Archive for November, 2010
FTM2010 for Mac – Downloading Trees From Ancestry.com
0One thing I wanted to check was if downloaded family trees included media files. Well … there’s good news and there’s bad news.
The bad news is, that as with FTM2010 (when it was first released), the source media files were not attached. A later update to the software then added a download link to the citation editing window under the media tab.
Unfortunately it looks like we’ll be needing to wait for a patch for the Mac as well. This is disappointing. I would have hoped that Ancestry.com would have implemented functional fixes already applied to the Windows version prior to release. And the heightened price-point makes it all that much more disappointing.
The good news is that any media files you attached to your tree do get downloaded and are available in your offline tree.
Overall the “Import from Ancestry.com Tree” went smoothly, although there are some snags I would like to point out:
- In order to download your tree, you need to close out of the current tree you are editing. Unlike with the Windows version, you will need to select “Close Window” from the file menu, then re-open the program by clicking on its icon in the dock. Only at that point can you select the option to download a tree from Ancestry.com.
- After the tree is downloaded, you get the option to merge the tree with an existing offline tree, or create a new tree. It will then process all the records in the downloaded file and generate a result. I found it a bit disconcerting that my online tree generated an error. I would expect the Ancestry.com tree to be fully GEDCOM compliant, as any GEDCOM errors will result in lost data during the import (FTM throws them out, and won’t provide you an option to correct them). This is a huge flaw, in my opinion, both on the side of Ancestry.com allowing for bad data in their online trees, as well as on the part of FTM just throwing out any mistakes it finds.
Below are some screenshots of the entire process, along with the error log of the problematic GEDCOM import.
FTM2010 For Mac – Installation Process
3The installation process is very straight-forward, much like the Windows version of the software. All said and done, it requires ~500MB of hard-drive space once installed, and takes only about 5 minutes to complete.
Once the installation process was completed, all we needed to do was start the program up. On first run, it shows the registration screens:
And once that was complete, we were back to the familiar screen. I do notice subtle differences in the user interface, though. I’m glad to see that the interface for the Mac is a bit more refined, and even Mac-like. 
Good work!
Next I wanted to check if there were any updates available since the release, i.e. if the 2011 patch for Windows applied to this one as well. None so far.
FTM4Mac Arrived In The Mail
0I (finally) received my long-awaited copy of FTM for Mac. There has been some confusion, or perhaps expectation around what version the FTM for Mac is, many of us (me included) expecting it to be the 2011 version, as it is being releases 2 months after the PC version.
There were some blog posts by Ancestry.com that alluded to it more resembling FTM2010. This is now confirmed, as the inner label of the sleeve reads:
Install Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker 2010 for Mac [...]
More to come …
Ancestry.com Releases Update for FTM2011
0Ancestry.com has just announced the availability of the first patch for FTM2011. Presumably this is for the Windows version only — I have not been able to verify this for the MAC version as it has not arrived yet.
Here is a comprehensive list of changes:
- General performance improvements throughout the program
- Performance improvements to Web merge
- Re-enabled right-click functionality in Web Search
- New option added to Options dialog to enable/disable enhancing merged images from Ancestry.com
- Resolved issue of media not being merge properly during Ancestry.com Web merge
- Resolved issue where user is unable to modify reference notes in Sources workspace
- Decreased the number of full refreshes of the Person index during data manipulation
- Resolved memory usage and performance problems with larger images in Smart Stories
- Better support for name fact formatting in Genealogy reports Resolved problem with wrong item in source list being selected when scrolling through list
- Fixed problem with pre-Table of Contents pages numbering incorrectly
- Resolved issue with incorrect chapter title appearing in books when chapter is on odd-numbered page
- Resolved problem where incorrect task was selected in list after a task was deleted
- Support for abbreviations “b”, “B” and “Canceled”
- Resolved issue of extra media links appearing after file import
- Resolved issue with “Arabic out of range” message in some reports Better support for high DPI settings
- Resolved issue where media could be deleted if added to new citation that was then cancelled
- Greater support for reference IDs added to Filter dialog and Find dialog
- Fixed relationship notes so they are imported as general notes instead of research notes
- Greater support added for NGS and Timeline reports in books when imported from previous version
- Better support of name suffixes on GEDCOM imports
- Resolved issue where sources for non-vital facts were not showing up in Genealogy reports
- Resolved performance and refreshing issues when merging duplicate people
- Resolved issue with multiple empty pages in book preview after importing file from previous version Fixed script errors in Ancestry Member Tree download
- Resolved AKA and Title issues in Data Errors Report Enabled right-click options in the task list
Integrating Flex and Zend Framework Project Under One Roof
0Problem
You are developing a web site using Flex as a front-end and Zend Framework as the back-end architecture. Creating two separate projects and thus two separate development, testing, and publishing tracks is less than optimal.
Solution
You want to integrate your Flex project into your Zend Framework project, so that the Flex project publishes as the default web page of the Zend Framework project.
Requirements
This is only possible in an IDE that supports both Flex and ZF. You can do this either using ZendStudio with the FlashBuilder plugin, or with FlashBuilder using the ZendStudio plugin, or possibly vanilla Eclipse using both plugins, but I haven’t tried that.
Implementation
- Create new Zend Framework Project
- Test Your Zend Framework Site
http://localhost/mySite
- If Step 2 Fails – Add an ALIAS directive to your apache httpd.conf
Alias /mySite /path/to/your/site/root_folder/public - Optional: Check Project Into Subversion
If you want to subversion your project, add it to your repository at this time. Commit all files and folders. - Add Flex Project Type
- Define the Web Root as /path/to/your/site/root_folder.
- Define the Root URL as http://localhost/mySite.
- Define the Output Folder as “public”.
- Click “Validate Configuration”.
- If Step 4 Has Flex Error – Recreate html-template Folder
- Right-click on error, select “Recreate HTML-Templates”.
- Rename HTML-Template
Rename /html-templates/index.template.html to /html-templates/index.template.phtml. - Run Project in Flex Mode
- Run project to compile necessary files and generate HTML-Wrapper. Your browser will complain, but ignore that for now.
- Copy generated file /public/index.phtml to /application/views/scripts/index/index.phtml, replace any existing file if necessary. - Configure Flex Run / Debug Profiles
- Edit your run profile, and change it from “http://localhost:10088/MyProject/public/MyProject.html” to “http://localhost:10088/MyProject/public”.
- Edit your debug profile to reflect the same settings.
- Test Your Site
- Add some “Hello World!” text to your Flex project for testing purposes.
- Run you site in Flex mode.
- Run your site in Zend Framework mode.
- Optional: Commit All Changes To Subversion
If you added your project to subversion, go ahead and commit all changes made. You will notice that the “public” folder lost its subversion icon. This is due to the Flex Project type preventing the output files from being added.
Summary
We can clearly see that Zend Framework isn’t quite there yet regarding complete and seamless integration with Flex. However, with a little tweaking we can get there!
What have your experiences been? Do you know a better way to accomplish this? Let us know! ;-P
Update 11/11/2010:
Added steps 4 and 11 detailing Subversion steps. Failing to add the project to subversion at step 4 will result in the “public” folder being omitted entirely. This can be worked around by changing the Flex output folder to a temporary location, adding the “public” folder to subversion, then changing the output location back.
A blog is (re)born!
0Dear Reader,
Welcome (back)! It has been a long while since we have maintained a blog. We have made multiple attempts in the past, but now we are renewed in our goals and purpose.
You can expect articles and how-tos on topics ranging from computers, computer maintenance, software and web development, genealogy, software reviews, property management, and to round it all off, even some wood working.
Expect a few articles to appear over the next week or so. We are currently working on some FLEX / FlashBuilder 4 how-tos.
Update: this was inspired by the speakers at the recent Day Camp 4 Developers conference I attended.