Snow makes Family Trees grow

Well, what do you do when there's ice on the cut - apart from stay put, that is?

In my case, having caught up with all the emails, canal forums and news groups, I (John) decided it was time to stop procrastinating and get my teeth into the web site again.

FIrst task is to upgrade the software that makes it all work, to the latest versions. In our case that means the content management system Joomla! and the family history program PhpGedView. Is he talking a foreign language, you might well be thinking. Well no. Just technical stuff that is actually quite easy to understand, if it's spelt out in English.

I'm sure you've noticed that our website has a link to "Family Tree" - and if you've tried clicking on it you'll know its the SLEE / BOOTH Family Tree - now there's a surprise - well it is if you didn't know Fiona SLEE was once Fiona BOOTH. Genealogy is a hobby of ours, as you will know, if you are a regular reader of this blog. Most recently we've been retracing Fiona's family around Rugby. We've nearly 7000 individuals on our tree - maybe you're related!

Before I get technical again, let me just report that I have fixed a bug or two on the Family Tree side - so if you have tried using it recently, and had an error message, it's worth trying again now.

The computer program that runs the Family Tree bit of our website runs using the PHP language. The standard format for storing all that information is a GEDCOM file - an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. And PhpGedView allows you to view the information in a way that makes sense of it all. The program has been upgraded to a new version this month, and some of its bells and whistles are really worth having. Rather than make the changes to the websitea bit at a time, I've got a mirror image of the website on my laptop, and I'm currently testing to see if everything will work OK. When I'm satisfied it's all working, I'll overwrite the website with the new version, and make a grand announcement!!!!!

"What about Joomla!?", I'm sure you're asking. I'll explain that another day (if FIona lets me - if not, and you're into techie stuff, you'll have to follow this link.)

I see it's sleeting again outside, so it looks like we're going to be here for a few more days - so plenty of time for website development :-) The wind is getting up a bit too, but not as bad as they forecast yet. We'll report again tomorrow.

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