Quick Views
Quick Views (previously called Quick reports but show up in "Available Gramps Update for Addons" as Quickreport) are reports that are available in the context menu's of person, family, et cetera. There are a set of builtin Quick Views that can be expanded with addon QuickView type plug-ins.
People with limited coding knowledge should be able to make them.
Contents
Introduction
Many users want to produce a report quickly for their specific needs, but are hindered by the fact they do not want to learn python fully, nor the intricacies of a complicated program like Gramps.
For them, starting with Gramps 3.0 a tool was constructed: the Quick Views short textual reports that the user can register with Gramps, so they automatically appear in the context menu's.
Accompanying this, a simple database access and simple document interface has been constructed, so as to hide as much complexity as possible.
Where to store my Quick View
A Quick View is normally composed of two files in its own subdirectory, that are stored under your User plugins directory. Go into your home folder and go to the hidden subdirectory .gramps. In this directory you will find the plugins subdirectory. Just add your plugin there, and it will appear within Gramps.
For the terminal users, you can get there as follows:
cd ~/.gramps/grampsxx/plugins
Example 1
Code
How better than to learn something than using an example?
Here it goes. We want a report to show all siblings of a person.
That is, brothers and sisters from all families the person is part of.
The quick report is then the following:
siblings2.gpr.py
You first need a Gramps registration (*.gpr.py) file so create a python file named Siblings.gpr.py and add the following content:
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
# File: siblings.gpr.py
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
register(QUICKREPORT,
id = 'siblings2',
name = _("Siblings2 - Example Quick View"),
description = _("Display a person's siblings."),
version = '0.1',
gramps_target_version = '5.2',
status = STABLE,
fname = 'siblings2.py',
authors = ["Your Name Here"],
authors_email = ["Your @ Email address here"],
category = CATEGORY_QR_PERSON,
runfunc = 'run'
)
siblings2.py
Now create a python file named siblings.py and add the following content:
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
# File: siblings2.py
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
from gramps.gen.simple import SimpleAccess, SimpleDoc
from gramps.gui.plug.quick import QuickTable
from gramps.gen.const import GRAMPS_LOCALE as glocale
_ = glocale.translation.gettext
def run(database, document, person):
"""
Loops through the families that the person is a child in, and display
the information about the other children.
"""
# setup the simple access functions
sdb = SimpleAccess(database)
sdoc = SimpleDoc(document)
# display the title
sdoc.title(_("Siblings of %s") % sdb.name(person))
sdoc.paragraph("")
# grab our current id, so we can filter the active person out
# of the data
gid = sdb.gid(person)
stab = QuickTable(sdb)
sdoc.header1(_("Siblings"))
stab.columns(_("Person"),
_("Gender"),
_("Date"))
# loop through each family in which the person is a child
for family in sdb.child_in(person):
# loop through each child in the family
for child in sdb.children(family):
# only display if this child is not the active person
if sdb.gid(child) != gid:
stab.row(child,
sdb.gender(child),
sdb.birth_date(child))
document.has_data = True
stab.write(sdoc)
Analysis: registering the report
Let's analyse the siblings2.gpr.py file above. We start at the bottom where the report is registered with register. This is the function Gramps will look for in your file. You need to give:
- name = a unique name: a name Gramps identifies the plugin with, don't use spaces or strange symbols. In this case, we add a '2' to the name to avoid conflicts with the builtin siblings quickview.
- category = a special constant indicating where the report will be shown. You can use CATEGORY_QR_PERSON to see the report on person editor and view, or CATEGORY_QR_FAMILY to see the report on family editor or view. (CATEGORY_QR_DATE is for reports that can be embedded in other reports since there is no "Date" category.)
- run_func = the function you create in this plugin and that Gramps will execute when the user selects your quick report in the menu
- translated_name = the name of the report as it will appear in the menu
- status = is your report Stable, Unstable, Experimental and Beta
- description = a description of what your plugin does. This appears in a tooltip over the menu
- author_name = your name
- author_email= your email, so people can congratulate you with your work, or ask for bug fixes...
And beginning with Gramps 5.2 version, there are additional registration properties:
- help_url = a webpage that will be opened when using the Help
- audience = filtering options: ‘All’, ‘Developer’ and ‘Expert’.
- maintainers = name of person currently maintaining the addon, if different from the author_name
- maintainers_email = email of person currently maintaining the addon, if different from the author_email
- requires_mod, requires_gi, requires_exe = if the addon has prerequisites.
Analysis: the run function
Now lets analyse the siblings.py file.
If the user clicks in the quick view report menu on your report, the run function is executed with the following three parameters:
run(database, document, person)
So, your report receives from Gramps the currently opened database name on which to work, the document on which to write, and the person of the object the user is on. For a person quick view report, this is a person, for family, a family.
In this example, the function called is
def run(database, document, person):
Analysis: accessing the data
Now that your plugin runs, you need to open the database, start the document, access data, and write it out. We do this using the Simple Database API.
So, the following code:
# setup the simple access functions sdb = SimpleAccess(database) sdoc = SimpleDoc(document)
prepares everything. Then we write a title on the document, an empty line under it, and a header, with the title, paragraph and header function:
# display the title
sdoc.title(_("Siblings of %s") % sdb.name(person))
sdoc.paragraph("")
Note that we use an underscore (_) to indicate every string that requires translation, which comes from the line:
from gramps.gen.ggettext import gettext as _
Everything is set up, now we write out the lines with all the siblings, leaving out the active person himself, as he is in the title field!
# grab our current id, so we can filter the active person out
# of the data
gid = sdb.gid(person)
# loop through each family in which the person is a child
for family in sdb.child_in(person):
# loop through each child in the family
for child in sdb.children(family):
# only display if this child is not the active person
if sdb.gid(child) != gid:
stab.row(child,
sdb.gender(child),
sdb.birth_date(child))
document.has_data = True
stab.write(sdoc)
Here, the easy access classes from the Simple Access API have been used to quickly achieve what we want.
Example 2
A second example can be found in the Gramps code. See all_events.py. In this report, all events for a person are printed, and all events for a family. Two quick reports are hence registered, one for person, and one for family.
Notes
The possibilities are enormous. If you are an experienced programmer, there is no need to limit yourself to the simple database API. Also, if you make a real report, you can at the same time register a quick report with default settings.
See: https://github.com/gramps-project/gramps/tree/master/gramps/plugins/quickview
