In this window, type the command to go to the directory where you installed GeneWeb:
cd /home/smith/geneweb
cd c:\soft\geneweb
For example, if you type:
gwd -helpyou must see something like this:
Usage: gwd [args] -hd dir: directory where the directory lang is installed -cgi query addr: called from a cgi-bin -p #: port number; greater than 1024 for normal users -wizard passwd: access to all dates and base updating -friend passwd: access to all dates -only address: only inet address accepted
GeneWeb databases are directories with the extension ".gwb".
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:
gwc -o smith
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:
ged2gwb foo.ged -o smith
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:
*** Ok
Always in the interactive window, type:
gwd
This command launches the GeneWeb "daemon". The command must display:
GeneWeb 1.0 - Copyright (c) INRIA 1998 Possible addresses: http://localhost:2317/base http://127.0.0.1:2317/base http://address:2317/base where "base" is the name of the data base Type control C to stop the service Ready (day) (hour) port 2317...
Note that you do not see the prompt in the interactive window. This program is waiting for requests you will send it through your Web navigator. When it receives one, it treats it and waits again. To stop it, 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. Warning: do not put the complete name (like "c:\geneweb\smith" or "/home/geneweb/smith"), just "smith".
http://localhost:2317/smith
You must see GeneWeb's welcome page in french.
[If this does not work, click here]
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).
From there, you can consult as a classical Web service, clicking on links and buttons, fill areas, etc. Hint: in a first stage, click on "Ok" after "All surnames by alphabetic order", then in the new page which appears: "the whole list". Select a surname, then a person, etc, and navigate.
The only possible thing to do is create persons and families. Click on "Add a family". The explanation documentation of this part is not yet written. If you are a little curious, try even to. The different areas to fill are supposed to be self explicative. Searching a little, you will understand the usage of the different areas.
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.
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:
consang smith
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.
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:
gwu smith > foo.gw
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:
gwc foo.gw -o jones
The configurable values are the following:
body_prop=background=mybackg.jpg vlink=yellow
This applies not only to the welcome page but to all displayed pages for this base.
If you set a value to this variable, only persons who have put the password on the welcome page will have access to these datas.
If you set a value to this variable, only persons who have put the password on the welcome page will have access to modifications.
Note that whatever language is selected by default, you can choose another one in the welcome page by clicking in the table at the end of the page.
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".
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.
Return to Directions for Use.