TextPlus Charts
Version 16 of this mod is in beta testing. Most of the text of the article has been updated to reflect changes made by v16, though some visualizations are from older versions of the mod. There is a complete set of revision notes in the this article's Revision History. |
The latest version of this mod uses the guidelines for TNG v12+ cust_text.php files. If you are using TNGv12+, and any cust_text.php file in this mod is marked with a Bad Target error, you need to update your cust_text.php files before you can install this mod. [Show instructions]
If you upgraded to TNGv12+, and did not update your cust_text.php files as instructed in the upgrade readme script, then you must use the TNG Mod Manager to update them. To do so:
[See details in the TNGv12 Change Impacts Article][Hide the instructions] |
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TextPlus Charts | |||
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Summary | Implements two new charts: Text+ Descendant Chart, and Text+ Ancestor Chart. | ||
Validation | |||
Mod Updated | 30 Aug 2019 | ||
Download link | v12.0.0.16beta3
v12.0.0.15e
Czech, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish: languages_v12.0.0.15e
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Download stats | |||
Author(s) | Robin Richmond with translations by Ken Roy, Henny Savenije, Hendrik Martius, Bernard Wortelboer, Ron Krzmarzick, and Kåre Kjøllesdal. | ||
Homepage | TextPlus Charts (This Page) | ||
Mod Support | My Mod Support form or TNG Community Forums | ||
Contact Developer | My Mod Support form | ||
Latest Mod | 12.0.0.16beta3 | ||
Min TNG V | 12.0 | ||
Max TNG V | 12.1.0+ | ||
Files modified | Updates admin_pedconfig.php, Descendant charts (descend.php, descendtext.php, desctracker.php, register.php), Pedigree charts (pedigree.php, pedigreetext.php, verticalchart.php, ahnentafel.php, extrastree.php), tngrobots.php, cust_text.php (English, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian), css/genstyle.css Installs: rrtextplus_descend.php, rrtextplus_ancestor.php, rrtextplus_lib.php, rrtextplus_innermenuedit.php, js/rrtextplus_lib.js, img/rrtextplus_dchart.gif, img/rrtextplus_plus.gif, English textplus_help.php, Czech, English, French, Dutch, German, Norwegian, and Spanish cust_text.php. Several images are installed in folder Languages/English/TextPlus. | ||
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, wheter, 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 Settings below.
- Allow the user to save the size and spacing parameters to a cookie for use by subsequent charts.
Mod Settings
Admin>>Setup
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,
Mod version 16 introduced several mod settings in the options form at 'Admin>>Setup>>General Settings, in a new subform titled Robin's Mods'.
- 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.
- The initial Page Width setting for the "main" TNG window. There is no cookie or other setting to override this setting.
- Whether to display (1)full dates, (2)year only, or (3)no dates.
- Whether to display Placenames.
- Whether to use an abbreviated date/place format for people who were born and who died in the same place. That format is (placename; birthdate - deathdate).
- Whether to display the person's age.
- Where 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.
Run-time Options
These options are presented in the Inner Menu of the two Text+ Chart programs (in the "main" page), and in new forms at the top of the Format for Printing page.
- Print Formatting - Text+ charts cannot depend on the web browser to wrap long lines at the right margin. (To learn why, see Margins and Line-Wrapping below.) As a result, both Text+ chart programs depend on run-time options to control the width of the Text+ charts. The formatting options are:
- Indentation level (number of spaces per generation)
- Font size
- Line height (%) - A value such as 90% should connect the vertical line characters when a chart is printed.
- Page width (Mobile, Portrait, Landscape), and
- A fudge factor that allow more or fewer characters to be on a line before it is wrapped.
- Chart content controls:
- TextPlus Ancestor Chart:
- Number of generations to show,
- Show siblings,
- Show Generation numbers, Show sibling numbers,
- Highlight names in a selected generation, and
- Use a more compact display format (That is, remove some blank links that improve readability, but that make the chart longer.)
- TextPlus Descendant Chart:
- Number of generations to show,
- Hide data for living and private people (even if you are an administrator),
- Hide their descendants,
- Show Generation numbers, Show sibling numbers,
- TextPlus Ancestor Chart:
The run-time options are illustrated in the Visualizations below, and are described some in 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, fudge factor) for use in subsequent charts. There are separate cookies for the Text+ Ancestor and Descendant charts.
Mod Parameters
The utility that can remove the "Text" links from the Inner Menu of various chart programs is controlled by several "mod parameters", which are defined and modified within Mod Manager. These options control whether the "Text" link is to be removed from the Inner Menu of specific programs.
Compatibility
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 with other Mods
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 program, the new Ancestor Map program does not link to the Text+ Ancestor Chart.
On the other hand, the Text+ Ancestor chart program checks 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+ Descendancy 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
- This mod shares a mod subfolder and two installed files with other mods. As a result, if you have installed other mods with this shared subfolder, then, when you are unzipping or copying this mod, you may get a warning noting that a folder already exists. You can ignore that warning.
- There is a separate mod zip file (TextPlus Charts Languages) for translated strings in languages other than English. That mod must be downloaded (from this Wiki article) and installed separately.
Beyond these considerations, the standard mod installation process applies. [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
Some of the screen clips shown here are annotated more thoroughly (with additional screen clips) in the Text+ Charts help file, which can be found on the mod author's TNG site]
1. Text+ Descendant Chart from v16 of the mod |
Overview of differences between the native Text Descendant Chart and the Text+ Descendant chart.
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2. Text+ Descendant Chart (from version 15) in the Format for Printing window |
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3. Text+ Ancestor Chart from version 15 |
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 Chart (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
(Note: In the Ancestor Chart PDFs, some of the vertical lines are colored. I do not know why, except that the coloring seems to an artifact of some browsers, at certain zoom levels.) |
5. Initial Chart setup 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+ Setup at Admin>>Setup>>General Settings>>Robin's Mods |
Note that
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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.)
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: cannot allow long lines of data to wrap at the right margin of the browser window or printed page. Long lines that are wrapped by the browser wrap wAs a result, the user has to supply the Text+ chart programs with a target page width width and the font size so that they can wrap lines of data at the appropriate point.
As a result, the Text+ chart programs contain a form that specifies printing options. One printing option (the "Page Width") is visible in the main program window. Other parameters that deal with font size and page width are visible only in the 'Format for Printing' window. Those parameters are described in detail in the Text+ Charts help file.
It is significant to note that the algorithm used by Text+ programs is not perfect, so one of the print-formatting options is a fudge factor (just labeled +/-) that can be used to adjust the page width when the algorithm misses its mark. Because of this innacuracy, printing a report with an ideal right margin can take a few cycles of looking at print previews in the web browser, and adjusting the fudge factor to assure that lines are
- not so long that the web browser wraps them all the ways to the left margin, and
- not so short that they leave too large a right margin.
Reducing Line-wrapping
The Text+ charts use non-standard 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, e.g.
Cleveland, Bradley, Tennessee, USA;15 Nov 1815 - 04 Jan 1887
. - When both the date and place are unknown, nothing is printed.
- 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, the native Text Ancestor chart now displays the child number of each ancestor. (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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v12.0.0.16beta2 | 12.0-12.1+ | 29Aug2019 | 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]
[Hide details]
General Changes
In the TextPlus Descendant Chart
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+ | 22Nov2018 | No structural changes to the charts themselves.
[Show Details]
[Hide details]
In the TextPlus Ancestor Chart
[Hide details]
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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]
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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 translations:
utf8_v10.1.0.13
French, Dutch, German, Norwegian non-UTF translations: iso_v10.0.1.13
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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 download | 10.0.2 - 10.0.3 | 17 Feb 2016 |
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Languages 10.0.2.10b | 10.0.2 - 10.1.2 | 14 Sep 2015 | Modified a few German, Dutch, and Norwegian strings that Google Translator messed up. UTF-8 language strings v10.0.2.10b.zip |
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:
[Hide details]
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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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Robin Richmond's Genealogy Database | Robin Richmond | Mod developer | 10.1.0.12 | 11.0.1 | English |
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 | English |
Turner mob | Margaret Grogan Turner | Another great tool for visitors, thanks! | 10.0.2.6 | 10.0.3 | English |
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 | Norwegian |
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 |
Roots & Relatives Remembered | Ron Krzmarzick | Public & Private | 12.0.0.16 Beta | See Here | EN,DE,CS,ES |
Our Family Links | Chuck Filteau | Public site, modified Template 12 | 10.1.0.12 | v10.1.2 | EN |
Racine d'Alsace | J-Louis Valory | Public/Private - T17 customized | 12.0.0.15a | 12.0.2 | FR |
Journeys in Genealogy | Patrick Thrush | Public WordPress/TNG bundle | 12.0.0.15e | 12.0.3 | English |
Our Family Histories | Bryan S. Larson | See Here | See Here | English | |
Familienforschung SCABELL | Helga Scabell | Public/Private | 10.1.0.2 | 12.1 | DE, EN, PT |
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
- Genstyle.css mods
- Admin pedconfig.php mods
- Pedconfig help.php mods
- Descend.php mods
- Descendtext.php mods
- Desctracker.php mods
- Register.php mods
- Pedigree.php mods
- Pedigreetext.php mods
- Verticalchart.php mods
- Ahnentafel.php mods
- Extrastree.php mods
- Tngrobots.php mods