5 replies to this topic

[GlenB]

I have a number of people that have new information on FSFT and I am working through the FamilySearch Center list to compare them and update as desired.

Normally it is on the "Share data" tab as I compare and import some facts. After I have done as much of that as I want, I switch to the "Sources" tab.

As you can see in the screen clip below, it thinks there is 1 (one) source that I could consider.

Normally, both sides of the comparison would say "Loading..." as it gathered and sorted the information from both sides to show me.

But in this instance, it did not say loading and never presented that one source for me to consider.

This is NOT a one time event, has happened dozens of times during the import of data from roughly 2500 people (so far).

 

 

I went back to Share Data, edited the RM person and saved, then back to Share Data. Now it says there are no Sources to check. But if I click on Sources anyway it says Loading.... and never finds anything --- which seems to make sense except what happened to the Source it thought was there before?

 

So I ignore for now the fact that I might have missed something (I could add him to a QuickGroup and check again later) and I move on to the next person in the list. The Share data comparison of facts all seems to work OK. It says there are 27 sources for me to consider. I click on "Sources(27)" and it says Loading... on both panels. But 10 minutes later, nothing has appeared. The screen is not frozen, I can go back and forth, but the Sources never appear.

 

The only way I have found to recover is to close the FS Person Tools, close FS Center, and then re-open it and continue.

[Renee Zamora]

Where did the import of the 2500 people come from? Was it FamilySearch?

 

As I was testing this FamilySearch was being extremely slow in loading. If this is just happening today then I wouldn't be surprised if they are working on the site today. 

[GlenB]

Yup, all 2500 from FS over the past week or two - I'm sure you recall the issues I was having with "new" types of facts getting created.

 

I'm willing to accept that slow FS can cause this. But this is not just a "today" event - it has happened many times over several weeks which sounds like I have improbably poor luck.

 

But even if that is the cause, the slowness seems to leave RM in a state where it can no longer successfully execute the function of going to get the sources, even though it can still go and get the facts. RM needs to recognize the error and time out, close and reopen the connection, and keep going. All internet communication is non-deterministic, and depending on your protocol maybe not even guaranteed to respond. That puts the onus on the application to have timeouts and detect communications failures and gracefully recover. As we know in all software the primary code path gets well used and well tested, and the support issues seem forever to be on rarely executed error recovery paths. Been there, done that.

[Renee Zamora]

If you imported from FamilySearch then there would be no hidden sources in RM. In fact you get no sources when importing from FamilySearch. You have to visit their Sources tab to add them.

 

So the count being wrong is coming from the FamilySearch side. That side could have some issues with phantom sources there. FamilySearch is trying to clean up duplicates record collections and that can leave these odd remnants. I don't think that would explain how it appears and then disappears on reload. 

 

RootsTech begins Feb 28, 2018 and FamilySearch has been preparing for it. There have been issues with the site being up and down in different areas for several weeks now. I don't know if that explains what you are seeing, but we will have to address it after RootsTech ends on March 3, 2018.

 

If you come across one of those FSIDs where there are no sources but the count is there give it to me. Then I can test it. I looked at the one in your screen shot and they have 2 sources right now. 

[GlenB]

You might be right that it's a phantom on the FS side. They have a very low bar on data quality because they want it open to everyone ... regardless of capability! Sigh.

 

When I said I imported from FS I meant only that I used your FS Person Tools to add people to RM (yes, thousands of them over weeks as I've been heavily working on a new family database). Having done that for each person, there are NO sources in RM for that person and I go to the FS Sources tab to find and select the Sources I want to bring across to my RM database, as you explained.

 

It is when I go to the Sources tab (if the count is non-zero) that it USUALLY says Loading... and then shows them to me. But in the instances I'm complaining about it never presents anything. I was only in trying to narrow down for this Forum posting exactly what was and was not happening that I tried messing around and went back and THEN saw that what was previously Sources(1) had changed to Sources(0), and now, as you say, it is Sources(2). So maybe someone is messing around in FS on this guy. That's OK and not your problem.

 

I'm not as worried about the 1--0--2 count changes as I am about the whole FS Person Tools getting blocked from getting ANY sources on ANY person after this "thing" happens.

 

Good luck with RootsTech.

[Renee Zamora]

Odd things can happen if someone is editing the FamilySearch person the same time as you. Fun way to meet a cousin.