Chronology not Timeline

General discussion of iFamily for Leopard and Genealogy
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cosfordparker
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 1:39 am

Chronology not Timeline

Post by cosfordparker » Tue May 22, 2018 5:22 am

I'm new to iFamily after decades of using Legacy. I really like iFamily's approach, though I miss some of Legacy's functionality. No doubt I'll get over that. :D

I've tested tons of genealogy apps, both Mac and Windows based, looking for one simple function: the ability to generate a chronology that includes every individual and every event in the database. I tend to approach genealogy like the police solve a crime - comparing what all the characters did, when and where they did them - in relation to each other. I can't get that from a timeline.

I managed to produce an event list that appeared to include everyone and their births, deaths and marriages. Good start! But I couldn't copy it, nor could it be exported, etc. Does anyone know if it's possible to get that event list into Excel?

Thanks! SCP

NigelRichman
Posts: 327
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:12 pm
Location: Cornwall, England

Re: Chronology not Timeline

Post by NigelRichman » Tue May 22, 2018 5:31 pm

Hi,

Not too sure which Event list you generated but a useful one is:

Using the menu item 'People ... Index..' and then select the Generate CSV option on the list that is generated.

This can be used in Numbers or Excel.

If that list is not what you need please say how you generated the list that you wanted to output.

Hope that helps,

Nigel

p.s. - Welcome to iFamilyforMac. I too find it the most logical and straight forward app to enter and manage the data. The other Mac apps have some extra features (like linking to an iPad) that are useful but they are nowhere as nice to use (IMHO at least). N

cosfordparker
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 1:39 am

Re: Chronology not Timeline

Post by cosfordparker » Tue May 22, 2018 8:10 pm

Thanks for responding, Nigel. I guess including the list info would have been useful. :oops:

Events/Event Dates It's the output from that I want to capture.

People/Index is a decent fall back, but the included events are limited and data columns cannot be added. There is one real strength in the People/Index list: the RIN numbers are included.

Thanks - Sali

NigelRichman
Posts: 327
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:12 pm
Location: Cornwall, England

Re: Chronology not Timeline

Post by NigelRichman » Wed May 23, 2018 9:16 pm

Hi,

Sounds like this is a possible new requirement for Warwick to add to the report capability of the app.

Regards,

Nigel

cosfordparker
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 1:39 am

Re: Chronology not Timeline

Post by cosfordparker » Thu May 24, 2018 7:06 am

As in Event Chronology? Be still my heart! :lol: Thanks, Nigel!

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Warwick Wilson
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Re: Chronology not Timeline

Post by Warwick Wilson » Sat Jun 02, 2018 7:41 am

Hi Sali,

Welcome. The amount of work I have to do on iFamily is like an iceberg and could sink ships. Not everything is always visible as there's always a lot of non programming work that distracts me from iFamily's true goals so please excuse any long breaks in conversation from my end.

iFamily was always built upon open standards to assist people to help themselves. The table names and fields get a little garbled with leading Z'ds but it's all available as shown below. Until I can realise your suggestion in the app, here's how to get the chronology report you desire:

1. Open Terminal and change into your iFamilyData folder.

2. type sqlite3 ROYALS92.FktSql

3. type .mode csv ZEVENT

4. type .output 'Reports/chronology.csv'

5. cut and paste:
select ev.ZNUMERICID, ev.ZDATE, ev.ZNAME, ev.ZPLACE, ev.ZNOTES, p.ZNUMERICID, p.ZNAME, p1.ZNUMERICID, p1.ZNAME, p2.ZNUMERICID, p2.ZNAME
from ZEVENT ev
LEFT JOIN ZPERSON p on ev.zperson = p.z_pk
LEFT JOIN ZPERSON p1 on ev.ZPERSON1 = p1.z_pk
LEFT JOIN ZPERSON p2 on ev.ZPERSON2 = p2.z_pk
order by ZYEAR, ZMONTH, ZDAY asc;


6. type .q

Your chronology report should then be present in your Reports folder. Let me know if I've missed any steps or if I am joining on the wrong columns, you may need to truth the id numbers before relying on the output. (the Z_PK Primary Key join may be incorrect and perhaps the ZNUMERICID columns should be the ones to join with.)

Some other things you may like to try while you are in the sql session are .tables and .schema ZEVENT. Let me know if I missed any steps.

Just in case you are tempted, pretend you never heard of the sql keyword "update", I don't recommend making any edits to the data except through the app itself. If you are tempted to try, please implement a rigorous backup regime.

cosfordparker
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 1:39 am

Re: Chronology not Timeline

Post by cosfordparker » Wed Jun 06, 2018 1:44 am

Hello, Warwick -

My apologies for the delay in responding to you. I followed your generous instructions and actually produced a chronology containing nearly everyone and every event in the DB! :D

There are a few quirky things in the output, so I'm matching chronology data elements to iFamily fields to verify and understand how your instructions, the chronology and iFamily fields relate. The last SQL report spec I wrote was in the 80's, so it's slow going, but fun.

I'll check in when I have this figured out. In the meantime, thank you so much! -- Sali

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