To be brutally frank, Gramps tends not to be elegant layout. (Gramps Web tends to have a finer, more modern GUI. And the FTV experimental charts addon allows drawing with hairline borders. But most Gramps GUI tends to be functional but chunky.)
We’d probably see a lot cleaner results interfacing some forms imported from fillable form design tools. And having a Gramps tool to associate fillable form field names to a parser and filler.
Since Python libraries exist for fillable form PDFs and their fields, it would be a lot fewer iterations to get something functional too.
True. But the CSV parser would need some expansion. It supports some source fields but nothing in citations. And there are other oversights: like Event Roles.
I don’t think we can talk about automation (or at least, that wasn’t the spirit of my request).
I like to note down all the elements of a document, even if they don’t seem important to me at the time. A long time ago, I copied them out entirely by hand, then with a PC, I transcribed them (always in full), but this isn’t very efficient because it requires rereading everything and doesn’t create a connection between individuals.
I’d like a condensed way to transcribe an event (deed) with all its elements, witnesses, etc.
The form (which I use in another software) seems like the right approach if it can include notes (e.g., officiant) and links to individuals (witnesses whose kinship is known or simply likely).
Thanks for the tip on recent events. This add-on doesn’t appear in the Gramps extensions interface, so I assume it requires manual installation.
Thanks again,
Bertrand
PS : In conclusion, I would like to have, by clicking on an event (act), a clear and concise view of all the information contained in this act.
I don’t know if some report can do this, maybe. But from where you’re looking to an event - in the Event view or in an Event editor when editing a person or a family - you’ll not obtain the same information:
In Events view you will only see what you can see in the low part of the event editor in person and family editors
When editing the same event while editing it in a person or a family editor, you’ll also see the top part, the reference to that event, associated to that person/family - and not to other persons/families also part of this event. You need to look at the References tab of that event to see other participants, open them and then edit the event to see their specific data (role, attributes, notes, citations) associated to that event.
Thanks for the tip on recent events. This add-on doesn’t appear in the Gramps extensions interface, so I assume it requires manual installation.
Indeed, it’s a plugin that needs to be installed and is part of a collection of plugins developed by Kari(kku), see the link above.
It’s so effective that you won’t even think about using a transcription note for a document because that’s what you want to associate with the document… if I understand correctly…
And finally, why not enter all the information contained in the document? On the other hand, I don’t think a form template can’t reflect the diversity of document writing styles. Indeed, it may be laborious, but if you apply this method, one click on a citation and if the Gramplet References is installed, you’ll have all the information contained in the document.
P.S.: If you stick to your idea, don’t forget the Link button in the Note view, symbolized by >, which allows you to create links to Gramps objects.
Hello,
Actually, I admit I’m not really sure how Gramps could present what I’m imagining (the event, individual, attribute, and advanced attribute views are still a bit confusing to me).
I tried the form suggested by @PLegoux, and it looks more like the presentation I’m used to.
It would require adding unrelated individual fields (text mode only). @bjc49, thanks, I’ll take a closer look at this add-on!
On the other hand, while browsing this forum, I found “Gramps does not need market share. We do not “lose” if new users don’t choose Gramps.” and I admit that it gave me a bit of a cold welcome.
I just wanted to drop in and say that development is officially not on hold anymore!
I had a bunch of family stuff pile up but that is all over now and I have restarted development. I’ll be pushing some updates in a few days and hopefully will have the form addon done within a few months max.
It actually does include a fully visual form builder! This part is actually completely done in the version of the addon I have built. Or actually now that I am re-reading a partial full form builder.
You still have to make the actual form style via a text based solution, but selecting which events correspond with which events? This is 100% implemented.
Also included (and what I am currently putting the finishing touches on before release) is the detailed event builder. This allows for an event to be created from the combining of multiple columns from a template form.
I have experimented with the Forms addon to solve my original problem (automate as much as possible the mass input of similar data structures, e.g. hundreds of baptism records), but realized that the Forms also require me to manually click a lot to define persons, etc. when actually filling the predefined form. Hence the Forms addon does not automate much of my workload when I am scanning through 100+ pages of records. Am I missing something with Forms that would help me more?
Then I figured that I am better off by converting my external data to GEDCOM or XML, attaching the same source to all the related pieces of information in a given record, and mass-import them directly into my Gramps database. However, can Gramps intelligently (or interactively) detect clashes on import, i.e. that a person/family/event/etc. already exists, to merge new data to it, without generating duplicates?
So practically I am down to the point where I have implemented my own GEDCOM/XML parser in my preferred choice of programming language (Wolfram Mathematica). Now I can fully handle my family tree outside of Gramps (import, visualization, search, filter, addition, deletion, editing, merging, etc.), and I can detect and merge identical entries during mass-import. This is nice, but it also means that I only use Gramps for low-efficiency tinkering. I would (have) preferred a method that is domestic to Gramps. Is there one?
Yes. Forms store transcribed data as event reference attributes stored in Person objects. You must either select an existing person or create a new one in which to store the data.
We could store data in persona structures, or perhaps create new people automatically. The original addon was written to help with my own workflow and I made it public because I thought that it might also be useful for others. I’m happy for it to be improved and am looking forward to the improvements that @RenTheRoot is currently developing.
I just did, and ImportMerge miserably fails to detect seemingly identical objects, not even persons with same ID and name, since it compares internal handles. So I am left to do a manual merge after import.
