Hi there.
I’m new to Gramps Web and there are some questions:
I’m living in a small town near Bremen, Germany
Up to now I’d been using different Software for at least 30 years (started with PAF ended up with MacFamilyTree).
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is this the forum for Gramps Web or should I look somewhere else?
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the data, I’ve imported (GEDCOM 5.5.1) contains of date-entries in YYYY-MM-DD as well as DD.MM.YYYY
Is there a tool to convert them either to one or the other?
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a lot of persons have their age marked as ‘unknown’ though there are both dates existing and as well both formatted in the same manner. Why does this happen ???
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unfortunately all locations have been imported as countries only; in the GEDCOM File they are listed like this example
2 PLAC Gotha,,,,Thüringen,Deutschland
3 FORM Place,Gemeinde,Landkreis,Regierungsbezirk,Bundesland,Country
Gramps Web shows only the last (Country)
But in the map all locations are shown, the coordinates have been read correctly, however.
But why are they not to be seen in the persons or events form?
- How can I edit the events?
Gramps Web API 2.9.2, FrontEnd 25.4.0
MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1
Safari 18.4
Yes. You can ask questions about Gramps Web on this forum.
Gramps (for desktops) is more mature and feature-complete than Gramps Web.
The usual expectation is that the owner of a Gramps Web site will use Gramps for desktops in combination.
Use the tools of data harmonization on the desktop. Then use the Gramps Web Sync addon tool (like Gramps Web, this addon also created by @DavidMStraub) to refresh the Gramps Web data.
There are a number of threads about cleaning up inconsistent data from GEDCOMs. Non-standardard date cleanup has a multitude of approaches. (A common issue is with event records stored with “text” strings rather than “date” values. Often with non-english names of the months.)
See Discourse threads with the dates tag
Gramps (for desktops) is more mature and feature-complete than Gramps Web.
Well @emyoulation, these are questions about GEDCOM import, so it has nothing to do with Gramps Web feature completeness, because Gramps Web and Gramps Desktop use the exact same function to import GEDCOMs.
But in general I also recommend to first clean up an imported GEDCOM in Gramps desktop, because I personally find it more convenient for mass cleaning up of data. And importing a GEDCOM is always messy. This is not necessarily Gramps’ fault, but often also the fault of the programs creating or exporting the GEDCOM (as demonstrated by your inconsistent date formats).
For general documentation of Gramps & GEDCOM, I recommend looking at the Gramps Wiki, e.g. Gramps and GEDCOM - Gramps.
Not my opinion, really not.
Why do I need to maintain a desktop application when I want to share my data with the others via www?
There are a lot of tools for cleaning up data besides all the genealocical applications.
The problem concerning the datetime format is to be solved on the side of the exporting app.
What format should be used to secure, that the imported field will be not a string but a datetime in Gramps Web?
The problem with the localities did not appear in any other genealocical app, where I did import my GEDCOM data file.
Because the desktop version of Gramps has been has been developed over 2 dozen years by dozens of volunteer developers. Meanwhile, Gramps Web has existed for just 4 years and almost every bit of the work has been done by one (very talented) person in their spare time. Since both applications are powered by the Gramps engine (albeit 5.2 for Gramps Web and 6.0 for the desktop), all the power is available for both. But the not all interface for the features nor all the addons exist yet in Gramps Web.
If there’s a particular feature that you want in Gramps Web that still needs interface, jump in and help build it! Take an item off of David’s ToDo list. That’s how open source development becomes faster. It you don’t have the skills to program, you could offer a bounty. Modules tend to be small, so bounties need not be large.
I did not say that you had localized month names causing your dates issues. It was just one of the most common causes of “text” dates. But dates that persist in a YYYY-MM-DD or DD.MM.YYYY format were exported a text strings. It is a feature of GEDCOM to support text formats with the assume that the user had a good reason to want them in that format. So Gramps preserves that rather than implementing an uncontrolled auto-correct.
So, you could edit the GEDCOM with another tool. And addons in Gramps for desktops is one such tool.
You could even inspect the GEDCOM with any text editor. That will reassure you that the Exported data explicitly defines that the Event dates in question are text. (Those should be surounded in parentheses.) Standard dates will be in the format dd MMM yyyy or MMM yyyy or yyyy
Also, please remember that people answering questions are volunteering their time. As is David’s sharing the fruits of his labor. Please try to maintain a less indignant tone.
Your feedback is valuable @hcscherzer and I think GEDCOM import is a big pain point for many users switching genealogy systems (including Gramps Web), and I would put most of the blame for this on the GEDCOM standard itself. In fact, being based on a much more well defined and industry standard format (XML) which will be readable also in 50 years from now is one of the prime reasons why I like and trust Gramps (whether desktop or web) so much!
I agree that, ideally, Gramps Web should be usable on its own, with no need for using Gramps desktop. However, for the specific task of cleaning up a GEDCOM file, which typically includes manual work and iteration (import - modify GEDCOM with text editor - import again - etc.), I think a desktop program is much more suitable than a web app. So in this case, I see the existence of Gramps desktop, alongside Gramps Web, as a big plus, because users can utilize this tool to simplify the task of bringing an arbitrary GEDCOM into a clean structured data format that can be used with Gramps (Web or not). Once the XML file is successfully generated, it can be trivially imported in Gramps Web, and there is no need for the user to continue using Gramps desktop if they don’t want to.
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