FAQ:Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous Questions

How do I set which Gedcom file to use on the URL?

Normally you would change the currently active Gedcom using the Welcome Page menu. However, you may often want to link into a specific Gedcom from another page. This can be done by setting the "ged" parameter on the URL. For example, if you have two gedcoms on your site: gedcom1.ged and gedcom2.ged you could link to the pedigree chart for these gedcoms using the following urls:
http://www.mysite.com/phpGedView/pedigree.php?ged=gedcom1.ged
http://www.mysite.com/phpGedView/pedigree.php?ged=gedcom2.ged

How do I set the default theme?

• Login as an administrator and go to the Admin->Manage Gedcoms and Edit Privacy page.
• Click on the link to edit the gedcom configuration
• Find the setting for "Theme directory" (should be the second to last setting in the basic configuration settings)
• Choose a theme from the list or type the theme directory into the field and save the configuration.

Note: if you have enabled the option for users to set their own theme in the site configuration, then when users login they will be able to change the theme in their user account settings.

What should I do if verification email links are not correct?

If you get registration or verification emails from PGV with incorrect links in them such as http://www.mygenealogy.com/index.php instead of http://www.mygenealogy.com/phpGedView/index.php it usually means that you need to change the phpGedView configuration for the Site URL.

To fix this, login as an administrator and go to the Admin->Configuration page. Then change the site url to the location of your phpGedView installation. You usually only need to change this value from its default setting if you want to use your server under HTTPS instead of HTTP.

Many people confuse this setting with the Gedcom configuration for the home page URL because they want to include a link to their main genealogy page. This setting can be found at the Admin->Manage Gedcoms->Edit Configuration page.

How can I change Gedcoms using a URL?

You can change the currently active Gedcom on any page in PGV by specifying the "ged" parameter on the URL.

Here are some example URLS showing how to do this:

• phpGedView/index.php?command=gedcom&ged=gedcom1.ged
• phpGedView/pedigree.php?ged=gedcom2.ged
• phpGedView/indilist.php?ged=gedcom3.ged
• phpGedView/individual.php?pid=I1&ged=gedcom4.ged

Why are siblings not sorted by age by default?

The reason for not automatically sorting by birth date is for those families where you know the correct ordering of the children, but do not have all of the birthdates. If we added automatic date sorting by default someone would surely post a bug saying the children are out of order ;). The convention used by all genealogy programs is to display siblings in the order that they are listed in the GEDCOM, though most have an option to resort the sibling order.

Starting from version 3.3 there is an option to reorder or sort the children in a family (available if editing is enabled). To sort the children in a family, go to the family page and click on the reorder children link. Then you can click the sort by birth date button.

How can I prevent Search Engine Bots from using All My Available Bandwidth?

See How to restrict bot access.

How does a beginner user ask a question and receive an answer?

Questions should be directed to the phpGedView forums that are located here. Once your question has been asked then you might wish to move it to the wiki so other people can search for it here as well.

Does any ISP offer an account on a system where PGV is already installed?

Web Hosting services for phpGedView can be accessed at ($) here or (free) here ... and there are others as well!

Can I export my edited data into a gedcom file? If so, can I restrict the export and how?

Yes.

THE FAMILY TREE CLIPPINGS CART

The Clippings Cart allows you to take extracts ("clippings") from this family tree and bundle them up into a single file for downloading and subsequent importing into your own genealogy program. The downloadable file is recorded in GEDCOM format.

• How to take clippings?
  • This is really simple. Whenever you see a clickable name (individual, family, or source) you can go to the Details page of that name. There you will see the Add to Clippings Cart option. When you click that link you will be offered several options to download.
• How to download?
  • Once you have items in your cart, you can download them just by clicking the Download Now link. Follow the instructions and links.

How do I upgrade to the current version of PhpGedView from version X.XX?

• See Upgrade

How do I handle children born out of wedlock when there is no idea who the father is?

The most precise way to do this is to first add the child as an unlinked person.

Go to Administration page.

Under "Data and GEDCOM Administration", click on "Add an Unlinked Person".

Fill in all known information for the child.

Review and Accept your changes if you are not set up to automatically accept changes.

Find the child in your Individual List.

From the child's individual page, go to "Quick Update" under Edit Menu.

Under "Family with Parents" tab, find and enter mother's ID number.

If the mother has more than one such child, you can either repeat this to add a separate family for each child, or just add the additional children to the family which was created when you linked the first child.

It is possible to do this by adding a "husband" named Unknown to the mother, but this is technically incorrect, since you end up with a person named Unknown, rather than an unknown person which is shown by (unknown)(unknown). I have wasted a lot of time in the past removing the name "Unknown" from imported GEDCOM records because others didn't understand this distinction.

Another variation to that, is this.... You can add the child's father (this would be for women tht have more than 2 children with different fathers out of wedlock), by using the word /FATHER/ "Child's Name", and replace the child's name with the actual name. This can help to differentiate which child belongs to which father, and removes the "Unknown" variable to some degree. You could even change the /FATHER/ to read something like /BIO-FATHER/ or whatever variation you like.