Gilbert Genealogy
Web Sites Produced with Other Genealogy Software Programs
Second Site produces a first rate web site from The Master Genealogist with little effort and technical knowledge required by the user. It includes a rich set of features for user customization.
I have a MacBook Pro and also use Reunion, it is capable of producing a very nice web site with about the same skill set needed to use Second Site, however it lacks the customization capabilities available in Second Site.
I thought it would be interesting to compare a site built with Reunion to one built with Second Site.
I have also been interested in experimenting with setting up a dynamic web site with PhpGedView. Setting up PhpGedView requires some technical knowledge and a web server or hosting service with PHP & database support.
While scanning the PhpGedView forums I've discovered that there is a new project based on PhpGedView and it appears the development of PhpGedView is at a stand still.
The new project is called Webtrees it requires the same technical knowledge as PhpGedView, as well as PHP
& MySQL database support.
See Webtrees Wiki - System requirements.
Update
I have replaced PhpGedView with Webtrees.
Second Site and Reunion produce static web pages.
Getting data from TMG into Reunion and Webtrees requires a GEDCOM export. Due to the limitations of GEDCOM and the ability to enter data in TMG that will NOT GEDCOM out I was careful to enter the 849 people in TMG and included in these web sites in a way that would produce the most compatible GEDCOM. Some of the GEDCOM issues are covered below.
Second Site
This is my primary web site, and is also accessible from the Gilbert Genealogy home page. The main page, the footer and a page or two under Ancillary Information have received some special customization, all done in Second Site.
The Gilbert Family of Ancient New Haven • Built from TMG with Second Site 3.2.2
Reunion
GEDCOM issues: In general Reunion does an excellent job importing the TMG GEDCOM; the BirthIlleg tag in TMG and the primary name memo are not recognized by Reunion. My solution for the BirthIlleg tag was to change it's GED Export type to BIRT, and add -illegitimate to the tag memo, the project to be exported is copied, and the copy is processed with TMG Utility to remove the - from -illegitimate. The name memo issue is resolved by copying the primary name memo to the name suffix field. In the .ged file generated by TMG the DEAT tag is followed by a Y, and Reunion does not like it; I think the 'Y' comes from the TMG Living Flag value being set to N, (Living N = Dead Y?) to resolve this the .ged file needs to be processed in a plain text editor to remove the Y, also some of the special formatting codes should be removed. In particular the backslash \ when used to escape square brackets [ ], the double pipe || used to split memos and citation detail, and the [:NP:] formatting code should be removed.
During import Reunion will recognize some tags as new, *New [ANCI] (ancestor interest flag?) was unselected (not imported), *New[OCCU] change Description to Occupation & Destination to Fact, *New[NCHI] change Description to Number Children & Destination to Fact, and *New[EDUC] change Description to Education & Destination to Fact.
After import the sorting of facts & events will have to be addressed, also some work with sources is necessary.
Generating the web site: The family you wish to appear on the web site's Home Card must be the active Family Card when you create the web site. The Contents (main) page required some editing with my HTML editor outside Reunion after it was created. In particular, Reunion does not provide a method to script email addresses, and I had to add the caption to the photo as I could not find a way to do this in Reunion. Otherwise the pages are as generated by Reunion. A Web Family Card is the default presentation to the user, there is also a Person Sheet which is accessed by clicking either of husband's or wife's name on the Web Family Card.
The Gilbert Family of Ancient New Haven • Built with Reunion 9.0b for Macintosh
Webtrees
I converted the GEDCOM file used for Reunion and PhpGedView to UTF-8 and uploaded it to the Webtrees installation on my web site.
Multiple GEDCOMs can be loaded, and users can be granted permission to switch to different files.
I'm still clicking my way around learning how to change settings and work with the various features so I don't have any comments on how the data was imported or the site features yet.
The look of the site is very different from either Second Site or Reunion. The pages are generated on the fly by the server.
Users given a login can be granted permission to see living persons, change & add data, a real plus if your genealogy project is a collaborative effort, look for the Login link.
Users can choose a theme, look for the Theme drop down list.
The pages can be rendered in several alternate languages, look for the Language drop down list.
The appearance and location of many items will change depending on the theme you choose.
The Gilbert Family of Ancient New Haven • powered by Webtrees 1.0.2