It loaded OK with a small Gedcom (the sample project) from Family Historian.

        One problem I noticed was that if you Root the diagram on someone who has married twice the second marriage and descendants from that marriage are not shown.

        It would be handy to be able to have a "link" to URLs for each record, so for example to be able to click on an icon and use that to open a web page, for myself I have a web site generated by Family Historian which has a page for each person in the gedcom.

        Do you have any instructions for installing the source on a standard web server, I have not come across TypeScript previously so am not sure how to start.
        Jane
        Family Historian User Group : My Family History : My Photography
        "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."

        Comment


        • #5
          Thank you everyone for your feedback.

          I see I need to do more testing with IE and Firefox (although for me it works on Firefox).

          If you see a blank page, It would be very helpful for me if you could open the Javascript console (Ctrl+Shift+J) and send me the contents. I don't need any personal data but it may show an error that I should fix.

          There is no size limit. I'm testing with my data with over 5000 people and it works fine.

          The chart already handles multiple marriages. In the Shakespeare example, Elizabeth Shakespeare has 2 husbands. However, when I click on her, only one marriage is displayed. I will need to fix this. Thank you for noticing.

          Being able to click a link to an external site is something I'm considering. Actually, I was thinking of displaying a side panel with detailed information about the focused person. The link could be displayed there.

          I'll add installation instructions to the GitHub page later. In the simplest case, you need to have npm installed, and then:
          git clone https://github.com/PeWu/topola-viewer.git
          cd topola-viewer
          npm install
          npm start

          This will start a server on your computer. Or if you want to host it on a web server:
          npm build
          and copy the contents of the build/ directory to the server.


          I'll let you know when I make progress.

          — Przemek

          Comment


          • #6
            I tried again, but this time I remembered to export the file from Family Historian first (as UTF8) and then it opened, albeit with a slight delay. Still using Chrome.

            My multiple marriages show as descendants but not otherwise.

            I like the idea/presentation very much and can see it being very useful.
            Caroline
            Caroline's Family History Pages
            Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

            Comment


            • #7
              Caroline, if you want in FH you can change the Tools>Preferences on the Load & Save Tab to always save FH files in UTF-8 rather than UTF-16
              Jane
              Family Historian User Group : My Family History : My Photography
              "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by jtaubman View Post
                Caroline, if you want in FH you can change the Tools>Preferences on the Load & Save Tab to always save FH files in UTF-8 rather than UTF-16
                A lesson from the expert, I'll do that - thank you! I don't often need to export and just chose the top of the list when I realised it might/could/would make a difference..
                Caroline
                Caroline's Family History Pages
                Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

                Comment


                • #9
                  A short update:
                  - Focusing on a person with more than one spouse now shows all spouses
                  - I fixed the app showing a blank page – it should display an error now
                  - I tested Firefox and Edge - it works but is slower than Chrome when opening large GEDCOM files
                  - Making it work with Internet Explorer 11 is quite a challenge. I made the title screen show up but not the chart.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    New features:
                    - printing the entire genealogy tree
                    - option to download a graphics file

                    I invite you to give it a try.



                    — Przemek

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I don't see a lot of interest but I'll post an update anyway ;)

                      New features:
                      - details panel shows more information, including external links
                      - find a person by searching
                      - you can now open images together with the GEDCOM file by selecting multiple files from the "Load from file" menu. This feature does not work perfectly yet.

                      — Przemek

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