The Master Genealogist

The Master Genealogist™

GedSite has excellent support for TMG project data when using the Direct Import option. I do not recommend using GedSite with GEDCOM files exported from TMG because those GEDCOM files do not include all the project data. The direct import option is a faster, more complete, and more convenient option.

The remainder of this document assumes that TMG users have chosen the direct import option.

Direct Import

GedSite will read a TMG project directly, so there is no need to export a GEDCOM file. In GedSite's Main Section or Database Section, click the [Choose Data File...] button and navigate to the folder that contains the ".PJC" file for your TMG project. That folder will also contain ".DBF" and other file types that TMG uses to store its data records. Open the ".PJC" file to load the TMG data via direct import.

Supported Features

When using GedSite with a direct import from TMG, the following TMG features are supported:

• Projects managed by TMG v9.04 or v9.05

  GedSite will not read projects edited by prior versions of TMG.

• Tag Types, including roles and sentences

  GedSite loads the language-specific sentences and role labels based on the current value of the Language.Sentence Language property.

  When using direct import, GedSite ignores the Database.Use Global Sentence and Database.Use Local Sentence properties. GedSite always uses the sentence templates read from the TMG project, both global and local.

• Dates and Sort Dates

  GedSite converts both dates and sort dates to its internal format, and that format supports all TMG date types except "?" dates. See the Dates section below for more information.

• Source types, elements, and templates
• Exhibits for people, events, sources, citations, and places, including support for Second Site-style image maps embedded in TMG exhibit descriptions
• Memo text that includes embedded variable references and printer codes such as [BOLD:]/[:BOLD], etc.
• Memo parts and Citation Detail parts

  For example, the TMG variable [M2] will have the value "part two" when the event memo is set to "part one || part two".

• Embedded citations in memo text via TMG's [CIT:]number;text[:CIT] codes.
• Standard and custom flags

  Flag values are imported into attribute values. You may include attribute value(s) in your site using the Person Entry Attribute item. You may also use attribute values to filter people using the Attribute filter term.

  The flag name and flag value are converted to the attribute name and attribute value.

  If your TMG project has a custom flag named "Reference", you must rename it before using GedSite. TMG includes a Reference field, and that value is stored as an attribute value. Duplicate attribute names will cause an error in GedSite.

• Second Site mapping codes:
  • [GEO-PLACE:]text[:GEO-PLACE]
    Converted to [gs-geo-place:text]
  • [:NO-PLACE-MAP-LINK:]
    Converted to [gs-geo-link:N]
  • [:PLACE-MAP-LINK:]
    Converted to [gs-geo-link:Y]
• HTML Character Escapes for Unicode Characters

  See the details below.

• Second Site exhibit codes:

  GedSite supports the following codes for Image Exhibits:

  [:SS-IGNORE:]
  [:SS-LINK:]
  [:SS-EMBED:]
  [:SS-EMBED-LEFT:]
  [:SS-EMBED-CENTER:]
  [:SS-EMBED-RIGHT:]

  For other exhibit types, GedSite supports:

  [:SS-IGNORE:]
  [:SS-LINK:]
  [:SS-EMBED:]

  For some Exhibit Types, [:SS-EMBED:] is ignored if the external file cannot be embedded on a page. [:SS-EMBED:] is treated as [:SS-LINK:] in that case.

  For more information, see the Second Site Exhibit Codes help page.

Unsupported Features

When using GedSite with a direct import from TMG, the following TMG features are not supported:

• GedSite does not support direct import from TMG projects managed by TMG versions less than v9.04.
• GedSite does not support embedded citation codes in exhibit captions or any location other than name and event memos.

Properties

GedSite has several properties in the Application-Specific > The Master Genealogist section that apply only to TMG.

• Include single-excluded data

  By default, GedSite omits data excluded by TMG's single-exclusion marker, a single hyphen (-) at the start of a text value. If you enable this checkbox, single-excluded data will be included.

• Include double-excluded data

  By default, GedSite omits data excluded by TMG's double-exclusion marker, two hyphens (--) at the start of a text value. If you enable this checkbox, double-excluded data will be included.

• Include excluded citations

  By default, GedSite omits excluded citations. Excluded citations are marked by a single hyphen (-) at the start of the source number in TMG's Citation window. If you enable this checkbox, excluded citations will be included.

Typically, you should leave these properties unchecked, especially for a site you intend to publish. However, if making a site for your own use only, you may want to include data that is excluded to support your research efforts.

Tag Sentence Continuations

When using GedSite with a direct import from TMG and an event sentence starts with TMG's "continuation" code [+], GedSite follows TMG's rules and will not add inter-sentence punctuation.

GedSite uses a strict interpretation of TMG's continuation rules:

• The output of the first event in the pair should not end with any sentence-ending punctuation such as "." or "!". The [+] on the second event prevents the addition of sentence-ending punctuation on the first event, but does not remove any punctuation supplied by the user.
• The sentence template for the second event in the pair must begin with [+] and must not be preceded by any spaces or other characters. Any spaces that follow the [+] will be included in the output, so it's usually best to omit them. It's common for the second event's template to begin with [+] followed by a comma.

Tag sentence continuations work for tags included in the Tag Set Body with the Narration Format. They also work in a Tag Set: Narrative Panel. In both cases, the two (or more) events involved must be in the same Tag Set.

Tag sentence continuations do not work when events are rendered in lists or multi-column tables. In those cases, an event is rendered in its own row, and it's not practical to combine two (or more) rows in order to support the continuation of text from one event to another.

Dates

Sorting

GedSite sorts partial "after" dates differently than TMG, as shown in the following table. For dates with a year only, "after" dates sort after the end of that year. For dates with a month and year, "after" dates sort after the end of that month. For more information about GedSite date sorting, see the Dates Section.

           1901
AFT        1901
       JAN 1901
AFT    JAN 1901
    01 JAN 1901
    31 JAN 1901
    31 DEC 1901
            

           1901
       JAN 1901
    01 JAN 1901
    31 JAN 1901
AFT    JAN 1901
    31 DEC 1901
AFT        1901
        

"?" Dates

"?" dates are regular dates that end with a single "?" character. GedSite does not show the "?" on output, but the "?" does influence tags that are sorted by date: "?" dates sort after the same date value without a "?".

Non-Primary Relationships

When People.Show Non-Primary Parents is unchecked, non-primary relationship tags are ignored. When People.Include Non-Primary Parents is checked, non-primary relationship tags are converted into links between the parent and the child. These links affect the contents of the Parent Section and the Family Sections.

When a non-primary relationship tag exists between a parent and a child, GedSite creates an entry in the Parent Section of the person entry of the child, and creates a single-parent family in the Family Section of the person entry of the parent.

If a parent has more than one non-primary relationship tag, the parent will have one single-parent family that includes all his or her non-primary children.

If a person has two alternate sets of parents, a TMG user will often add non-primary relationship tags for the alternate mother and alternate father. GedSite does not assume any relationship between the non-primary parents, i.e., it does not display a non-primary, two-parent family for the child. Each of the alternate parents will have a single-parent family in the Family Section.

Role Numbers ([RF:00002], etc.)

When using the Sentence Tester, or when reviewing GedSite's application log, you may notice that sentence templates imported from TMG use role numbers, not role names. So, for example, you would see "[R:00005]" in a template and not "[R:Son]". This is normal and does not indicate a problem.

Internally, TMG stores role numbers ("00005") in place of role labels ("Son") in sentences and memo fields. TMG hides the role number from you: when you edit a sentence, TMG replaces the role number with the label, and when you press OK, it looks for role labels in the sentence or memo and changes them to the role number.

TMG uses role numbers for several reasons. TMG supports multiple languages, and the role labels vary between languages, but the role numbers do not. So, in English you would use "[R:Son]", but in French you would use "[R:fils]". When TMG (or GedSite) is interpreting sentences to build narrative text, it sees the "[R:00005]" value and knows that refers to the Son/Fils role. Also, if you change the label for a role, TMG does not have to update any sentences or memo fields that refer to the role because the role number does not change when you change the role label.

You see the role numbers in the Sentence Tester and the Application.log file because GedSite does not hide the role numbers; it shows the actual sentence as it was read from the TMG database.

Application Codes

TMG uses the [HID:] and [:HID] codes to suppress text output. To allow TMG users to hide text from TMG, but include the text in GedSite output, GedSite implements the following codes. They are almost always used inside the [HID:] and [:HID] codes.

Default Sentence Languages

In TMG, internal language names are short text codes like "ENGLISH". In GedSite, languages are identified by culture codes. GedSite includes a table that associates a culture code to a TMG language name. The contents of that table are shown below.

Please note that GedSite does not automatically support TMG's built-in English variation "ENGLISH2". The Custom Sentence Languages section includes instructions for adding "ENGLISH2" as a Sentence Language. It is not necessary to add "ENGLISH2" as a Site Language because GedSite supports modification to all its languages.

HTML Character Escapes

TMG's database uses the Windows 1252 character set. That character set is limited to about 220 characters, includes all ASCII characters and some other letters used mainly in western European cultures, but does not include the thousands of characters supported by Unicode. To get around that limitation, some TMG users enter HTML character escapes to represent characters that are not included in Windows 1252.

When reading a TMG project, GedSite will convert HTML character escapes in name and place parts to their Unicode equivalents. This provides some support for Unicode in a TMG project, but there are several limitations and other considerations.

• GedSite supports numeric character references only. The text must match one of the following patterns:
  1. A decimal numeric character reference of the form &#NNN; where "NNN" is a decimal number, three to five digits. For example, "←", which is the Unicode character "Left Pointing Arrow", "←".
  2. A hexadecimal numeric character reference of the form &#xHHHH; where "HHHH" is a hexadecimal number, two to four hexadecimal digits (0 to 9 or A to F). For example, "←", which is the Unicode character "Left Pointing Arrow", "←".
• This technique is limited to 16-bit Unicode character codes. That should be adequate for most European cultures, but excludes some Asian cultures and many emoticons.
• As mentioned above, GedSite only converts HTML character escapes when they appear in name and place parts. HTML character escapes in other locations, such as event memos, will be passed-through as is. That will usually produce acceptable results. GedSite converts HTML character escapes in name and place parts to avoid issues with the Search User Item and the name and place indexes.

• GedSite does not perform Unicode normalization on TMG strings. Even if there are multiple ways of rendering the same character, GedSite leaves the character(s) encoded as they were specified using HTML character escapes in the TMG data.

• If you use HTML character escapes, and you also customize GedSite font choices, make sure you choose fonts that include glyphs for the characters you specify.

GedSite's support for HTML character escapes does not provide full-featured support for Unicode characters in TMG databases. Converting HTML character escapes to Unicode avoids some issues but does not solve all the challenges associated with the lack of Unicode support in TMG.

Custom Sentence Languages

The following information is intended for advanced users.

In TMG, users may define custom languages, and some users define custom languages to allow defining two (or more) sets of sentence templates. As mentioned above, TMG language names are short text codes like "ENGLISH". TMG users are free to invent text codes for custom sentence languages.

The TMG language name for a custom sentence language will be unknown to GedSite, however, you may add a tmg-languages.xml configuration file to assign a non-existent culture code to a TMG language name. For example, if you use TMG's built-in English variation "ENGLISH2", and if you have added a custom language name like "ALTERNATE", you would add a tmg-languages.xml file with this content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<cultures>
  <culture code="gs-01" name="ALTERNATE" />
  <culture code="gs-02" name="ENGLISH2" />
</cultures>

The tmg-languages.xml file should be created in the Documents\GedSite\Languages folder. You may add multiple entries, but increment the number in the culture code so that all the culture codes in the file are unique.