======================================================= phpGedView Version 3.0 Copyright 2004 John Finlay and others This and other information can be found online at http://www.phpgedview.net # $Id: readme.txt,v 1.89 2004/04/16 16:19:02 yalnifj Exp $ ======================================================= CONTENTS 1. LICENSE 2. INTRODUCTION 3. QUICK INSTALL 4. INSTALLATION 5. UPGRADING 6. UPDATING GEDCOMS 7. THEMES 8. MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS 9. FILE STRUCTURE 10. DATABASE TABLE LAYOUT 11. MANUAL CONFIGURATION 12. SECURITY 13. LANGUAGES 14. NON-STANDARD GEDCOM CODES 15. LANGUAGE EXTENSION FILES ------------------------------------------------------- LICENSE phpGedView: Genealogy Viewer Copyright (C) 2002 to 2004 John Finlay and Others This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. See the file GPL.txt included with this software for more detailed licensing information. ------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION The PhpGedView Project dynamically displays genealogy information from a GEDCOM 5.5 file in HTML form. All you need to do is supply the GEDCOM file and PhpGedView will do all of the rest. It allows you to navigate pedigree and descendancy charts, calculate relationships, and search the genealogy data. Because everything is online, you can easily share your family history with your family anywhere in the world. For more information and to see working demos, visit http://www.phpgedview.net/ PhpGedView has been tested on installations of PHP 4.1.0 and greater, but for the best security you should run PhpGedView on PHP version 4.3.x. It is highly reccommended that you upgrade to PHP v4.3 or higher. The advanced calendar features of PhpGedView require that PHP be compiled with the --enable-calendar configuration option. As of PhpGedView 2.50 there is no longer a standard version and a MySQL version. During configuration you will be asked whether you would like to use MySQL or Indexes as the datastore. You may switch from Index or MySQL mode at any time, but you will have to reimport your Gedcoms whenever you do. PhpGedView is Open Source software that has been produced by people from many countries freely donating their time and talents to the project. All service, support, and future development is dependent upon the time developers are willing to donate to the project often at the expense of work, recreation, and family. Beyond the few donations received from users, developers receive no compensation for the time they spend working on the project. There is also no outside source of revenue to support the project. ------------------------------------------------------- QUICK INSTALLATION Follow the instructions in this section to install PhpGedview if you are already familiar with the program or are familiar with installing other PHP web applications. 1. Upload the files to your webserver 2. Set write permissions on config.php and the "index" directory. For optimal security, you should move the "index" directory to a location outside of your webspace. 3. Point your browser to the directory where you uploaded your PhpGedView files (http://www.yourserver.com/phpGedView/) 4. Enter your configuration settings. If you moved the index directory be sure to specify the correct location to it on this page. Save the configuration paramters. 5. Enter the default administrative user 6. Login as this user and upload your gedcom file 7. Save the gedcom configuration settings 8. Import the gedcom Optional Steps 9. If you want to use the language editing features you will need to set write permissions for all of the files in the ./languages folder 10.If you want to upload media files using the upload media section of the admin menu then you need to set write permissions for your ./media and ./media/thumbs directory 11.If you want to edit your gedcom file online, the gedcom file must have write permissions set for the PHP user. 12.If you want to use the backup feature of the upgrade utility in PhpGedView you will need to either set write permission on the PhpGedView folder itself or create a folder named backup with write permissions. The write permissions for the PhpGedView folder can be removed as soon as the backup folder is in place and has the appropiate permissions. 13.For security you should set the permissions back to read-only when you are done editing or uploading files. ------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION Follow these instructions if you are not familiar with PhpGedView or installing PHP applications. *A. Upload Files: To install PhpGedView unzip the compressed package and upload the files to a directory on your web server. If you have limited space on your server, you can save space in the following ways: 1. Do not upload the "docs" folder 2. Delete the themes from the themes folder that you do not plan on using 3. Delete some of the language files that you do not want For optimal security, you may want to move the "index" directory to a different location outside of your web accessible space. You will specify the location of this directory during the online configuration. See the SECURITY section for more information. *B. Required File Permissions: PhpGedView requires that Read permissions be set for all files in the phpGedView directory tree. Some hosts also require Execute permissions (chmod 755). PhpGedView requires full write permissions on the index directory (chmod 777 under most hosting configurations). PhpGedView also requires that write permissions (chmod 777) be set temporarily for the config.php file. If at any time you have troubles during configuration, check your permissions again. There are some advanced features that require more write permissions to be set. If you want to use the language editing features you will need to set write permissions for all of the files in the ./languages folder (chmod 777). If you want to upload media files using the upload media section of the admin menu then you need to set write permissions (chmod 777) for your ./media and ./media/thumbs directories. If you want to edit your gedcom file online, the gedcom file must have write permissions set to the PHP user (chmod 777). *C. Configuration: Next point your web browser to the phpgedView folder (http://www.yourserver.com/phpGedView/) to automatically begin the online configuration process. Information about each of the configuration options can be found online by clicking on the question mark (?) near each label. The first configuration option allows you to choose whether you want to use Index files or MySQL for your datastore when you import your Gedcoms. Choosing Index files will import your gedcom records into a serialized file that will be created and saved in the "./index" directory. Choosing MySQL will import your gedcoms into a MySQL database. Using MySQL requires that a MySQL user, password, and database already exist. You can find more information about whether you should choose index files or MySQL in the FAQs (http://www.phpgedview.net/faq.html) If you choose Index files make sure that the browser correctly selects the authentication_index.php authentication module. With MySQL you can use authentication_mysql.php module or the index module. This should change automatically when you change from index to mysql using JavaScript. You may reconfigure phpGedView at any time by going to phpGedView/admin.php and logging in as an administrative user and clicking on the "Configuration" link. *D. Create Admin User After you press the save button, you will be asked to create an administrative user and login as this user. Then click on the link labeled "click here to continue" where you will be taken to the "Manage Gedcoms" area. In the "Manage Gedcoms" area you can add Gedcoms to your site, edit the gedcom configuration, and import the gedcom into the datastore. *E. Add Gedcom file To add GEDCOM files to the system, you can upload your GEDCOM file using the "Upload Gedcom" option from the Admin menu. All files uploaded using the "Upload Gedcom" page, are saved in your index directory. You can also upload your gedcom manually using ftp or another file upload method. Most hosts limit the size of files that can be uploaded from a web form for security reasons, so you may be forced to use a manual method. *F. Set Gedcom Configuration Settings After uploading your gedcom, you will be asked to set the configuration paramters for it. There are too many paramters to list all of their options in this readme. Please use the online help documentation to guide you through the configuration process. *G. Validate Gedcom After you save the gedcom configuration PhpGedView will validate your gedcom and fix any errors that it can automatically. If any errors found in the Gedcom that require user input, you will be prompted to choose how to proceed. Again use the online help ? for more information. *H. Import Gedcom You are almost done. This is the final step before you can begin viewing your data. After validating the Gedcom and fixing any errors, you will need to import the gedcom into the datastore. During the Import you will see a lot of processing statistics printed on the screen. If the import completed successfully you will see a blue "Import Complete" message. Everything is now setup and you can begin using PhpGedView with your GEDCOM. *I. Deleting Gedcoms >From the "Manage Gedcoms" area, you may delete Gedcoms from your site. Deleting a Gedcom from the site will remove it from the database but will not delete the original gedcom file that you imported. *J. Reset config.php Permissions For security you should set the permissions of config.php back to read-only (chmod 755) when you are done configuring for the first time. Write permissions will only need to be set for config.php when you use the Admin->Configuration link. Everything else will be stored in the index directory. *K. Custom Themes You may customize the look and feel of PhpGedView by modifying one of the provided themes. See the THEMES section of this readme file for more information. If you need help or support visit: http://www.phpgedview.net/support.html ------------------------------------------------------- UPGRADING Use the following steps to upgrade from v2.65 to v3.0. These steps assume that you are familiar with PhpGedView and have successfully installed it before. 1. Make a backup copy of your config.php, authenticate.php, and ./index directory and any customized themes or language files. 2. Upload all of the new files from the version 3.0 package except for config.php and the index and media directories. *DO NOT* replace your old config.php, authenticate.php, or the files in your current ./index directory. If you do, then you may lose your configuration settings or users. 3. Set write permissions for config.php, authenticate.php, and the ./index directory. These permissions should already be set, but sometimes when uploading the permissions will get reset. 4. Point your browser to upgrade.php 5. To take advantage of some of the new sorting features, you should reimport your Gedcom files by going to Admin->Mangage Gedcoms->Import 6. There are some new user settings in version 3.0 such as contact method. You should edit the users and change the new settings from their defaults. 7. If desired, update your customized theme with the new theme options. Changes to the themes between versions are noted in the Style Guide documentation http://www.phpgedview.net/styleguide.html If you are upgrading from a version prior to v2.65 then you should start with a fresh install by following the installation instructions above. ------------------------------------------------------- UPDATING GEDCOMS When you change your genealogy data it is not necessary to delete your Gedcoms from PhpGedView and start over. Follow these steps to update a Gedcom that has already been imported: 1. Use FTP or another method to upload the file to the host, replacing the old file with your new one. If you used the Gedcom upload option in PhpGedView, then the old file will be located in the index directory. 2. Reimport the Gedcom file by going to Admin->Manage Gedcoms->Import Gedcom. The Gedcom will be validated again before importing. 3. The import script will detect that the Gedcom has already been imported and will ask if you want to replace the old data. Click the "Yes" button. 4. You will again see the import statistics and the Import Complete message at the bottom of the page when the import is complete. ------------------------------------------------------- THEMES PhpGedview uses a theme based architecture allowing you to have greater flexibility over the design of the site. The "themes" directory contains the standard themes that come packaged with PhpGedView. You may customize any of these themes to your liking or create your own theme by copying the "standard" theme to a new folder and modifying it. When you configure PhpGedView, you should tell it to look in your new theme directory. A theme directory must contain at least the following 6 files: footer.html # PHP/HTML that appears at the bottom of every page on your site. header.html # PHP/HTML that appears at the top of every page on your site. print_footer.html # PHP/HTML that appears at the bottom of every print preview page. print_header.html # PHP/HTML that appears at the top of every print preview page. style.css # A CSS stylesheet containing all the styles for you site. sublinks.html # PHP/HTML to print the links to other places on the individual page. theme.php # The PHP design variables that you may customize. toplinks.html # PHP/HTML that appears just below the header.html with the menu. For a guide to building your own custom PhpGedView theme, go to: http://www.phpgedview.net/styleguide.html If you really like a theme that you have done and would like it included with the project, then you may send the theme files to the developers at yalnifj@users.sourceforge.net. ------------------------------------------------------- MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS The GEDCOM 5.5 standard supports multimedia files of all types. Currently phpGedView supports multimedia objects only as external files. Multimedia embedded in the GEDCOM file itself will be ignored. To use the multimedia support in phpGedView you must copy the multimedia files external to your GEDCOM to the "media" directory in the folder where you installed phpGedView. In choosing which picture to show on charts, PhpGedView will choose the first one with the _PRIM Y marker. If there are no _PRIM tags in your media object records then the first object found will be used. You can disable all photos on charts for a particular person by setting _PRIM N on all media objects. Most genealogy programs will do this for you automatically. You can find all of the images referenced in your file by opening your gedcom in a text editor and looking for the OBJE or FILE tags. PhpGedView includes a "media/thumbs" directory where you may place thumbnails of your media files for display in lists and on other pages. PhpGedView allows you to create your own thumbnails so that you can maintain artistic control over your media and to avoid the installation of other server side software. Make a copy your images and reduce them to an appropriate thumbnail size somewhere around 100px width and upload them to the "media/thumbs" directory. Keep the filename the same as the original. You can configure PhpGedView to recognize subdirectories in your media folder. The subdirectories must be the same names as the subdirectories in your media file paths pointed to in your GEDCOM file. For example if you have the following media references in your GEDCOM file: C:\Pictures\Genealogy\photo.jpg C:\Pictures\Scans\scan1.jpg scan2.jpg With the media depth set to 1 you need to set up your directory structure like this: media/Genealogy/photo.jpg media/Scans/scan1.jpg media/scan2.jpg media/thumbs/Genealogy/photo.jpg media/thumbs/Scans/scan1.jpg media/thumbs/scan2.jpg With the media depth set to 2 you need to set up your directory structure like this: media/Pictures/Genealogy/photo.jpg media/Pictures/Scans/scan1.jpg media/scan2.jpg media/thumbs/Pictures/Genealogy/photo.jpg media/thumbs/Pictures/Scans/scan1.jpg media/thumbs/scan2.jpg ------------------------------------------------------- FILE STRUCTURE When you unpackage the TAR or ZIP file, you will get the following file structure: phpGedView /---> images # contains images for the site /---> index # index directories and log files will be built here /---> languages # files for multi language support |---> lang.xx.php # language files for text in site |---> facts.xx.php # language files for gedcom cods |---> configure_help.xx.php # language files for configuration help |---> help_text.xx.php # language files for help text |---> langcodes.php # translate browser language codes to internal language id |---> LANG_CHANGELOG.txt # log file for changes made language files between revisions /---> media # default directory where media files are stored /---> themes # directory where default theme files are located /---> minimal # a black and white newspaper style theme /---> standard # default theme /---> ocean # a blue and aquamarine theme /---> wood # A theme with wood texture backgrounds and menu links on the left /---> xenea # The theme used on the Spanish demo site. /---> simply green # New theme introduced in version 3.0, the name says it all |---> addmedia.php # This file is used to run the Add Media Tool |---> addnewgedcom.php # Allows the creation of a new empty gedcom if you want to use PGV to do all of your editing |---> admin.php # links to administrative pages |---> authenticate.php # default users array database |---> authentication_index.php # Authentication module for index mode |---> authentication_mysql.php # Authentication moduel for mysql mode |---> calendar.php # Anniversary calendar |---> changelog.txt # Change log |---> clippings.php # family tree clippings cart page |---> clippings_download.php # page to download clippings cart |---> config.php # Configuration variables |---> config_download.php # Download Configuration files if they cannot be written |---> config_gedcom.php # Gedcom specific Configuration variables |---> descendancy.php # generate descendancy charts |---> downloadgedcom.php # Reconstruct and download the gedcom file |---> edit_privacy.php # Edit gedcom privacy settings |---> editconfig.php # online administration to modify config.php file |---> editconfig_gedcom.php # Edit gedcom configruation settings |---> editconfig_help.php # small window for configuration help instructions |---> editgedcoms.php # Manage gedcoms area |---> editlang.php # Language file editor |---> editlang_edit.php # Language file edit processor |---> editlang_functions.php # Functions for editlang files |---> editnews.php # Popup window to add/edit news and journal entries |---> edituser.php # Allows users to edit their information |---> family.php # display information about a family |---> famlist.php # display a list of all the families in the file |---> find_source.php # Popup window to search for a source id |---> findfamily.php # Popup window to search for a family id |---> findid.php # file for popup box to get an ID by name |---> findmedia.php # file for popup box to browse the media directory |---> findplace.php # popup to file a place |---> findsource.php # popup to find a source id |---> functions.php # lots of php functions used by the other files |---> functions_blocks.php # Functions used to create blocks used in the portals |---> functions_index.php # Functions used by the index mode |---> functions_mysql.php # Functions used for MySQL database |---> functions_print.php # Functions for printing HTML data to the page |---> functions_tools.php # Functions used by tools during gedcom validation and cleanup |---> gdbi.php # http protocol for online editing through remote clients |---> gdbi_changes.php # Admins can accept or regect changes made to gedcom |---> gdbi_functions.php # functions for http editing protocol |---> gdbi_interface.php # HTML interface for gdbi editing of data |---> gdbi_test.php # A test file for working with the GDBI protocol |---> gedrecord.php # display the raw gedcom |---> GPL.txt # GNU Public License file |---> help_text.php # Popup window for display contextual help |---> help_text_vars.php # file with variables for help text |---> hitcount.php # module for the visitors counter |---> imageview.php # Lets a user zoom in/out on pictures |---> importgedcom.php # file to import your gedcom into the database |---> index.php # welcome page for each gedcom |---> index_edit.php # customize gedcom welcome page and mygedview portal |---> indilist.php # show a list of all the individuals in the gedcom |---> individual.php # display the details for particular individual |---> lang_codes_std.php # The default language codes |---> lang_settings_std.php # The default language settings |---> login.php # page for users to login |---> login_register.php # page to handle automatic user registration |---> medialist.php # list of the multimedia objects in the gedcom |---> message.php # allow users to send messages to other users |---> nosupport.php # Error message if PGV will not work on their PHP installation |---> pedigree.php # pedigree chart |---> phpgedview.js # JavaScript functions file |---> placelist.php # display the place hierarchy |---> privacy.php # default privacy module to hide details of living people |---> readme.txt # this file |---> relationship.php # Relationship chart and calculator |---> search.php # search the gedcom file keywords or soundex |---> session.php # page that loads the languages, session, and other stuff |---> source.php # display the details of a source |---> sourcelist.php # alphatical list of sources referenced in gedcom |---> templecodes.php # array to translate LDS temple codes to their long names |---> timeline.php # places individuals on interactive timeline |---> upgrade.php # Upgrade script |---> uploadgedcom.php # Upload a gedcom file and add it to the site |---> uploadmedia.php # Upload files to the media and thumbs directory |---> useradmin.php # add/delete/edit users |---> validategedcom.php # Run during import process to make sure that gedcom is valid ------------------------------------------------------- DATABASE TABLE LAYOUT PhpGedView uses a very simple database table layout because it operates primarily on the gedcom data and only needs the database for search and retrieval. There are only six tables in the database: pgv_individuals # All the individuals in the gedcom pgv_families # All the families in the gedcom pgv_sources # All the sources in the gedcom pgv_other # All other level 0 gedcom records (ie. repositories, media objects, notes, etc.) pgv_users # Table for user data (only exists if using default mysql authentication module) pgv_messages # Messages to and from users pgv_favorites # stores a users favorites The tables are all very similar to each other. They each have a field for the gedcom id, a field to tell which gedcom file the record was imported from, a few fields for things link quick retrieval of name information, and a field for the raw gedcom record data. Following is a more detailed description of each table: pgv_individuals: i_id VARCHAR(30) # The gedcom individual id i_file VARCHAR(255) # The gedcom filename that the record was imported from i_rin VARCHAR(30) # The individuals RIN number i_name VARCHAR(255) # A sortable name in the form Lastname, firstname i_sfams VARCHAR(255) # A semicolan seperated list of family ids where this person is a spouse in the family i_cfams VARCHAR(255) # A semicolan seperated list of family ids where this person is a child in the family i_gedcom TEXT # The raw gedcom record for this individual pgv_families: f_id VARCHAR(30) # The gedcom family id f_file VARCHAR(255) # The gedcom filename that the record was imported from f_husb VARCHAR(30) # The ID of the husband f_wife VARCHAR(30) # The ID of the wife f_chil VARCHAR(255) # The a semicolan (;) delimeted list of children IDs f_gedcom TEXT # The raw gedcom record for this family pgv_sources: s_id VARCHAR(30) # The gedcom source ID s_file VARCHAR(255) # The gedcom filename that the record was imported from s_name VARCHAR(255) # The abbreviated title of the source s_gedcom TEXT # The raw gedcom record for this source pgv_other: o_id VARCHAR(30) # The gedcom record ID o_file VARCHAR(255) # The gedcom filename that the record was imported from o_type VARCHAR(20) # The type of gedcom record that this is (REPO, ADDR, NOTE, OBJE, etc) o_gedcom TEXT # The raw gedcom record for this item This table layout has received criticism from some for its simplicity, size, and because it does not follow a genealogy model like GENTECH. I admit that these tables can be hard to interface to because the code has to understand gedcom in order to get information out of them. I also admit that storing the raw gedcom data could make the tables very large. Fortunately the gedcom standard is not a very complex or large format; it only requires 6 characters per line, which is very good compared to something like XML. However, there are some very compelling reasons why I use this table structure: 1. Because it stores the raw gedcom, the majority of the codebase between the MySQL and the standard version is the same. The same codebase makes the two versions easier to maintain and upgrade the code from one to the other. This simplifies life for the developers and means faster upgrades for you. 2. Simpler tables mean fewer and simpler database queries. This takes a large strain off of the database. 3. Nothing is lost in the import. Even though gedcom is a standard, each genealogy program interprets it a bit differently and adds their own tags. Creating a model that conforms to all the gedcom outputs of different genealogy software programs would be very difficult. ------------------------------------------------------- MANUAL CONFIGURATION Advanced users who understand PHP may want to configure manually by editing the configuration file config.php When you are done editing config.php make sure that the variable $CONFIGURED=true; so that the program does not automatically try to forward you to the configuration.php script. You can manually add GEDCOMS to the system by adding them to the $GEDCOMS array in index/gedcoms.php file. The gedcom array looks like this: $gedarray = array(); $gedarray["gedcom"] = "surname.ged"; $gedarray["config"] = "./index/surname.ged_conf.php"; $gedarray["privacy"] = "./index/surname.ged_priv.php"; $gedarray["title"] = "Surname Genealogy"; $gedarray["path"] = "./surname.ged"; $GEDCOMS["surname.ged"] = $gedarray; Each gedcom will need a configuration file. You may copy the config_gedcom.php file which has all of the default values for each gedcom you add manually. Then set the "config" item of the GEDCOMS array to point to the file you copied. Each gedcom also needs a privacy file. Make a copy the privacy.php file for each gedcom and set the "privacy" item of the GEDCOMS array to the location of the new privacy.php file. ------------------------------------------------------- SECURITY Even though phpGedView gives you the ability to hide the details of living individuals, anytime you post the personal details of living individuals on the internet, you should first obtain the permission of EACH living person you plan to include. There are many people who would not even want their name linked with their family history made public on the internet and their wishes should be respected and honored. Most family history programs allow you to choose the people who are exported when you create your GEDCOM file. The most secure option is to deselect all living people in your genealogy program when you export your genealogical data to a GEDCOM file. If you wish to protect your GEDCOM file itself from being downloaded over the internet then you should place it outside the root directory of your webserver or virtual host and set the value of the $GEDCOM variable to point to that location. For example, if your home directory is something like "/home/username" and if the root directory for your website is "/home/username/public_html" and you have installed phpGedView in the "public_html/phpGedView" directory then you would place your GEDCOM file in your home directory at the same level as your "public_html" directory. You would then set the file path to "/home/username/gedcom.ged" by editing the gedcom configuration. You can also manually set the location by changing the "path" line in index/gedcoms.php: $gedarray["path"] = "../../gedcom.ged"; or $gedarray["path"] = "/home/username/gedcom.ged"; Since your GEDCOM file resides in a directory outside of your webservers root directory, your webserver will not be able to fullfill requests to download it. But, phpGedView will still be able to read and display its contents. In the end it is YOUR responsibility to guarentee that there has been no violation of an individual's privacy and YOU could be held liable should private information be made public on the websites that you administer. For more privacy options visit: http://www.phpgedview.net/modules.html ------------------------------------------------------- LANGUAGES PhpGedView has built in support for multiple languages. PHP does not support unicode (UTF-16). It does support UTF-8 and that is the recommended character encoding for gedcoms with PHPGedView. If you have characters in your gedcom outside the standard ASCII alphabet, then you should probably use the UTF-8 encoding. There are many differences between UTF-8 and UTF-16, but anything that you can encode in UTF-16 you should be able to encode in UTF-8. It is also quite easy to convert from Unicode to UTF-8. Simply open your Unicode GEDCOM file in Windows Notepad and do select "File->Save As.." from the menu and choose UTF-8 as the encoding option. You shouldn't lose any of the characters in the translation. You should check the Patches section of http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpgedview to get the latest language files. Discussion and questions about the multiple language features of phpGedView including translations, should be posted in the Translations forum available from the PhpGedview project page here: http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=294245 To have phpGedView work in another language that is not currently supported you must create a copy of the files "lang.en.php" and "facts.en.php" located in the "./languages/" directory and translate the variable values. Then add the necessary lines to the session.php file. For example, if you wanted to create a Japanese translation, you would translate the above files into "lang.jp.php" and "facts.jp.php" and the add the following lines to the session.php file: $pgv_language["japanese"] = "languages/lang.jp.php"; $factsfile["japanese"] = "languages/facts.jp.php"; $pgv_lang["japanese"] = "Japanese"; Making changes to the langcodes.php file is only necessary if you want phpGedView to automatically detect your new language from the user's browser settings. For this add the following line to the langcodes.php file: $langcode["jp"]="japanese"; You may also optionally translate the file configure_help.en.php if you would like to provide configuration instructions in your language. If you are translating to a language that reads Right-To-Left, you will need to add the following line to your land.xx.php file: $TEXT_DIRECTION="rtl"; To help maintain languages a language change log is provided in the languages directory named LANG_CHANGELOG.txt. As of version 2.50, phpGedView comes with an online language file editing utility that will allow you to compare two languages against each other for additions or subtractions. This tool will be very helpful to language translators. You can get to this online editor by clicking on the "Language Editor" link on the admin menu. Another feature of the language files added in version 2.13 is the ability to specify the date format by language by setting the $DATE_FORMAT variable. The default date format is $DATE_FORMAT = "D M Y"; This means that dates will be translated to 1 January 2003. You can adjust the date format however you need to for your language. German dates are of the form $DATE_FORMAT = "D. M Y"; If you make a translation of phpGedView, and would like to contribute it to the community then send your lang and facts file to yalnifj@users.sourceforge.net ------------------------------------------------------- NON-STANDARD GEDCOM CODES The GEDCOM 5.5 standard has a defined set of codes. You may read the specification online at http://www.gendex.com/gedcom55/55gctoc.htm Part of the standard allows for genealogy software to define their own codes, and requests that they begin with an "_" underscore. When PhpGedView comes across a tag that is not defined it will display an error message. You may disable these error messages in the config.php file by setting $HIDE_GEDCOM_ERRORS=true. PhpGedView may also be customized to work with these codes by adding them to the facts array in a new language file named facts.en.extra.php. If you add it to the english facts file then you should also add it to the other facts language files that you are using on your site if you want other languages to correctly translate the tag. The format of the facts file is a PHP associative array. Each tag requires one line in the array. The following line defines the label "Abbreviation" for the ABBR gedcom tag. $factarray["ABBR"] = "Abbreviation"; As an example, if you use a genealogy program that generates the tag "_ZZZZ" you can customize phpGedView to recognize this code by adding the following lines to the facts.en.extra.php file: ------------------------------------------------------- LANGUAGE EXTENSION FILES Language extension files are custom PHP files that you can use to make your own language specific extensions to PhpGedView. To add a language file extension create a new PHP file called lang.xx.extra.php replacing the "xx" with the country code for the language you want to extend. These files are not automatically included with the package so that when you upgrade your extensions are not overwritten. If this file exists for the language that is chosen, it is the very last thing that is loaded before the display starts. These files were disigned to be language file extensions, but you could easily use it to make settings changes based on the chosen language. What sort of things can you do with language extensions? - Customize any of the text that appears on the site. - Change configuration options based on language - Change to a different GEDCOM when someone views your site in a different language The only settings that you could not override in this file are the privacy settings. If, for example, you wanted to change the GEDCOM title when you changed the language, you could change the title for each language by adding the following line to your lang.xx.extra.php: $GEDCOMS["surname.ged"]["title"] = "Title in Chinese"; In this file you could also change the text on the buttons: $pgv_lang["view"]="Show"; With this file you could also change the gedcom that is displayed per language. Suppose I had a gedcom that was in german and one that was in english. In the lang.ge.extra.php file I would add the following lines: if ($GEDCOM=="english.ged") { header("Location: $PHP_SELF?$QUERY_STRING&GEDCOM=german.ged"); exit; } These lines say that if we are using the german language files, but are using the english gedcom, then we need to reload the page with the german gedcom. You need to reload the page so that the configuration settings for the gedcom get loaded. This assumes that you have both "english.ged" and "german.ged" imported into the database and that the english.ged and the german.ged have the same people in them, just in a different language. Thus I1 in english.ged should refer to the same I1 in german.ged. ===========================================================