GeneWeb - Instructions for Use

The following documentation holds an introdution to GeneWeb with a succint description of commands and files, in order to be able to start. The detailed documentation is not yet written. If you already have a GeneWeb base with an old version, this base id not necessarily compatible. Please see here to see how to update it.

If you want to send a bug report, remarks, suggestions, see this page.

Introduction

To configure and start GeneWeb, you must use interactive commands. Under Unix, launch an xterm. Under Window 95/NT, click on "Start", "Programs" ans "Commands MSDOS".

In this window, type the command to go to the directory where you installed GeneWeb:

All GeneWeb commands can be launched with the option -help which displays the different possible options, with a short explanation.

For example, if you type:

you must see something like this:

GeneWeb databases are directories with the extension ".gwb".

Command gwc

To use GeneWeb, you must create a database. You can do it either with this command "gwc", or with "ged2gwb", following section.

The command "gwc", in its simplest usage, creates an empty database: under GeneWeb, you will be able to fill it.

You must give a name to this base. Any name is available. Preferably, do not use more than 8 characters.

For example, if you want to call it "smith", type:

Command ged2gwb

Another way to create a GeneWeb database is to start from a GEDCOM file.

The command "ged2gwb" allows you to convert a GEDCOM file into a GeneWeb database.

The simplest way is to first copy your GEDCOM file in the directory where you installed GeneWeb. Do it with you usual method to copy files, either with an interactive command, or by moving icons.

If your GEDCOM file is named, for example, "foo.ged" and you want to create a base named "smith", type:

The command is somewhat verbose, especially if it discovers errors in the GEDCOM file. Ignore these errors in a first stage: your database will be build even so. If everything is allright, the command must end by:

Command gwd

Once you created a base, with one of the two above commands, you can consult and extend it.

Always in the interactive window, type:

This command launches the GeneWeb "daemon". This program wait for requests you will send it through your Web navigator. The command must display:

Note that you do not see the prompt in the interactive window. The daemon is waiting. When it receives a request, it treats it and will stop only when you type control-C.

Now, you can really start. Since you consult this documentation, you are using a Web navigator. Take a new window in this navigator and open the following location (replace "smith" with the name of your base):

You must see GeneWeb's welcome page in french. Select another language (english, e.g.) in the language table at the end of the page. There is a way to select a default language different than french. See further.

Meanwhile, you can notice that each time you click on a button or a link, a trace appears on the interactive window. When you make your GeneWeb server work on the network (explanations not yet written), you see the requests sent to your base by this way.

Note that if you type control-C in the interactive window, the service does not answer any more in your navigator. To restart it, just type "gwd" again.

Command consang

This command must be lanched in the interactive window, like the others. If the "gwd" daemon is running, type control-C to stop it. Another way, if you do not want to stop the daemon, constists on launching another interactive window, following the instructions of the introduction above.

The command "consang" computes the consanguinities in a database. The computing of consanguinities is a GeneWeb speciality. The displaying of consanguinities is done when consulting the database, in the personal records and while computing relationships.

But to have access to it, you must pre-compute the individual consanguinities of the persons of the database. This is what "consang" does. If your base's name is "smith", type:

The program will compute some seconds or minutes, depending on the size of your base, and displaying without stopping the number of remaining persons to treat. At the end, you have the prompt again in the interactive window and the individual consanguinities are recorded.

During this computing, if you did not stop the daemon, you can absolutely return to your navigator and consult your base.

Launch "consang" from time to time, if you made modifications in your base, especially if they are adding, modification, deletions of families: the consanguinity depends on the structure of families. If it changes, the individual consanguinities are not yet available and you have to recompute them.

Moreover "consang" makes an internal "cleanup" of the base, necessary after a certain number of updates.

Command gwb2gw

This command displays the contents of the base under a text form. Redirecting this display to a file, it can constitute a saving of your base.

If your base is named "smith", and you want to save it in the file "foo.gw", type:

Saving in different files different versions of your base, you can see the differences, using a command to compare text files, if you have some. This is particularly interesting if someboty has done modifications on your base and you want to know which ones.

This is also a method to reconstitute your base when you take another version of GeneWeb, in the case when the internal representation of bases has been changed.

To reconstitute your base, you must use the command "gwc". The saved file must have the extension ".gw". To build a base named "jones", from the file "foo.gw", type:

File a.cnf

This file holds a configuration template for a database. If your base's name is "smith", make a copy of "a.cnf" calling it "smith.cnf" and edit the file "smith.cnf".

The configurable values are the following:

Directory "lang" - file "lexicon.txt"

This file hold the lexicon of all terms and phrases used in the program. For each, there is a translation in each language. If you want to add a language, choose a code for this language, and add a line with this code to each translation group you see in the file.

Moreover, if one of the proposed translations in one of the languages does not fit you, you can change it.

When you save the file "lexicon.txt", this will be applied immediately in the displaying in your browser. Maybe you just have to click on "reload".

Directory "lang" - subdirectories

Each subdirectory name is a language code. Each holds the default welcome page for this language: the file is named "start.txt".

You can change this welcome page for a given database. For the database "smith" in the language "xx", just make a copy of the file "start.txt" in the directory "xx" naming it "smith.txt". Then edit your file "smith.txt" and make adaptations you want. You can do that or not for each language.

Remark: these files hold HTML code with some particular indications: % signs followed by a letter. These are macros that "gwd" will replace by values. For example, "%t" is replaced by the name of the base, "%b" by the value of "body_prop" of the configuration file, etc.

The complete documentation of these macros is not yet written.


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