Re: A couple of errors (was Re: timelines from GEDCOM files)

Ah, Timeline.html.. the light dawns.  Yes, how simple it is, once the critical pieces of info come together.

Ok, I have spent more time with it, and can offer some feedback.  I hope it's not more than is desired, but here goes...

(1)  I simply cannot make the "-everyone" tag work.  No matter what size the Gedcom file, it blows up with the error:

Can't call method "name" on an undefined value at C:/Perl/site/lib/HTML/Timeline.pm line 280, <GEN0> line 22085.

The part <GEN0> line nnnnn changes as I change the size of the file, but it still blows up.  So much for my theory that my large file was at fault.
 
(2) I simply cannot get -ancestors to work.  If I specify a root name at the end of the timeline, i.e. me, and run with the -ancestors tag, it appears to work.  But when I load the html I get a dialog that says "Javascript application
Caught Exception: TypeError: v1 has no properties"

If I look at the output file, there is no data. No entries for the timeline scale.

(3) If I specify a name near the middle of the file and let it default, it gives a beautiful display.  i.e. I can specify my grandfather, and get good results for all generations from him to my grandson.  However, even then, I have nits to pick.

(3a) Lack of a horizontal slider. Makes it difficult to see the whole display.  In some cases, one simply cannot expand the window enough.

(3b) I am not yet sure, but it seems as if duplicate names are a problem.  If I specify a root name where more than one person has that name, even if one is Jr. and the other is Sr. it fails as in #2.  If names are identical, that's one thing.  But it should handle suffixes, I would think.  But for identical names, perhaps an additional qualifier, such as birth date, etc, might be a good solution.

(3c) Related to 3A, the beginning of the timeline does not start with the oldest entry in the tree, i.e. The root person, in my examples.  Instead the left-most date seems to be derived from the oldest date in the Gedcom.  Sort of understandable I guess, as I might presume the scale is laid out before the entities are placed upon it.  But it would be nice to truncate the blank space to the left of the first entry.

(3d) Similarly, for entries placed on the right edge of the scale, i.e. my Granddaughter's birth in April 2008, the right scale stops at 2010.  Fine, except that the text denoting the items placed in 2008 is cut off.  A bit more smarts in placing labels would be welcome.

(3e) Even in the case of unique names, I get the same failure as #2 for some names as root person, without obvious reason.

All these points aside, I really must congratulate you on a good job, even if still a work in progress.  But then all software is a work in progress, isn't it...

This will be a nicely useful tool for those searching genealogy.

If you would like to use my sample data for testing/debugging purposes, let me know and I will happily forward my gedcom file.

Best regards,
Nathan Gregory


--- On Thu, 8/14/08, Philip Durbin <[email protected]> wrote:

> From: Philip Durbin <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: A couple of errors (was Re: timelines from GEDCOM files)
> To: "List - Perl Gedcom" <[email protected]>
> Date: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 3:12 PM
> > I'm kinda new to this, but so far it is not obvious
> to me how to get
> > the output displayed in a timeline format...  I trust
> it will become
> > clear in the fullness of time.
> 
> After running timeline.pl you should get a file called
> timeline.xml, 
> which will be referenced by timeline.html if they're
> both in the same 
> directory.
> 
> An example timeline.html is included in the HTML::Timeline
> distribution:
> http://search.cpan.org/src/RSAVAGE/HTML-Timeline-1.01/examples/timeline.html
> 
> I hope this helps,
> 
> Phil