Gramps 4.0.0 released

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 at 8:05 pm by

Version 4.0.0, the “The Miracle of Birth”, has been released. 

This is a major release, don’t upgrade before verifying your system can run it.
As one of the very first big ($5.4 millions), multi-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, …), non-Gnome GTK applications, Gramps makes the jump to GTK 3. At the same time python 2.7 and python 3 are supported, though the last must still be considered experimental. Gramps 4.0 further uses distutils for distribution, so the install sequence is changed.
The Gramps developers have tried to make Gramps 4.0 as identical as possible to 3.4, so no data changes are done, nor are there big interface changes. In other words, a .gramps backup file of version 4.0 will open without problems in Gramps 3.4, giving users the possibility to fully try Gramps 4.0.
Don’t be mistaken though, a huge amount of code is new and changed! In order to bring this release we thank the many developers who helped the GTK support on Mac, Windows and Linux forward. Note however, Gramps 4.0 will only work on a top of a very recent sortware stack. A Windows installer will probably not be available soon. For Linux, current distro’s don’t contain the optional packages in the form Gramps 4.0 needs. All this should make clear you can safely keep using version 3.4 and wait for packagers to catch up. People who cannot upgrade the required components but want to use Gramps 4.0 should use it in Virtualbox.

Before Upgrade

Before you upgrade, make sure your family tree data is secure. The best way to do this is:
  1. Start Gramps 3.4
  2. Open your family tree
  3. Export the family tree to the gramps xml format or the gramps xml package format (which includes your photographs and other media files associated with your family tree data).
    You can do this via menu Family Trees->Backup….
  4. Close this family tree and repeat the above steps for any other family trees you have
  5. Keep the resulting file(s) in a safe place

Overview of big changes

  • Conversion to GTK 3 and use of gobject introspection, GEPS 029
  • Support for python 3, GEPS 031
  • Code reorganization, GEPS 008
  • Autotools is no longer used for building Gramps, distutils is used, GEPS 026
  • Completely reworked localization handling

Overview of visible changes

  • The Gramplet view has been renamed Dashboard. This to avoid an overload of the word Gramplet, and to make it more clear to new users what can be expected in this view.
  • GTK 3 uses new themes, so users not on Gnome must set a nice GTK 3 theme to fully appreciate Gramps 4.0. Install a GTK 3 theme and set it. If Gramps looks ugly, you made an error in this step.
  • Different sidebar navigators can be installed.
  • New Ancestor Fan Chart View and Descendant Fan Chart View, which offer a lot of insight in your family tree on a small space. Direct printing is available from these views.
  • All wizards are reworked, so the exporter dialog, help and bug report dialog are different from version 3.4, but offer the same functions
  • New To Do Gramplets listing all To Do Notes
  • More reports support output in a different language than the interface language
  • Narrative Web has been reworked to make it more stable.

Installation status

OS X: Mac OS X will see an official installer shortly after release with all components
Linux: We expect Linux packages for different distributions. Gramps 4.0 will only work on distributions released since October 2012, use virtualbox for older distributions. Some optional dependencies are not available yet on most distribution at the time of release. If you want those, you need to install them from source, see Ubuntu derivatives walkthrough in the installation guide for these. Specifically for Ubuntu derivatives spell checking, geography view and exiv image data require installation of source components.
Windows: Much work has been done the last months to obtain the stack needed for Gramps on Windows. At the moment only a rough guide on source installation is present. We hope this will allow windows developers to construct an AIO installer as for the 3.4 version.
See the Changelog for more details.
You can get Gramps 4.0.0 from the download page.

Filed Under: Gramps Releases, News

13 Comments

  • Daniel

    24 May 2013 @ 6:06 am

    Is it now the default view for the tree itself to be off center? In 4.0, the chart is off center toward the top and I cannot see a way to change it.

  • Stephan Wagner

    31 May 2013 @ 12:40 pm

    The Descendant Fan Chart is a really lovely new feature. At a glance, the weightings within the family tree will be obvious at a glance.

    Thank for the work, Stephan

  • Jason

    8 June 2013 @ 1:21 am

    Ok, Im just a regular old bloke. Where is the link to download the 4.0 (latest) version? I keep seeing the older version. I’m using Windows XP. Is 4.0 available for me yet or do I keep waiting?

  • Benny

    8 June 2013 @ 7:21 pm

    Windows version is not available at the moment as a simple installer, only Apple and Linux. It does work on windows though, see the release notes above, section Installation status / Windows

  • Robin

    10 June 2013 @ 2:42 am

    I downloaded on Mountain Lion and it seems to work, except I imported a GEDCOM and got an error message when I tried to create a report (that it couldn’t find the report file). Plus I’m not sure where the working directory is for this or where it is supposed to be? Any suggestions?

  • jason

    12 June 2013 @ 5:28 am

    lol. thanks Benny. I guess i’ll have to wait until the computer guys develop one for Windows because i have NO idea what all that means,…hehe..thanks anyhow!

  • JGS

    15 June 2013 @ 2:57 am

    I am on a Macbook Pro and looking for some genealogy software. Although your website announces a 4.0.0 version (May 2013) and your comments in the blog indicate that it is available for Mac (Benny – June 8, 2913) – the only version of Gramps software on the download site is 3.4.5-1 version…

    Have I misunderstood something…?????

    Thanks.

  • Benny

    15 June 2013 @ 1:36 pm

    3.4.5 was the version released last, as an update to 3.4.4. You need to go to the stable section of the files, and click on 4.0.0. See: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gramps/files/Stable/
    Note that 4.0.0 has some known bugs that soon will be fixed via 4.0.1

  • philip

    15 October 2013 @ 10:20 am

    when is Gramps 4.0 coming for windows

  • Benny

    24 October 2013 @ 12:48 pm

    On the devel list an experimental windows AIO installer has been presented. I believe it is being further tested as there were some problems. I’ll not post the link here, see the devel mail archives of 1 oktober 2013 for the link to an exe, but read the entire tread for known issues!

  • Journal de recherche – oubliez tout ce que je vous ai raconté ! | arbogastearbogast

    Pingback — 2 December 2013 @ 12:32 am

    […] d’un tel outils.Il y a eu ensuite une meilleure prise en main de gramps et son évolution vers la version 4. Je peux désormais avoir des informations équivalentes à mon journal de recherche […]

  • Rob Hoyt

    18 April 2014 @ 1:23 am

    UGH! Every page says to not download before you know your system can handle it – but nowhere does it say where the system requirements are???

  • Benny

    2 May 2014 @ 12:01 am

    Your system can handle it, don’t worry. You just might have to install also dependencies that Gramps needs.

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