In our current data model, and GEDCON import, data blocks are ignored, and the text referenced by @DaveSchweisguth is part of the data block, that can be found in sources and citations. The contents of these data blocks can be found in GEDCOM import notes, and these blocks are quite rare. I found these GEDCOM import notes when two fellow Dutchmen complained about imports from GensDataPro. I have never found these data blocks in GEDCOM files exported by the big American programs.
The definitions of these data blocks are a bit messy. For sources they are:
+1 DATA {0:1}
+2 EVEN <EVENTS_RECORDED> {0:M} p.50
+3 DATE <DATE_PERIOD> {0:1} p.46
+3 PLAC <SOURCE_JURISDICTION_PLACE> {0:1} p.62
+2 AGNC <RESPONSIBLE_AGENCY> {0:1} p.60
+2 <<NOTE_STRUCTURE>> {0:M} p.3
And for citations:
+1 DATA {0:1}
+2 DATE <ENTRY_RECORDING_DATE> {0:1} p.48
+2 TEXT <TEXT_FROM_SOURCE> {0:M} p.63
+3 [CONC|CONT] <TEXT_FROM_SOURCE> {0:M}
And as you can see, in the citation, the text is called text, and in the source it’s a note structure. And in the citation, they can be accompanied by a date, and in the source by a date and a place, embedded in an event block. And all these extra’s don’t exist in our source and citation objects.
If you look further, in GEDCOM 5.5.1, you will notice that the source has a text and a note structure, where the text is supposed to be the text from the source, and the note is just that, a note, whatever that may be. Is that a research note? The standard allows 1 text, and multiple notes. And in the citation, you can have multiple notes, but no text. And here I mean at the top level, not inside the data block. And in the data block of the citation, you can multiple texts, where you can have only one at the top level of the source, but that one allows for multiple notes, to compensate …
Texts and notes outside the data blocks are imported by Gramps, as notes, probably with different types, but notes anyway. And that’s good, because both can have multiple lines, so they don’t fit well in a field, entry wise.
In theory part of the fields that exist in the data block can be stored in attributes, and one can say that the Forms Gramplet does just that, and more, because attributes can have sources. Data blocks are so rare however, that I don’t see much reason to import those, except for the ones found in exports from GensDataPro.
At the same time, I do understand the idea that it’s quite cumbersome that you need to open a new window to enter or view a source text (or note). But at the same time, if you follow the standard, one text field is not enough for a citation, because that can have multiple notes, and multiple texts too, if we’d support data.
Long story short: If we ignore data blocks, because they’re rare, I think that we can still think about ways to make source/citation data entry a bit easier.
