Towards an on-line version of Gramps
Deadlines are great, even if arbitrary: my family is getting together for a family reunion this summer, and I decided that the event would make a great goal to try to finish-up Gramps-Connect, the on-line version of Gramps. My goal is to try to have the bulk of a complete version of Gramps available by July 1, 2012.
Gramps-Connect on the web
Gramps-Connect has been under development for a few years now, and it has taken that long to iron out some issues. One problem was that Gramps wasn’t designed to run on a server. Gramps likes to pop-up a window to ask a question, or give you a status update. But a server program can’t do that. Now, almost all of Gramps can be run from a server, or from the command-line. That includes importing, exporting, and reports.
Another problem was database access speed. Once we had the Gramps tables designed in Django, we found that trying to use the reports (for example) was incredibly slow. The reason is that Gramps was written with a particular access method in mind, and trying to switch to a relational database schema was expensive. But that problem was solved by replicating Gramps’ hierarchical database structure in the relational database. Now it is nearly as fast as Gramps on the desktop.
Another hurdle was learning all of the complexity of Django (a Python-based web development tool) and modern web development. The last time I did any serious web development CSS hadn’t been invented yet.
Editing Gramps data on the web
The goal of Gramps on the web is two-fold: first, it is designed for people to work in collaboration. Second, it is designed to work with large family trees. Gramps on the desktop can handle fairly large trees (at least a few thousand). But Gramps on the web can literally handle millions. But because Gramps-Connect is on the web, it also fills another niche: those people who want a mobile version of Gramps. With the right CSS, Gramps on the web should work quite nicely on your tablet or smart phone.
If you would like to see what Gramps-Connect looks like right now, check out http://gramps-connect.org/ If you would like to edit data (only the Person data can currently be edited) use ID: admin, and Password: gramps.
What would you like to see in Gramps-Connect?
-Doug
Jason Simanek
19 May 2012 @ 6:42 pm
Wow, Doug. It’s great to see how far along that project has come! Looks like it could use some web design TLC, but otherwise looks very exciting. I wish I had time right now to start helping out.
Doug Blank
19 May 2012 @ 10:06 pm
Jason, yes it is coming along, and yes, it needs some web refinement at some point. I’m just building on the Narrative Web CSS (as you can probably tell) so switching between our CSS should be easy. My web-foo is weak
🙂
I was just going to post a message on the gramps-developer mailing list asking if anyone could help by making a CSS for mobile phones. For example, making it look like an iPhone or Android app. Also a CSS for tablets would be nice (big buttons)… can CSS/HTML/JavaScript handle touch gestures? If you have any ideas, please let me know!
mike hingley
21 May 2012 @ 2:24 pm
I bought a book from oreily about creating apps, and the approach was as you said in the article – basically create a css file for mobile devices…i’ll see if I can knock something up for my android, if that would help.
Matt Fletcher
21 May 2012 @ 2:42 pm
Hi Doug,
Looks great. Is it at a point yet where the code can be shared? I’ve love to test it out with my own data.
Regards, Matt
Doug Blank
21 May 2012 @ 4:33 pm
Like most open source/free software, we develop it in the open. You can find the source code in our SVN repository. I’ve made some brief comments on using it here: http://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gramps-Connect
Please feel free to let us know on the gramps mailing lists if you have questions or comments. Thanks!
Doug Blank
23 May 2012 @ 3:23 pm
Mike, that would be useful. Especially if it were based on NarrativeWeb classes and id’s. Thanks!
Benny Chin
20 July 2012 @ 9:30 am
Hi Doug,
In my culture (Chinese), especially hundreds of years ago, a “Family” usually consist of one male head of household, multiple spouses and their off springs. Often (but not always) there is no record of who is the birth mother of each kid, although we know very clearly who is their birth father. Would you be able to accomodate this in your design?
Thanks
Benny
Doug Blank
20 July 2012 @ 7:52 pm
Benny, the on-line version is based on Gramps. In Gramps, a family is a father/mother/children collection. But you can adapt your use of “family” through other means, perhaps. For example, you can use the “Association” connection to link people, or use a father-only family. Also, Gramps is a very active probject and you could request a well-defined Feature.
Tony Town
12 August 2012 @ 7:21 pm
Hi Doug,
I’ve just come across your Gramps-Connect project and am looking forward to seeing it live in due course.
I developed a family genealogy database project some time ago and recently modified it to use Zend Framework. I’m no guru, so it took quite a while to convert.
One of the reasons I developed my own project was to be able to link:-
people photos (most genealogy projects do that)
people locations ( ditto )
people documents – scans and transcripts
documents locations (most genealogy projects do that)
photos locations – e.g. photo of the birthplace
people, documents, photos & locations external links
I don’t know if the above is of any help but please let me know if you would like any more information.
Regards,
Tony
Steven
17 August 2012 @ 10:37 pm
Will the desktop version of Gramps be able to interface with the online Gramps-connect?
Doug Blank
17 August 2012 @ 10:54 pm
Tony, did you make your system available? Do you have a demo? Would love to see it!
-Doug
Doug Blank
17 August 2012 @ 10:56 pm
Great question! Yes, I hope so. The first thing I have been working on is a way to have the Desktop and webapp be able to update from each other. Work is progressing on that front. But there are so many other possibilities… you have ideas?
-Doug
Debbie
24 August 2012 @ 4:29 am
Hi –
Just thought to ask … can GEDCOMs be uploaded?
Doug Blank
24 August 2012 @ 4:37 am
Yes, any file that Gramps desktop can import can be imported into the on-line version. (Currently the file needs to be on the web, but you’ll be able to upload it as well, soon.
james gross
25 August 2012 @ 9:41 am
you need a 32 bit version for windows. i tried to install in xp and the program crashed,saying x86 was required.
Doug Blank
25 August 2012 @ 3:46 pm
James, Gramps is mostly just Python code, and so can run on just about anything. Join the gramps-users mailing list for followups.
RMcK
23 November 2012 @ 8:23 pm
IMO, the most important feature is to be able to generate the HTML for an “ancestry” diagram.
Carey Parks
17 January 2013 @ 11:11 pm
I think simply being able to reference the data one has in GRAMPS from a phone or tablet would be the most important first phase. This way when you are in the field, you can look up things to help know if the item you have just located is pertinent to your collection and/or already in it.
Things which are new can be collected and added to GRAMPS when you have the full system available. Everything new would be a new source first, and from the entry of the source, you sprout people, places, events.
For example, snapping a photo of the important pages of a book when you find a reference to an ancestor, or taking a photo of a document or tombstone.
Then back at the ranch you can ping the things into your file system and fill out GRAMPS.
But doing the whole job in the field would be good too. I have a Bluetooth keyboard that I use with my tablet when I have a large amount of typing to do. It does add something else to carry, but both together still don’t approach the bulk of a notebook PC. Or an physical three-ring binder even.
Don Kendall
1 August 2013 @ 9:31 am
I am interested in this format. Is development still in the works? I tried both Sourceforge and the Gramps-Connect website and could not locate your project
Doug Blank
17 December 2013 @ 6:25 pm
You can find Gramps here:
http://gramps-project.org/
and Gramps-Connect here:
http://gramps-connect.org/
Yair Tenorio
21 March 2014 @ 11:14 pm
Hello my name is Yair I am from México and I am agree with Carey Parks, it would be great to have an App for iPad iPhone or similar devices. I mean tablets and móvil phones. I have my mother´s family tree, 5 generations ago and I am planing to do my father family tree, In my experience some times you do not have Access to a PC or an scanner, but a cellphone or Tablet is a powerfull device to up date your tree, sometimes pictures or documents are imposible to add to your tree or your family can not give you a pic to pass it to a digital format (for many reasons) so you can just take a pic with your phone or whatever and with a good on-line plataform you can up-date your tree !on the go¡ I think it opens a wide rank of oportunities. I hope that in a near future you could develop an app with this characteristics, you are doing a great job. Keep forward.
Shimmy
12 May 2015 @ 12:29 am
This is awesome!
I’m really looking forward to immigrate all my data and leave MyHeritage permanently.
Heritage data I contribute and MyHeritage sells for money, is not something I should pay for!!!
John P
17 December 2015 @ 1:52 am
For gramps-connect.org I get
NOTICE: This domain name expired on 11/15/2015 and is pending renewal or deletion.
Is gramps-connect dead or in hiding? Ancestry just announced the end of ftm so a lot of people will be looking for a replacement and in this day and age, possibly a web based version.
Tarun
23 May 2017 @ 11:34 am
I think in this day and age we need an open-source, online, collaborative family tree platform. Is gramps-connect.org abandoned? Any progress on a newer online collaborative version?
Doug Blank
23 May 2017 @ 4:14 pm
I completely agree that we need an open source, online family tree platform. The Gramps Connect project has been reimagined as gPrime. You can find out more about it here: https://github.com/GenealogyCollective/gprime#gprime