The next Generation - version 6
Not so long after my previous review of The Next Generation (TNG) was posted to this site, the developer, Darrin Lythgoe approached and informed me that the latest version was not far from completion. I will admit that I was rather taken aback by this program and its abilities to display genealogical information on-the-fly. But I don't want to get too far ahead for those reading this for the first time.
TNG is aptly named. Where a normal genealogical program gets installed on your home computer, you enter data, then create your web pages (if it has that ability), then you upload those web pages to your website. Therefore you must already own a genealogical package plus an FTP program. Enter TNG; but what is TNG?
Actually, the full title of the program is The Next Generation of Sitebuilding but is often referred to just The Next Generation or simply TNG. As the full title implies, this program builds a web site, but does not reside on your computer. It is designed as a server-side genealogy program. In actual fact, TNG is not even really a program, but a set of templates that use another program on a server to deliver your webpages to your browser.
There are basically two ways to deliver web pages to the world – Static and Dynamic – and this article looks at the latter. In Static, you write from scratch (requiring the need to know to some degree how to write HTML and CSS) or use a program that writes each web page for you, and then upload each single page. Dynamic web pages use templates that link to a script (Common Gateway Interface) and a database, and basically that’s it.
TNG comes delivered to you as a downloadable zip file (811Kb) for the full version (6.0.2), or just 818Kb for the upgrade from 5.x to 6.0.2. There are other combinations available if you have the most recent prior version. Because they are zip files, you will need another program to unzip them, and in addition, at least 2MB hard drive space. As always, save the files to a location that you can remember (ie Desktop).
When TNG is put onto your web server, it basically comes preconfigured so that it can be used "straight from the box". Darrin Lythgoe, the developer of TNG has put together a number of additional templates that you can download. If you have used these templates in the past, you may have to update these for the new version.
What's New in 6.0?
Rather than re-hash what I've already covered from my first review of TNG, this one will cover the new major features. However, in all, there are 121 either new or improved changes to TNG so I will not be able to cover them all, so I might suggest you peruse the entire list at your leisure.
The individual's Descendancy Chart has had a few extra improvements that add a graphical "box" style, with photos (where they exist). This is similar to the Ancestors Chart of version 5 but in a Descendant Chart. To remember what the old version looked like, it was merely a text descendancy as a Standard Format or Register Format. Although the Text and Register options are still present in version 6, two extra options of box style have been introduced. The Standard Format (from v5) is now the Text Format (in v6), and the Register Format remains unchanged. Introduced to v6 are Standard and Compact. The names are fairly self explanatory, and you can select the number of generations to view on the page, but this may mean scrolling if the chart gets too big. Navigation is achieved through clicking (if available) a yellow arrow which may be at either side of the descendant chart.
CAVEAT: Photos in TNG are treated like private information. Living individ- uals who have photos attached will be hidden from public view unless you are granted rights to view such images. If you link the same photo to a deceased person while still linked to a living individual, then it too will not show unless unlinked from the living person.
The Ancestor Chart (a.k.a Pedigree Chart) has not changed too much, but has utilised what is currently referenced as Web 2.0 technology. Called AJAX, in this instance, this collective form of programming allows a person to navigate up and down through an Ancestry Chart without the need for the web page to reload. In previous versions of TNG, when navigating the Ancestor Chart, if there were more links to the left or right off the page, you would click an arrowed link (indicating more information or ancestors) and a new page would load with that information on it. With the use of AJAX in TNGv6, it allows this new information to be displayed without refreshing the screen. In addition to this, because the retrieval of information is less than all the information currently on the page, there is a vast improvement of speed.
Probably the most recognisable difference between the previous and current versions of TNG (by me anyway) was the New Menus. In v5, these were a string of icons that were small (especially on a laptop displaying at 1024*768). Now in v6, they are replaced by an easily read drop menu in three categories - Find, Media and Info - even when using the same display resolution. As can be seen by placing the mouse over the thumbnail image to the right, the Find menu has a selection of important categories, notably, information that you wish to find. Here you will find Surnames, Bookmarks, PLaces, Dates, Cemeteries and a Search facility.
admin area - vastly improved, easier to use as only repository
album - common themes, group media into albums, find more quickly - even attach to families sources, attach videos
reports - printer friendly (v5)
improve timeline feature, indicate relationship
Don't Have A Genealogy Program!
Don't Worry. If you are starting from scratch, you can use TNG as your genealogy program if you want. That's right, not only does TNG have the ability to import data from a GEDCOM file, it also has the ability to add individuals, families, etc. I was able to successfully add a number of individuals relatively quickly, seeing I had not used TNG as a program to enter data manually before.
SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT: Under the terms of the license distributed with the software, "You (the software owner) may make changes to the code as desired, but you may not redistribute any part of the software under any name for any price." Well I decided to put this to the test, also to see if my programming skills hadn't faded over the years. There was one thing in TNG that gave me a slight irritation and this license allows me to rectify that without breaking any copyright. In TNG when you are on an Individual and click the Descendants tab, you get the Descendant chart as outlined above in the section "What's New in 6.0?" However, when you click on a name in any of the boxes in the chart to navigate to that person, the link opens the Individual tab of that linked person. If I want to just use the Descendant Chart to quickly navigate (because I want to do it that way), breaking away from one tab to another is a complete distraction. So I made a change that when navigating the Descendant Chart, clicking on another person in the chart actually navigates to that person while still in the Descendant Chart. As you can see from the code snippets below, I have only changed one word in the template, and this gives me the functionality I want. Once I finish navigating, I can then click the Individual tab and look at the information of that person.
ORIGINAL: descend.php
// name info
if( $person[name] )
$boxstr .= "<td align=\"$pedigree[boxalign]\"
class=pboxname height=\" $pedigree[boxheight]\">
<span style=\"font-size:$pedigree[boxnamesize]" . "pt;
vertical-align:3px\">$pedigree[spacer]<a href=\"$getperson_url" .
"personID=$person[personID]&tree=$tree" . "\">$person[name]</a> " .
getGenderIcon($person[sex], $pedigree[gendalign]) . "</td></tr>
</table></div>\n";
...
But it is this part that needs to be modified from:
<a href=\"$getperson_url" . "personID=$person[...
to:
<a href=\"$descend_url" . "personID=$person[...
ALTERED:
// name info
/* modified 19/11/2006 by Mark Lang
changed getperson_url to descend_url */
if( $person[name] )
$boxstr .= "<td align=\"$pedigree[boxalign]\"
class=pboxname height=\" $pedigree[boxheight]\">
<span style=\"font-size:$pedigree[boxnamesize]" . "pt;
vertical-align:3px\">$pedigree[spacer]<a href=\"$descend_url" .
"personID=$person[personID]&tree=$tree" . "\">$person[name]</a> " .
getGenderIcon($person[sex], $pedigree[gendalign]) . "</td></tr>
</table></div>\n";
...
Using the Demo link at the top of this review will take you to my own demonstration of TNG 6, and you will be able to see for yourself what the changes in the code in the above will do. Alternatively, this shortcut will open a new page to an ancestor and you can try it from there.
Installing
Delivery of The Next Generation is via downloading a zip file that contains all the appropriate files for uploading to your server. There are a number of different files so you must be careful in your selection. If you are a new user for the first time, then download the full version. If you are updating, then all you will need is one of the update files that will update you from a previous version as I mentioned briefly already in the 4th paragraph above.
Save your selected file to a location on your computer. I recommend using a location that you can remember (eg. Desktop). For all intents and purposes, the Desktop is not the ideal solution as a download space for any file, and is used as a example only in this exercise.
Because the downloaded file is a zipped file, it will contain a number of files which must be uploaded to your server location. To do this, you will also require an FTP program.
Installation instructions come with the source files, and is all self explanatory. But because this is a lot different to installing a program where the developer has created a file to install the program on your computer, you may find some of the steps difficult. If you think this is not for you, help is at hand from both the developer and sometimes from the Host Server. Darrin recommends both ICDSoft and SimplyHosting. I have used ICDSoft for my brother's website, and this website itself is hosted on SimplyHosting. There is also a support forum and two mailing lists available. But don't let that scare you either; truth be told, I have a computer science degree, am fairly knowledgable when it comes to computers, but even I hit a snag. I followed the directions exactly yet required a helping hand. What went wrong? I don't know. I did nothing that was not in the instructions, and yet SimplyHosting did exactly the same thing, and the whole project came together. The fact that there are over 100+ user's who have their pages linked from Darrin's website to their's is testimonial in itself that many different people from all over the world can get this simple program up and running and proud to do so.
Price
So what would you expect to pay for a package like this? As of the current version, all new installs cost just US$29. I might add that this price has not changed since the previous major upgrade, so this is excellent value for money. With various different payment options available for the different installs, and all the help under the sun to get your site up and running, this could be the most ideal investment you make for a website. But remember, this is only the cost of The Next Generation templates. You must also factor in other charges such as annual fees for web hosting and DNS fees.
Overview
generates pages when asked for, saving space
lives on web server
access info at any moment around the world
use hosting provider,ftp/online file manager, install software for you
import gedcom file - or enter data as only program
web-based, platform independent
hide entire thing, private setup, access rights, block on living people
different privacy levels
TNG used in conjunction with others
anon users not change data
collaboration to add/edit - tentative editing rights
multiple tree, various branches independent separate when editing, view globally
change yourself or prebuilt templates
http://tngnetwork.lythgoes.net/ valuable community resource, search all tng websites at once, link to db directly and contatc administrator
support forum/mailing list/discussion groups
dynamically switch languages
more like a desktop than a web product
I have set up a working example on this site where you can search for names, places, creates ancestor charts, descendant reports and more. On the developer site, Darrin Lythgoe has a greater list of links that you can look at, and can be accessed at lythgoes.net.
As the complete list of improvements in v5 over its predecessors amounts to 95 items, it might be in your vested interest to look at the recent changes when you get a spare moment. Darrin also does frequent updates to keep the program updated, so you may have to visit back frequently or . This is the fourteenth update of TNG 5, the most recent being 5.1.4 released (9 June 2006). As you update your version, if there are copies of the files config.php and genstyle.css included, then only upload these if you are reinstalling from scratch. Copying these files over your previous copies will undo any configuration and style customisations you may have made.
Because The Next Generation is just a series of templates and files that are uploaded to a web server, TNG is platform independent. This means your web pages can be viewed on any PC, MAC or other platform. The same is true for the browser, Firefox, Safari, Opera or IE. Better still, to modify them really only needs a text editor and an understanding on coding PHP and HTML.
Static web pages are good, but Dynamic Web Pages impress, and that is one thing that TNG does – impress!