Grampsweb tree privacy

Gramps Web
1

I have just discovered grampsweb yesterday and installed it from the latest docker images on a self hosted virtual server. My use case is to share my family tree with brothers and cousins to keep memory of our relatives (birthdates, marriages, and so on…). I started collecting family data 30+ years ago and currently I’m using geneweb to share the information. I have succesfully imported the data into grampsweb with gedcom format.

I have some troubles understanding user roles since I was not able to find information on the documentation. Let me see if I have correctly understood:

  • a registered user is required to see anything
  • it is possible to enable/disable user registration
  • guest users cannot see “private” individuals but they can see everything else (there is no restriction based on the age of individuals)

What is the difference between “members”, “collaborators” and “editors”? I assume editors can update the data… what about members and collaborators?

My ideal setting would be that everyone (even search engines) could browse the data of old ancestors while I would like to give to family members the possibility to access all the data and trusted family members the possibility to update the data. I could set the “private” flag on living persons but in case I would like to automate this. Seems to me that the “private” information cannot be imported from gedcom files.

Thank you in advance for your help,

E.

2

Hi E.,

welcome to Gramps Web!

User roles are described here:

  • “Members” are those that can see everything but edit nothing
  • “Contributors” can see everything and add stuf, but not edit or delete anything (admittedly, not super useful)
  • “Editors” can see and edit everything (including delete), but not administer (like editing/creating/deleting users, etc.)

My ideal setting would be that everyone (even search engines) could browse the data of old ancestors

Sorry, but this is intentionally out of scope for Gramps Web. We do not want to be another geanalogy website generator. If you want to share your data openly, I suggest to use a public database like GEDBAS or a website generator like Gramps’ own Narrated Web Site report.

while I would like to give to family members the possibility to access all the data and trusted family members the possibility to update the data.

This, in turn, is exactly what Gramps Web is made for. Family members are “Members”, trusted family members are “Editors”.

I could set the “private” flag on living persons but in case I would like to automate this.

Setting the “private” flag on living persons is exactly how I do it, too.

I know it’s initially counterintuitive that you have to do this manually - in Gramps desktop, you can bulk apply the private flag to people or events.

The reason why it’s complicated (or even impossible) in practice to automate it is because Gramps is not just about people - it has events, places, notes, media files, sources, citations, and repositories. All of those can be linked in multiple ways - even cyclic - so even knowing which person is (probably) alive is not enough to decide unambiguously which piece of information belongs to that person.

On the other hand, doing it manually gives you more freedom to tailor what can be viewed and what can’t. For instance, I never set people to “private”, even living ones - their names can be seen by all registered users. Instead I only set events and media objects related to living people to “private”.

Same for deceased relatives - I often find it inappropriate to immediately make everything I collected visible when they pass away. I can enter the death date but decide to keep some information private for a few more years.

Seems to me that the “private” information cannot be imported from gedcom files.

Yes, Gramps respects the Gedcom privacy setting. Why do you ask?

Best,
David

3

Thank you for your answers.

Could you suggest a nice workflow to produce a static website with ancestors? I don’t know gramp desktop, maybe that can be used to publish some genealogy trees in form of html pages?

About the “private” flag I tried to change the flag on my individual in gramps-web (I mean the lock in the “person” form) and export to gedcom with both the lock open or closed. I see no difference in the ged file produced apart from the timestamp.