Demo Gramps Web missing search index and home person

I logged into the Demo (Try the demo as Owner) today and had a difficult time. This was not only because the search index was broken. It was worse that it took so much effort to understand that the index was the problem.

Rebuilt the Search Index, but the Demo quickly resets and makes the Search Index bad again. A bad search index is currently the default state of the Demo site.

Background

My objective was to explore explore what “Charts” were available. But there was no Home Person defined. And when I found where to set a Person as the Home Person, no matches appeared regardless of search parameter. (And there was no indicator of whether the search term was an ID or a name. Nor whether it needed to be an exact match or was a pattern match.)

So I fumbled around doing lots of tests. Going back to Gramps for Desktops to find a good value for testing. Eventually I became convinced the search index was defective.

Then I had to find the “Manage search index” and that took awhile too. (Since it is in a “Administrator” Preferences tab, would a “User” be marooned if the Search Index needs to be rebuilt?) And, before the index was rebuilt, the “Family Tree” kept complaining about a Home Person not being set and offering a link to where to set it. But after rebuilding, “Family Tree” didn’t complain but still needed a Home Person.

So how about having a image search index status next to the “Not found”? And, if it reports a “0/xxxxx”, have it linked to the Preferences page for rebuilding.

After updating the search index


The Family Tree charts need a link if the Home Person is not set.

A new user on Reddit.com/r/gramps had a similar confusion.

However, their problem arose from Gramps Web appearing to insist on a Home Person before adding the data. (Gramps has a similar difficulty.) Adding the first data needs a bit of hand-holding.

For Gramps, I believe the most intuitive way to start a tree is with a new Family. (When not doing an import/sync.) Then using the Add buttons for a parent or child.

But that is not a viable workflow in Gramps Web. You can only Select a Person in the new Family.

Some Add Person options in the New Family would make for a more logical workflow.