4 replies to this topic

[RyHendrix]

Hello,

 

I did the auto-clean for names, addresses, and dates to conform them.  But now when I go to sync the changes to my Ancestry tree, I have to manually tell it to update each fact for each person on multiple lines.  Am I missing something, or is this legitimately going to take months to sync what took minutes to fix?

[Vyger]

Hello,

 

I did the auto-clean for names, addresses, and dates to conform them.  But now when I go to sync the changes to my Ancestry tree, I have to manually tell it to update each fact for each person on multiple lines.  Am I missing something, or is this legitimately going to take months to sync what took minutes to fix?

 

There is currently no way to update multiple entries and just to state RM does not sync with Ancestry, it shares information.

 

Rootsmagic is my primary platform especially for the utilities you describe so when I make many changes I often just delete the Ancestry tree and then upload the new cleaned up tree, the downside is you upset the accepted/rejected hints.

[Jerry Bryan]

I never "sync" from RM to ancestry because it takes much longer for me to do so than it does to make the changes in RM. Mine are manual changes in RM, not the more automated changes such as you describe. So I'm like Vyger in that I periodically delete my ancestry tree and use TreeShare to make a new one. The only reason I use TreeShare is to get ancestry's Webhints, and like Vyger I lose the already accepted/rejected status for my hints.

 

TreeShare is not a true sync - hence the name is TreeShare rather than TreeSync. TreeShare is a very useful tool for some or many RM users. One obvious and useful application would be for two different users to use TreeShare as a collaboration tool. They would each have an RM database linked to the same ancestry tree. Each could work on their own local copy of an RM database and the two copies would be synced via the mediation of the shared ancestry tree. Two users could do this even now with some effort to do the manual sharing in the absence of a true sync. But the problem they would encounter would be that the data models between RM and ancestry are very different. Certain data would not survive the round trip intact from RM to ancestry and back to RM. The data that doesn't survive might or might not be important to any particular RM user, but it is certainly important to me. Until and unless the data loss problem is solved, would never want to use TreeShare in a bi-directional true sync mode. But it sure would be nice to be able to use it in a one-directional true sync mode so I wouldn't lose my WebHints by deleting and reloading my ancestry tree from RM.

 

Jerry

[Jerry Bryan]

One more comment: even with the manual sharing mode of operation it would speed things up greatly if you could just say to move a person as a whole from RM to ancestry or from ancestry RM without also having to specify each line of data.

 

If I may, let me tell an old and long winded story about RM that's totally unrelated to TreeShare but which at the same time is totally related to TreeShare. Once upon a time, RM introduced a new feature called ShareMerge with much fanfare. The feature is still there, but it currently seems to have very little fanfare. It allows you to export a GEDCOM which is an extract of your RM database, send the GEDCOM to a fellow researcher, have the fellow researcher import the GEDCOM into RM and update it and export it back to you, where you would import it and merge it back into your database. It sounded great. It sounded so great that I tried exporting to myself as a way to have a small database to work on that I could then import back into my main database.

 

But it doesn't work in any practical way. Which is to say, all it does is merge back into your database with RM's standard merge facility. All ShareMerge really does is to do an accurate and automatic matching of individuals in the imported GEDCOM with the people already in your database. But the merging of the data itself, such as different birth dates or birth places in a birth fact, is still a totally manual process. And not only that, since the matching and merging is automatic, there are not even any good traces of where the differences are that you need to reconcile. I therefore quickly abandoned ShareMerge as a good idea that was poorly implemented. What I really needed ShareMerge to do was to have the newly imported people to replace the existing people rather than being merged with them. Or else I needed to do a manual merge but where ShareMerge did the matching for my but not the merging. The situation is not identical to the TreeShare situation, but to me there are strong echos of the same sorts of  problems.

 

Jerry

 

[Vyger]

And not only that, since the matching and merging is automatic, there are not even any good traces of where the differences are that you need to reconcile. I therefore quickly abandoned ShareMerge as a good idea that was poorly implemented.

 

In my opinion the Rootsmagician will be remembered like many of the great composers of the past, not for his completed works but more for his growing number of unfinished symphonies.

 

Having said that I do find great time saving benefits with Sharemerge for different reasons than Jerry which I may well demonstrate when I return from vacation.

 

The problem with finishing those numerous previous and much heralded features is there is no commercial benefit in doing so, only pride in the product could drive that objective. I have been with Family Origins/Rootsmagic long enough to remember the days when every "why can't I..." question was eventually met by "now you can..." if the user need was a valid one. Sadly my observation of Rootsmagic in the recent years is to release such unique selling point features but never bring them to maturity following user feedback, this is a disappointing regression in development strategy.

 

In regards to this recurring topic of multiple updates and "syncing" to Ancestry, which I would never use, I now believe the following should be the goal to attempt to please all users with interest;

 

1. Button to Sync All Changes followed by optional direction selection of RM>Ancestry, Ancestry>RM or Both, and, as a disclaimer, I would follow any such selections with a dialogue warning users of the implications of their actions.

 

2. Button to Sync Selected where several individuals could be selected for update with the same follow on selections and warning.

 

Like the many previous unfinished symphonies I would doubt there is much commercial advantage in finishing this one. I'm truly sorry to be a cynic and post negativity but my confidence in the pride and desire of Rootsmagic to deliver a complete and quality product has been severely dented over the last ~10 years.

 

All above are my personal opinions only.