Database location: host and port

Feedback
1

Now that Gramps Web has grown more prevalent, is it time to re-visit the documentation on the Host and Port settings in the Family Tree tab of Preferences? It is virtually non-existent.

Database Location

  • Host: - Server address or other computer IP address for the location of the database.
  • Port: - Port number to access the Host database
  • Family Tree Database path: Unless you have a definite reason to change this, stay with the default path. The default path where databases are stored is grampsdb within the User Directory.

This looks like a setting that Gramps Web users would expect for syncing a hosted version database with a desktop database. But they are unrelated. So the documentation needs to reset that expectation. (Unless @DavidMStraub can think of a way to use these settings to tie the desktop version more intimately to Gramps Web?)

Previous inquiries said that feature was for the PostgreSQL backend and was not compatible with the Windows version of Gramps. Since that was the OS that I was using at the time, I just dropped the subject.

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2

From my uninformed perspective, set Host and Port causes unnecessary confusion.

First, by being presented above the required Database path, it implies these settings are more critical, not optional. Second, by not having a dimmed prompt text (such as “optional” or “for network database engines only”), the user must make a non-intuitive leap.

3

Agree with you that this could be improved. Since the host and port database location settings are applicable only for specific choices of the database setting above it, a way to make that unambiguous would be to:

  1. Move and indent the host and port Database location settings under “Database Setting”
  2. Make the settings editable only when a Database that require the settings

However, I don’t know whether the Database path is needed for network DBs, so maybe it needs some more thought.

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4

For me, the host and port settings are greyed out and not editable when using SQLite, which is the right behaviour. From your screenshot it looks like this is the case on Windows as well.

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5

You’re correct. I must have been misremembering or thinking of some very old UI behavior. Please ignore my earlier response.

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