TextPlus Charts pre-TNGv13
This article applies to all versions of TextPlus Charts in TNGv10, TNGv11, and TNGv12, up through mod version 12.0.0.16d. |
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Note:Version 16d comes with extensive Revision Notes, including visualizations of significant recent changes
TextPlus Charts (pre-TNGv13) | ||
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Summary | Implements two new charts: Text+ Descendant Chart, and Text+ Ancestor Chart. | |
Validation | ||
Mod Updated | 26 Dec 2019 | |
Download link | v12.0.0.16d
Czech, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish see Language Strings textplus_charts_languages_v12.0.0.16.zip
See the Revision History for older versions | |
Download stats | ||
Author(s) | Robin Richmond with translations by Ken Roy, Henny Savenije, Hendrik Martius, Bernard Wortelboer, Ron Krzmarzick, and Kåre Kjøllesdal. | |
Homepage | this page | |
Mod Support | My Mod Support form or TNG Community Forums | |
Contact Developer | My Mod Support form | |
Latest Mod | 12.0.0.16d | |
Min TNG V | 12.0 | |
Max TNG V | 12.2 | |
Files modified | Updates admin_pedconfig.php, admin_updatepedconfig.php, Descendant charts (descend.php, descendtext.php, desctracker.php, register.php), May Install rrshared_innermodmenu3.php, rrshared_modsettingsblocks3.php, rrshared_wikilogo.gif | |
Related Mods | ||
Notes | Some language strings have not yet been translated. See #Language_Strings |
Purpose of the Mod
To define two new charts - the Text+ Ancestor Chart, and the Text+ Descendant Chart. Both charts follow a text format (basically an outline layout) but draw lines between parents and children. Links to these charts placed on the TNG "Inner Menu" (the link menu just below the TNG Tab Bar) on the Person Profile and on Pedigree and Descendant chart pages, which contains the native links to the various types of Ancestor and Descendant charts.
Features of the Text+ Charts
- The Text+ Descendant Chart is very similar to TNG's Text Descendant Chart, but has several additional features.
- The Text+ Pedigree Chart serves the same purpose as TNG's Text Ancestor Chart, but does not use the standard 4-generations-per-page Pedigree format. It can display at least 15 or so generations in one chart that is one page wide and several pages long. It also has some of the same 'additional features' as the Text plus Descendant Chart.
Both charts:
- Draw lines to connect people with their children.
- Display places of birth and death instead of just dates.
- Display charts display alternate birth date and/or place (i.e. christening date/place) when the birth date and/or place is missing.
- Display burial date and/or place when the death date and/or place is missing. (When the "location" component of a burial placeplace contains the word "Cemetery", the entire Cemetery name is removed from the placename.)
- Display the last known place of residence and the date of that residence event for people who are living (if security contraints allow it).
- Can display ALL of a person's descendants or ancestors rather than a specific number of generations,
- Display a summary at the bottom of the chart,
- Have mod options that control where, whether, and how to present dates, placenames, age, and marriage data.
- Have run-time options that control the size and spacing of the charts. Some parameters are available in the main window, and some parameters are available only in the Format for Printing window.
- Have run-time options that affect the information to be displayed in the chart. (See Mod Options below.
- Allow the user to save the size and spacing parameters to a cookie for use by subsequent charts.
Mod Options
This mod has several types of options, including
- Several configuration variables at Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings.
- New choices for native selection box options Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings
- Run-time options in the TextPlus Chart programs that affect charts dynamically
- Persistent cookies that retain some of the run-time option settings.
- Mod Parameters - strictly for a utility program that may no longer be useful.
Config Variables
There are about 10 settings (depending on how you count them) in the options form at Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings
- The initial Page Width setting for the "main" TNG window. There is no cookie or other setting to override this setting.
- The initial Page Width setting for the "Format for Printing" window. The print-formatting cookie that can be saved from the Format for Printing window overrides this value.
- Whether to display (1)full dates or (2)year only. There is no option to omit dates entirely.
- Whether to display Placenames.
- Whether to use the conventional format when the birthdate and deathdeate are the same or a compact format where the placename is displayed only once: Paris France;5 Oct 1830 - Aug 1887.
- Whether to display the person's age.
- Whether to show marriage data.
- Assuming that marriage data is to be shown, whether to display marriage data in the Text+ Ancestor chart (1) once, with the child, (2) Twice; once with each parent, or (3) not at all.
- Whether to show a floating footer (which stays at the bottom of the screen) in the Descendant and/or Ancestor charts.
Option Choices
This mod adds selection box options to two native fields in the options form at Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings:
- The option to select "Text+" has been added to the "Initial Display" field in the "Pedigree Chart" subform.
- Similarly, the option to select "Text+" has been added to the "Initial Display" field in the "Descendancy Chart" subform,
Run-time Options
These options are presented by the two Text+ Chart programs (in the "main" page), to change the charts dynamically, at, well, at run-time. The run-time options are illustrated and described in the Visualizations below, and are described with additional detail in the Text+ Charts help file.
Persistent Cookies
All users (not just Admins, and not just users with accounts) can save their preferred Text+ Print Formatting options (indentation, font size, page width, etc.) for use in subsequent charts. There are separate cookies for the Text+ Ancestor and Descendant charts.
Mod Parameters
The TextPlus Charts mod comes with an 'Inner Menu Utility' that can be useful on sites where the Inner Menu gets crowded with links by the installation of several mods that add Inner Menu Links. Two classic Mod Parameters support that utility.
Other Mods
Conflicts
No known conflicts with published mods. However, there is a conflict with older versions of an Add New Items mod that was written by Ian Fettes.
Coordination
Some mods that install new chart programs do not coordinate their Inner Menu links with the TextPlus Charts mod. This lack of coordinations is not a conflict, but the consequence is that
- The Inner Menu of some mod-installed chart programs may not contain links to the Text+ Charts, and
- The Inner Menu of the Text+ Chart programs may not contain links to some mod-installed chart programs.
For instance, the Ancestor map mod installs a link labeled "Map" to the Inner Menu of the various native TNG Pedigree charts. But even if the TextPlus mod has already added the "Text+" link to those programs, the new Ancestor Map program does not link to the Text+ Ancestor Chart.
But the Text+ Ancestor chart program does check for the presence of the Ancestor Map program (mappedigree.php), and installs the "Map" link if the program is present.
Much the same is true of the Male Female and Parent Lines mod.
Related Mods
Count Descendants
If you want to use both Count Descendants and TextPlus Charts, you should install Count Descendants v9+ and TextPlus Charts v15+
This mod coordinates with Count Descendants v9+ in two distinct ways.
- The Descendant Chart program's Inner Menu:
- The Text+ Descendancy Chart program installed by this mod contains a link to the Count Descendants chart that is visible only if [Count Descendants]] is installed.
- Similarly, the Count Descendants Chart installed by Count Descendants contains a link to the The Text+ Descendant Chart that is visible only if TextPlus Charts is installed.
- The Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings form
- Both mods add
- (1) An option to the "Initial Display" selection box in the "Descendancy Chart" section of the Chart Settings form, and
- (2) A help link next to that selection box
- The two mods coordinate over that help link in two ways:
- Both mods insert nearly-identical Javascript (document).ready functions that install the help link only if the other (document).ready function installed by the other mod has not already created the link, and
- Both mods add text to the Chart Settings help file describing the choice(s) they add to the Chart Settings form.
Show Mod Names
Like almost all of my mods, the code installed by TextPlus Charts collects information that can be used by Show Mod Names, but only if Show Mod Names is installed. TextPlus Charts is not dependent on Show Mod Names.
Installation
Languages
Language strings for Czech, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, and Spanish can be installed from textplus_charts_languages_v12.0.0.16.zip. See Language Strings for more information about the translations.
Files Installed
The Text Plus Charts zip file has two mod subfolders:
- text_plus_charts_v12.0.0.16a - The subfolder that you expect to exist for any mod that installs files. It contains
- rrtextplus_descend.php - The TextPlus Descendand Chart
- rrtextplus_ancestor.php - The TextPlus Ancestor Chart
- rrtextplus_lib.php - A PHP function library used by both Text+ Chart programs
- rrtextplus_tracker_ajx.php - An Ajax program that generates the new "Locate In Chart" popup
- rrtextplus_innermenuedit.php - A standalone PHP program to remove or restore the old "Text" chart link in the Inner Menu of Ancestor and Descendant Chart programs. (See Inner Menu Utility)
- rrtextplus_help.php - A Help file in the English Languages folder
- js/rrtextplus_lib.js - A standalone Javascript library
- css/rrtextplus.css - A standalone CSS stylesheet. The stylesheet is not in genstyle.css because
- There are already too many styles in genstyle.css that are seen by too many programs that don't need them, and
- Well, I finally realized that I was using too many classnames and id's that weren't sufficiently distinct for me to be confident that they would not collide with other mods.
- img/rrtextplus_plus.gif - A white-on-black plus sign icon used in the TextPlus Descendant Chart as an icon for tree branches that have been compressed.
- img/rrtextplus_locate - A spyglass icon used in the TextPlus Descendant Chart to launch the 'Locate In Chart' popup.
- And at least eight screenshot files used by the TextPlus help file; all in the folder Languages/English/textplus
- The shared folder RR-shared_mod_includes_v12.0.0.3, which contains files that help to manage mod options in many of my mods. The files used by this mod are:
- rrshared_innermodmenu3.php - Inner Mod Menus
- (In the two TextPlus Charts programs, the Inner Mod Menu is visible only to TNG Admins, not to end-users.)
- rrshared_modsettingsblocks3.php - Mod Settings Blocks
- (This mod's options are at Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings, not Admin>>Setup>>General Settings>>Robin's Mods.)
- img/rrshared_wikilogo.gif - An icon that links to a mod's TNG Wiki page from an Inner Mod Menu or Mod Settings Block
- rrshared_innermodmenu3.php - Inner Mod Menus
Each mod that contains the shared folder may install some or all of its shared files, depending on whether those files already exist, and whether that mod needs that particular file. Once a file from the shared folder has been installed (by any mod), that file will not be overwritten or removed by the subsequent installation or un-installation of any mod (including this one), nor will its presence or absence generate any Mod Manager errors.
If you unzip mod distribution files directly into your mods folder, then the presence of the shared subfolder and the installation of its files should be invisible to you. But if you generally copy mod subfolders to your mods folder after you have unzipped the distribution file, then you need to make sure to copy the folder RR-shared_mod_includes_v12.0.0.3 (well, unless you are confident that it is already in your mods folder because it was part of another mod).
[Show Installation Details]
Requirements
- A working TNG installation.
- An installed current version of the Mod Manager.
- You should backup files listed in the panel on the right.
Procedure
- Remove and delete previous version of this mod.
- Backup the files updated by this mod. They are listed in the panel at the upper right.
- Download the .zip file, Extract its .cfg file to the mods folder.
- Follow the normal automated installation for Mod Manager, as shown in the example Mod Manager - Installing Config Files.
Problems?
- Try using the Mod Manager Remove capability
- Contact me through My Mod Support form.
Visualizations
- These visualizations describe the Text+ Charts "from scratch". For visualizations of the most recent changes, see the Revision History.
- Some of these visualizations are marked up and annotated more thoroughly in the Text+ Charts help file, which can be found on the mod author's TNG site
1. Text+ Descendant Chart |
Overview of differences between the native Text Descendant Chart and the Text+ Descendant chart.
[See details]
[Hide details ]
[Close Text+ Descendant Chart Details]
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2. Text+ Descendant Chart in the Format for Printing window |
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3. Text+ Ancestor Chart |
The Text+ Ancestor Chart uses what might be called a "double outline" format in which:
In many ways, this layout is more like an outline-formatted Descendancy Chart(such as the Text+ Descendant Chart) than standard Pedigree Charts (or the TNG variants), which
As a result (especially when they contain more than 4 or 5 generations), Text+ Ancestor Charts have less whitespace than comparable Pedigree Charts and are much narrower and thus much easier to print, but tend to be a good bit longer. On the second line of the Text+ Ancestor Chart Inner Menu
As with the Text+ Descendant chart, the line wrapping is done by the program, not by the web browser. |
4. Full Text+ Chart Examples (from version 15 of the mod) saved as PDFs
These charts do not all use the same chart settings or browser settings. And, of course, the size and shape of charts depends heavily on your data. That's generally not so true with classic Ancestor charts, but is definitely true with the Text+ Ancestor Chart.
(Note: In the Ancestor Chart PDFs, some of the lines and text colored. I do not know why. The coloring seems to be an artifact of some browsers, at certain zoom levels.) |
5. Mod settings for the Initial Ancestor (e.g.Pedigree) and Descendant charts, at Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings |
This mod adds a "Text+" option to the "Initial Display" selection in both the "Pedigree Chart" and "Descendant Chart" sections of the options form. These options allow you to define the Text+ charts as your default Pedigree and/or Descendant charts. |
6. Text+ settings in a Mod Settings Block at Admin>>Setup>>Chart Settings |
These options should be fairly self-explanatory, but it is worth noting that
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7. Margins and Line Wrapping
Because the Text+ charts draw vertical lines connecting the parents and children, they cannot adjust the chart's left margin as generations are indented. In these charts, long lines of text that bump up against the browser window's right margin wrap all the way to the left margin, like this: |
Thus, the Text+ Chart programs have to do their own wrapping. To wrap lines effectively, the programs need to know a target page width, which is supplied by an selection box on the Text+ Chart screen, in which the options are options "Mobile", "Portait", "Landscape", or "Legal" (meaning landscape orientation on legal paper.
With the appropriate settings, the chart excerpt above could look like this: |
where the red underline show where the program wrapped the data lines. Note that the lines were wrapped at logical breaks in the data. |
8. Formatting for Printing
In the main TNG page, users can supply a page width and/or adjust the browser width to correct chart wrapping, But when the goal is to produce a chart that looks good on paper, more options are need, so the Text+ Charts' Format for Printing page supplies 5 options: |
The buttons at the right manage a persistent cookie that saves settings from one session to another. The printer formatting options are:
Significantly, because of the inaccuracy of the wrapping algorithm, printing a chart with good margins can take a few cycles of looking at print previews in the web browser, and adjusting the fudge factor to assure that lines are
(Note that print previews should be sufficient; you shouldn't have to generate trial printouts.) |
Language Strings
This mod defines numerous language strings, and Czech, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, and Spanish translations. However, in the current release of the language .cfg file, not all of the new strings have been translated, and some are not even included. The missing strings will just be displayed in English.
(FWIW, based on my own experiences, and on strong feedback from native speakers of other languages, I am insufficiently confident of Google translate to use it even for initial versions of the language strings.)
I am, of course, open to offers to update the translations or profile new languages. FWIW, I am working on a new program that is intended to help implement translations by placing the English and other language strings next to each other in two columns on the screen.
Avoiding Line-wrapping
The Text+ charts use unconventional presentations of dates and placenames to reduce the number of characters required to display a person's data, and thus to reduce the amount of line-wrapping required to print a chart:
- "Unknown" is displayed as "??", and, in some cases, omitted.
- If an individual was born and died in the same place, the placename is displayed only once followed by a semicolon and the birth and death dates, e.g.
Cleveland, Bradley, Tennessee, USA;15 Nov 1815 - 04 Jan 1887
. - When both the date and place are unknown, nothing is printed (well, except when it is known that a person has died, in which case "??" is displayed).
- I also use an unpublished mod to create shorter versions of USA place names (e.g. "Cleveland, Cuyahoga, OH" for "Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA". At present, this scheme depends on four(!?!) other published mods: Gedcom Converter, Placename Format, Placesearch-More Info, and Burials-More Details. If you're interested in using short place names, let me know, and I'll share the mod with you.
Inner Menu Utility
If you install the TextPlus Charts mod and other mods that place links on the Ancestors or Descendants Inner Menus, those Inner Menus can become awkwardly long. Since there is some overlap between the native Text charts and the corresponding Text+ charts, some TNG admins have requested a way to suppress the native "Text" links in the innermenus. This mod installs a utility program that does exactly that in selected chart program. The is invoked only through a link in the TextPlus Charts mod description in Mod Manager. Be aware, however, that
- The native Text Ancestor chart is very different in appearance from the Text+ Ancestor, so you may want to keep both links in place.
- The native Text Descendant chart has a new ancestor-tracking feature that is not found in the Text+ Descendant chart. Specifically, in front of a each descendant's name, the native Text Ancestor chart now displays the child numbers of all of that descendant's ancestors. (That is, it could indicate that the current person is the first child of the 3rd child of the 2nd child, etc.)
Revision History
Mod Version | TNG Versions | Date | Note |
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v12.0.0.16d | 12.0-12.2 | 26Dec2019 |
Visualizations of Significant Recent Changes [Show Details]
Visualizations of Significant Recent Changes
[Hide Details]
[Hide visualizations of recent changes]
Revision Notes [Show Details]
Revision Notes
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These revision notes cover mod version 6d and the short-lived version 6c
[Hide revision notes]
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v12.0.0.16beta4 | 12.0-12.1+ | 13 Sep 2019 | Changes to mod options; new dynamic Descendant Chart features; a new Ancestry Chart formatting option.
Still needed: Translations of new language strings, help file updates, and updates to this Wiki article.
[Show Details]
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Changes to both Chart Programs
In the TextPlus Descendant Chart
In the TextPlus DescendantChart More Subtle Changes
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v12.0.0.15e Czech, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish: languages_v12.0.0.15e |
12.0-12.0.2+ | 22 Nov 2018 | No structural changes to the charts themselves.
[Show Details]
[Hide details]
In the TextPlus Ancestor Chart
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v12.0.0.15d Czech, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish: UTF-8: utf_v12.0.0.15b ISO: iso_v12.0.0.15b |
12.0-12.0.2+ | 10 Nov 2018 | No structural changes to the charts.
[Show Details]
[Hide details]
Changed the values of the generations parameter that the TextPlus chart programs pass to other chart programs in their InnerMenu. Basically, the generations parameter used by the TextPlus charts was sometimes too large for some of the other charts.
[Hide details] |
v12.0.0.15b Czech, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish: UTF-8: utf_v12.0.0.15b ISO: iso_v12.0.0.15b |
12.0-12.0.2+ | 10 Nov 2018 |
Mod Manager mod list (not through the Admin Chart Settings)
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v10.1.0.13b French, Dutch, German, Norwegian: utf8_v10.1.0.13, iso_v10.0.1.13 |
10.1.0 - 11.0.1.2+ | 5 Dec 2017 | The only meaningful functional enhancement is that, in the Descendant Text+ Chart, the counts in the summary at the bottom of the chart change as you collapse and expand tree branches.
[Show Details]
[Hide details]
User interface changes:
Also:
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10.1.0.12 | 10.1.2 - 11.0.1 | 15 Jun 2016 | Added the system parameter that suppresses the link to the plain text charts, and the mod and its install programs now coordinate with the Ancestor Map and the Fan Chart. French, Dutch, German, Norwegian UTF-8 translations:
10.1.0.12.zip |
11.0.0.11 | 10.0.2 - 10.0.3 | 17 Feb 2016 |
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10.1.0.10b & 10.0.2.10b | 10.0.2 - 10.1.2 | 6 Sep 2015 | Added annotation to make the Chart Formatting Form and help text easier to find and use, especially on the pretty-print page. Also fixed a bug that prevented non-English language installations from saving printer formatting settings to a cookie. |
languages 10.0.2.8b | 10.0.2 - 10.1.1 | 27 May 2015 | New German translations. |
10.0.2.10 & 10.1.0.10 | 10.0.2 - 10.1.1 | 25 May 2015 |
[Show Details]
[Hide details]
In the config file:
In descendtextplus.php and pedigreetextplus.php:
In descendtextplus.php:
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10.0.2.9 & 10.1.0.9 | 10.0.2 - 10.1.1 | 12 Apr 2015 | Displays christening data if birth data is missing, and burial data if death data is missing. |
10.0.2.8 & 10.1.0.8 | 10.0.2 - 10.1 | 3 Feb 2015 |
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10.1.0.7 | 10.1 | 12 Jan 2015 | Updated database function calls for TNG v10.1 compatibility. |
10.0.2.7 | 10.0.2-10.0.3 | 10 Jan 2015 | Moves the printer-configuration form to the "Pretty-Print" page so that users can view charts without having to fuss with the printer configuration settings. |
10.0.2.6 | 10.0.2 | 12 Aug 2014 | First production release |
Sites using this mod
If you download and install this mod, please add your site to the table below.
URL | User | Note | Mod-Version | TNG-Version | User-language |
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Families all over the world | Hans Weebers | Public/Private | 10.1.0.13 | 12.0.1 | NL,EN,DE,FR |
Genealogy of the van Heerden Family | Emile van Heerden | Private site | 12.0.0.16beta3 | 12.1 | EN |
An example in Robin Richmond's Genealogy Database | Robin Richmond | Mod developer | 12.0.0.16 | 12.2 | EN |
Van der Maarel Genealogy | Edward van der Maarel | 12.0.0.15d | 12.0.2 | EN,NL | |
Mitchell Families Online | Roger Mitchell | Another great tool for visitors, very well implemented! | 10.1.0.8 | 10.1.0 | EN |
Turner mob | Margaret Grogan Turner | Another great tool for visitors, thanks! | 10.0.2.6 | 10.0.3 | EN |
Hooley Family Links | Rick Hooley | Public/Private Site | See Here | See Here | EN |
Wortelboer Genealogy | Bernard Wortelboer | Public site | 10.1.0.10b | 11.0.0 | NL,EN |
Solem | Jan-Thore Solem | Not public | 10.1.0.7 | 10.1.0 | NO |
Moss family tree | Chris Moss | Best text-based display. Public. | 10.1.0.12a | 11.1.2 | EN,DE,FR |
Brady Family Tree in Western Australia | Darryl Brady | Public site | 10.1.0.12 | 11.0.1 | EN,DE |
Our Family Links | Chuck Filteau | Public site, modified Template 12 | 10.1.0.12 | 10.1.2 | EN |
Racine d'Alsace | J-Louis Valory | Public/Private - T17 customized | 12.0.0.16d | 12.3 | FR |
Journeys in Genealogy | Patrick Thrush | Public WordPress/TNG bundle | 12.0.0.15e | 12.0.3 | EN |
Our Family Histories | Bryan S. Larson | See Here | See Here | EN | |
Familienforschung SCABELL | Helga Scabell | Public/Private | 10.1.0.2 | 12.1 | DE,EN,PT |
Kleinmann Genealogy | John Kleinmann | Public/Private | 12.0.0.16d | 12.3 | EN |
Our Acadian Family | Randal Suire | Public/Private Media (Very Useful) | 12.0.0.15e | 12.0.3 | EN,FR |
- Mods for TNG v12
- Mods for TNG v11
- Mods for TNG v10
- Cust text.php English mods
- Admin pedconfig.php mods
- Admin updatepedconfig.php mods
- Pedconfig help.php mods
- Descend.php mods
- Descendtext.php mods
- Desctracker.php mods
- Register.php mods
- Pedigree.php mods
- Pedigreetext.php mods
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- Ahnentafel.php mods
- Extrastree.php mods
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