Genealogy at its simplest

What?

This is a simple software for recording your extended family and relationships while enjoying the following advantages:

your data stored and maintained in your own PC
using SW already installed in most PC's (notepad)
all your data kept in cleartext (no illegible binaries, you can change it anytime)
all logic in clear text (html, javascript and xsl, open source, available at the download section of this page)
study all this data you typed as web pages (using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher)
if you wish, you may publish the setup on your web page, just as it is, in order to share it with others that also use Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher.

Features available in those web pages

family tree for any registered person.
family tree shows both registered ancestors and registered descendants
With descendants the family tree shows also the other parent
each name on the family tree is clickable
when clicked, the tree is shown with that person in focus, with details of the person, including registered picture
links to zoom in (just immediate relatives) and zoom out (all registered descendents and ancestors).
A debug page detects and shows some typical errors when registering, omissions, and persons at the edge of the genealogical network.
An MS Excel spreadsheet makes typing the data easier for those who know how to use Excel.

How?

View the example solution as web pages by following the links in the table below
Download the templates, and follow the installation instructions
View your data as web pages by following the links in your local version of this page.

Family Tree :	family tree
Check raw data in XML :	relationships	persons	pictures	contactinfo	configuration
Check more readable data in html:	relationships	persons	pictures	contactinfo	configuration
Debug:	what is missing?

How is this possible?

The technically knowledgeable may want to check this article by Kurt Cagle : Creating Generic XSLT Transforms

You type your data as in the example.
The example is in the XML format.
XML is a very well established standard for structuring information.
The main advantage of XML is that it can be read by people using the simplest text tools, but also by programs.
Scripts in a language called XSL are made available.
XSL is also a standard in the XML family.
The main use of XSL is to generate other documents from XML documents.
Tools supporting XML and XSL are plenty, well tried, and often free.
The most popular browsers (MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox) recognize XML and XSL.
Both of these browsers will process an XML with a given XSL and show the result.
Both of these browsers can interpret Javascript
Javascript is a language for animating web pages, but also for triggering XSL transformations.
Several Web pages (.htm files) are made available in the kit.
These *.htm files include javascript that instructs the browser to process an XML file using an XSL script.
If the XML files have your data, the web pages will show your data laid out for some purpose.
Colors, fonts etc.. in these pages are controlled through a common cascading style sheet (.css) file. In other words it is possible to change some aspects of the look and feel for all pages with changes in only one document.
One of the web pages is the genealogical tree, others are there to help you check for data quality.

Is that all?

If one day you decide to move your data to another program, it can easily be done (manually or with an xsl script). It may be more difficult to move the other way (from most other genealogy programs to this).

This setup may be expanded with more complex features. Some features may require that one gives up the principle of using only programs found in all PC's.

In fact anybody can expand this setup since the source code is available. Here are some possible improvements:

The existing Javascript code for tree layout does not work with earlier MSIE versions, neither does it work with FireFox. Adding browser version check and running code specific to each browser in order to make the solution to work with more Browsers is one such improvement. Others are
drawing the genealogical tree using SVG/Flash/etc.. to get alternatives with better looks, better print result etc..
adding the life story for persons
adding genetic and/or health info for persons
making contact information available as vcard (one click to copy it into your telephone)
adding video and audio of the persons
presenting conflicting personal info side by side with factors indicating relative probability of truth
adding the lineage / sources / verification details for each piece of information
Web based form for correction / improvement of the information for a centrally maintained version
import / export of the data for use with / from other genealogical SW solutions.
etc..

The generated web pages are multilingual. If you want your data presented in a language other than the two available in config.xml, you can add your language and use it. Language is chosen by configuring at line 2 ("language") in config.xml. A new language is added by replicating all data (id=value pairs) in english and modifying the new copies:

replace value in the new "id=value" pairs with equivalent texts in the new language,
replace "en" for ENglish as the first two letters of id, with the proper mnemonic for the new language.

Download

Legal Statement

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ''Software''), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
The name of the authors when specified in the source files shall be kept unmodified.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL Satilmis Yayla BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Version 0.3

genealogy.zip

This template, a winzip file containing three dozen files, is an example that contains the genealogy of royals in the family of Genghiz Khan. In fact 14 of the files are portraits, several are copies of this page, the rest are 2 or 3 files (htm, xsl, xml) per implemented view.

Improvement in v0.2 compared to version (version 0.1):

better looking tree,
corrected defect in "focus onto person with number" function.

Instructions:

Download and open this zip file, extract the files into yor disk (a folder where you want your genealogy project).
Edit at least three (persons.xml, relationships.xml, pictures.xml) of the five xml files to contain your data, replace picture files with your picture files;
make sure to encode unusual characters properly (use for example Æ instead of Æ).
Open index.html with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher;
It will look like this page except for the zip link above, which will not work.
View them as web pages by following the links in the table in the section how