Monday 2 October 2017

More on SVG Family Trees

 

Following my previous post on Interactive Trees in Blogs Using SVG, a number of people have signed-up to try the free utility for designing and generating their SVG trees.

 

These people have explored the possibilities and made valuable suggestions, including some with developer experience, and including one person running it under the WINE compatibility layer on a Mac (it was designed to run under Windows).

 

 

With the release of v3.0, the utility became a proper product rather than just a POC, and a number of enhancements and fixes were applied during the sub-releases of v3.0. These culminated in thumbnail images being supported in the browser output, and by the Tree Designer’s Edit-Person form, in v3.2.0.

 

An installation kit, documentation, and samples were placed in a Dropbox folder from where they can be downloaded by people who sign-up (either by contacting me via email, or from the right-hand panel of my blog).

 

The main purpose of this post is to announce the release of v4.0 of the utility, and to demonstrate a couple of the new features. The following is a summary of the new features, in roughly chronological order:

 

  • Implemented 'id=' attributes on person-boxes so that they can be referenced by URLs and scrolled into view. This allows narrative text to reference specific person boxes in an SVG tree.
  • Support for images and captions together in the Tree Designer person boxes, as per the browser output.
  • Implemented multiple-selection of persons via Ctrl+Click operations. Affects interpretation of Copy-Person and Delete-Person operations.
  • Implemented menu options to copy and paste persons or families (e.g. between different sessions).
  • Include optional pan-zoom support for browser from external source. This allows the contents of specific SVG images to be panned and zooomed (see user guide).
  • Changed border and text of empty boxes to faint grey to avoid them being too obtrusive.
  • The Tree Designer’s window size and position are now saved and restored. It is no longer always maximized.
  • Implemented zoom control in Tree Designer via menu options, and Ctrl/+ or Ctrl/- keystrokes (very similar to Web browsers).
  • Added simple HTML toolbar to help with editing person and family notes.
  • Implemented a RootKey parameter to emphasise the direct-line of a particular person up through ancestral generations.

 

One of the features I especially want to present is the Pan-Zoom feature. This uses open-source Javascript code to allow a user to navigate around a specific SVG tree image. It eliminates the need for both clunky scrollbars and the standard browser zoom support, which affects the whole page.

 

The first example is a tree that includes both images and captions in each of the boxes. Tooltips are enabled if you let the mouse hover over a box or a family circle. The +/Reset/- control in the bottom-right corner shows that the Pan-Zoom code is active, and so you can navigate around the tree and magnify/shrink it. Also, clicking on a box expands the picture into a separate tab.

 

Generated by Parallax View's SVG Family-Tree Generator V5.1.4. See https://parallax-viewpoint.blogspot.com/2018/09/svg-family-tree-generator-v50.html Married 2 Oct 1858 at Nottingham St Nicholas. married 21 Nov 1872 at Gloucester St Catharine. Married 29 Nov 1891 at Nottingham Emmanuel. b. 1833 in Nottingham; Bpt: 20 Jan 1833 at St. Mary's, Nottingham. d. 1910 in Nottingham aged 77. Bur: Church Cemetery, Nottingham., common grave 8123 in St Ann's Valley, on 24 May 1910. Henry Proctor b. 1833 in Nottingham; Bpt: 20 Jan 1833 at St. Mary's, Nottingham. d. 1910 in Nottingham aged 77. Bur: Church Cemetery, Nottingham., common grave 8123 in St Ann's Valley, on 24 May 1910. b. 1834 in Maidstone, Kent. d. 1905 in Nottingham. Elizabeth Turton b. 1834 in Maidstone, Kent. d. 1905 in Nottingham. b. c1833 in Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire. Licensed victualler at Worcester Arms, Worcester St, Cheltenham. d. 1883 in Cheltenham. William Stanton b. c1833 in Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire. Licensed victualler at Worcester Arms, Worcester St, Cheltenham. d. 1883 in Cheltenham. b. 1834 in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. d. 22 Apr 1924 at 59 Norland Rd, Nottingham. Emma J. Ashbee b. 1834 in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. d. 22 Apr 1924 at 59 Norland Rd, Nottingham. b. 21 Apr 1870 in Nottingham. d. 12 Dec 1950 aged 80. Addr: 33 Young St. Bur: 15 Dec 1950 at Wilford Hill. Gr: G34/51. William H. Proctor b. 21 Apr 1870 in Nottingham. d. 12 Dec 1950 aged 80. Addr: 33 Young St. Bur: 15 Dec 1950 at Wilford Hill. Gr: G34/51. b. 1873 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. d. 10 Jun 1956 in Nottingham. Bur: 13 Jun 1956 at Wilford Hill. Gr: G34/51. Annie E. I. Stanton b. 1873 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. d. 10 Jun 1956 in Nottingham. Bur: 13 Jun 1956 at Wilford Hill. Gr: G34/51.

 

The second example shows a tree in the vertical orientation. This has the information panels enabled so clicking on a box or family circle will pop-up a panel with historical or biographical details below the tree — Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click on the boxes or circles will dismiss those panels. This tree also incorporates the Pan-Zoom code.

 

Generated by Parallax View's SVG Family-Tree Generator V5.1.4. See https://parallax-viewpoint.blogspot.com/2018/09/svg-family-tree-generator-v50.html William Ashbee (1803–1870) Ann Hayward (1801–1869) Thomas Ashbee (1826–1891) John Ashbee (1831–1912) Emma Jane Ashbee (1834–1924) William Stanton (1833–?) Mary Sandford (1834–1871) William Ashbee (1836–1907) Mary Ann Hale (1844–1890) Annie Emma Isabel Stanton (1873–1956) William Henry Proctor (1870–1950) Helenor Gertrude Norton (1868–1902) William Henry Ashbee (1866–1922) Evelyn A. Graham (1884–1918) Mary Phyllis Ashbee (1905–1984) Evelyn Ashbee (1909–1997) Patricia Ann Ashbee (1910–1973)


 

Notice that the panel for Mary Ashbee includes links to blog articles that mention her, as well as an image of her. Because such content is HTML-based then it can also include footnotes, tables, document scans, and more.

 

A larger example of Pan-Zoom that also incorporates the new direct-line RootKey feature may be found at Fieg & Sheehan Family, courtesy of Robert Fieg.

 

The tool to generate these trees is now freely shared with the genealogy blogging community. Since the time of writing, it has undergone many improvements, including thumbnail images and searchable photos. See SVG-FTG Summary.