A Tidbit about Drag and Drop Problems

#1 · 2019-04-12, 11:21 pm

Quote from thejerrybryan on 2019-04-12, 11:21 pm
This is in reference to Paul Harris's message about Drag and Drop on the RM forums http://forums.rootsmagic.com/index.php?/topic/19084-range-check-error/#entry93533 and in reference to Tom's comprehensive list of Drag and Drop problems https://sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com/gedcom-dnd-transfer-losses/.
I may be missing the following in Tom's article, but I think the following may need to be added. The first one is extremely subtle. Built-in source templates that are used in the database are not included in exported GEDCOM. I think the concept is that they don't need to be included because they cannot be changed by the user and the receiving RM system will know the contents of such source templates without them being in the GEDCOM. The only problem (and this is why it's so subtle) is if a user corrects an error (an out of place comma, for example) in a built-in source template using SQLite the correction will be lost on Drag and Drop. I don't think a user should make such a correction. Instead, I think they should copy the built-in source template with the error, correct the error in the copy, and use the copy instead of the original template. In any case, it will be interesting to see what (if anything) RM8 does about errors in the built-in source templates from RM7.
The other missing item (and I may not be understanding this one correctly) is that customization of sentence templates for built-in fact types is exported in GEDCOM, but such customization may or may not be imported. My understanding that such customization will be imported to a new and empty database, but will not be imported to a non-empty database. Indeed, such customization cannot even be imported to a non-empty database via File>Import Lists. (And as I compose this message, I suspect the same is true even for your own user defined fact types - sentences imported to an empty database but not to a non-empty database, but I haven't tested this variation).
Jerry

P.S. A second problem with the missing source templates is that if a third party software tries to interpret RM's GEDCOM in an intelligent fashion, the built-in source templates will be missing. The only software I know of that is impacted by this problem is GedSite. GedSite tries to compensate for the missing source templates in GEDCOM by hard wiring its version of RM's built in source templates into itself.

This is in reference to Paul Harris's message about Drag and Drop on the RM forums http://forums.rootsmagic.com/index.php?/topic/19084-range-check-error/#entry93533 and in reference to Tom's comprehensive list of Drag and Drop problems https://sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com/gedcom-dnd-transfer-losses/.

I may be missing the following in Tom's article, but I think the following may need to be added. The first one is extremely subtle. Built-in source templates that are used in the database are not included in exported GEDCOM. I think the concept is that they don't need to be included because they cannot be changed by the user and the receiving RM system will know the contents of such source templates without them being in the GEDCOM. The only problem (and this is why it's so subtle) is if a user corrects an error (an out of place comma, for example) in a built-in source template using SQLite the correction will be lost on Drag and Drop. I don't think a user should make such a correction. Instead, I think they should copy the built-in source template with the error, correct the error in the copy, and use the copy instead of the original template. In any case, it will be interesting to see what (if anything) RM8 does about errors in the built-in source templates from RM7.

The other missing item (and I may not be understanding this one correctly) is that customization of sentence templates for built-in fact types is exported in GEDCOM, but such customization may or may not be imported. My understanding that such customization will be imported to a new and empty database, but will not be imported to a non-empty database. Indeed, such customization cannot even be imported to a non-empty database via File>Import Lists. (And as I compose this message, I suspect the same is true even for your own user defined fact types - sentences imported to an empty database but not to a non-empty database, but I haven't tested this variation).

Jerry

P.S. A second problem with the missing source templates is that if a third party software tries to interpret RM's GEDCOM in an intelligent fashion, the built-in source templates will be missing. The only software I know of that is impacted by this problem is GedSite. GedSite tries to compensate for the missing source templates in GEDCOM by hard wiring its version of RM's built in source templates into itself.