Bug in the interactive tree view

[Daniel Faivre]

When a same ancestor appears 2 (or more) times in the same tree, the presentation is broken when opening an individual box. The attached image show 2 screenshots to illustrate a showcase. In this showcase, 2 branches share a common family ancestor several generations before a wedding between descendants. In this showcase, consanguinity is low because it doesn't even require a church dispense, but such church dispenses were very comon in the past, especially in noble families.

This bug is common with PGV : see https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3173182&group_id=55456&atid=634867

[kiwi (kiwi3685-deactivatedaccount)]

Thats a screenshot from PGV not webtrees. Not relevant her. Can't reproduce it on the details given

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Yes, the screenshot is a PGV one, BUT the bug is the same : tested locally and confirmed on webtreees 1.06. Do you really need a webtrees screenshot while the bug is exactly the same ??? If so, I will do it for you.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

You can easily reproduce the bug if you build a family tree with a common ancestry family like illustrated on the screenshot.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Hey ? What means the status "won't fix" ??? It's a bug that destroy the interactive tree view, which is an asset of the software. So it MUST be fixed, no ?

[wooc (wooc)]

I can confirm this bug. It is because interactive tree uses person id as a box id.

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

<<What means the status "won't fix" ???>>

http://wiki.webtrees.net/Bug_statuses

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

What says wooc is very important, as it provide a guideline to fix this bug. Unfortunately, it involve a rewriting of that part to change the ids to avoid duplicates boxes ids. Does anybody is ever working on it ? Or could I take a deeper look at this and try to suggest something, eventually ?

[wooc (wooc)]

Please take the look.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

I'm currently working on it. I've started a new version of Interactive treeview, developped as a module, fully based on jQuery only, and greetly optimized (run far much faster and with less server stress). I've still need some (free) time to achieve this task properly, probably about one week.

[wooc (wooc)]

Great news. Thanks.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

I've done the most part, now, as said before. I've saw that the team was fully right saying that this module need to be rewrited, not only a simple bug fix.
I've written a new treeview module that is called ... treeview, to avoid interactions with the existing tree module. Despite the existing tree was visibly done as well as possible ... when it was done, I've needed to totally rewrite it in the purpose to eliminate ALL javascripts except jQuery. It works very well on Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Opera, but still need some tricky css hacks to work as well on Konqueror and therefore on Safari. I will try to achieve that this week and send the code "as is" to your team beacause I will have an heavy work load for my job after tomorrow. All existing functionnalities will be preserved or improved, and I've added 2 others : centering on root person, and swapping between "fixed boxes tree" and compact tree. Furthermore, I've included a CSS for print medias and a dedicated help file.
As I'm not a committer, what should I do, now ? Working a bit more on my side to achieve properly what is said above ? Sending a dev version before achievement to some team members ? Who ?

[wooc (wooc)]

<<As I'm not a committer, what should I do, now ? Working a bit more on my side to achieve properly what is said above ? Sending a dev version before achievement to some team members ? Who ?>>
Please add yours files as attachment here.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Ok : here they are. Please read the included README file for important informations about the current state of this development.

Abstract :
- these files provides a new module for displaying and printing genealogic trees, without the bug reported here and much more performant. It's not a bug fix, but a complete rewrite, with some new features and performances boost with less server load.
- based only on jQuery.
- NOT achieved (see the readme file about what's remain to code).

Yours,
dF

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Hello,

As said, I've began a complete rewrite of the tree view module.

I've uploaded it on
https://bugs.launchpad.net/webtrees/+bug/713459/+attachment/1861531/+files/treeview.tar.bz2
for a first review.
These job is NOT achieved, but as I will lack freetime for the next two month,
I send it "as is".
Despite it is not achieved, it contains some very significative improvements
(more speed, less server load) and of course get rid of the previously
reported tree bug.

CAUTION : please read first the embedded README file, at least to see which
browsers are yet supported or not with this first dev version.

Please send me your firsts feedbacks and opinions about it, and team's
guidelines for the next steps.

--
Yours,
Daniel FAIVRE

[wooc (wooc)]

Daniel, your Tree looks amazing.
The described bug is fixed.

I've already made some changes to support the ver. 1.1.0 code.
If there no objections I would be happy to include this module instead of present tree module.

Great work.

[ToyGuy (toyguy)]

Can we see this code in action, on somebody's site, without downloading what Daniel has called incomplete, and installing it on our systems?
-Stephen

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

I agree - it looks very nice. Some quick comments:

 for 1.1.0 support, you must also remove references to "modules/". This is now defined by WT_MODULES_DIR. We will rename this to "modules_v2" before the release.

Instead of WT_TREEVIEW_ROOT, perhaps use WT_MODULES_DIR.$this->getName()

Class files should just contain classes. Instead of adding global variables ($ua, $isKonq), perhaps make these class members. Perhaps

static function getCSS() {
$ua=
...
}

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

Is it possible to show all a person's children (from all their spouses?)

If I look at my father's tree, I do not appear. Just the children from his first marriage.

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

@stephen - I just installed it locally.

1) Unpack the .ZIP file to modules/treeview/
2) admin-modules-tabs -> click save.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Thanks to everybody for your review and feedback. I've improved this code and found a astucious way to get compatibility with all browsers, with a more simple code (no tests of user agent any more).
I will try to merge these new version with additions made by woocand advices of fisharebest for the new version and re-upload the last version as soon as I can.

[ToyGuy (toyguy)]

@Greg
thanks, lost my local test server trying to upgrade MySQL to 5.8. Bad bunch of updating code for macs in this DL.

I need to reinstall, but downgrading is usually prohibited by the installers without a bunch of cleanup, and I haven't had the time. I'll put it on the main server test site when I can.
-Stephen

[ToyGuy (toyguy)]

Got my test install running on mysql 5.5.9, but I get this error when I load those zip files into a directory called:
treeview
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class recent_changes_WT_Module in /Library/WebServer/Documents/local-sites/webtrees/modules/treeview/module.php on line 32

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Here is a major update of the new treeview module, for webtrees trunk rev 10940.

Everything is now working well, on all browsers (tested Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Konqueror, Safari. IE is still to test, but should work as well with eventually some small CSS specific tuning).

The single/multiple spouses is now implemented.

And some new commands were added.

Therefore, the files uploaded above for webtrees 1.06 are now outdated. The SVN should now be updated with this new module, if the WT team is ok.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Hi,

I've uploaded an updated version of my new TreeView module there :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/webtrees/+bug/713459/+attachment/1867525/+files/treeview.tar.bz2

It now works on all tested browsers as said in the bug report, and the
single/multiple spouse switch feature were added.

It can now be included to the SVN. There's no consequences elsewhere on the
other modules or in trunk core.

Yours
--
Daniel FAIVRE

[ToyGuy (toyguy)]

Daniel
The operation looks smooth, and presentation nice - OTHER than I personally am not fond of the yellow background (and - is this hardcoded or part of the theme CSS ?)

BTW, it does also fix the freeze issue that another user had when examining my site - going from Tree to INDI and then back to TREE and the tree failing to draw the chart properly.
-Stephen

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

The "parchemin" background is not hardcoded but can be styled easily by CSS. I'm not very satisfied by this "yellow parchemin" colors too. I think it would be nice to replace it by some prettier textures and borders of old paper.
For now, the style used is stored in the css directory of the new module, but we could add a feature to test the presence of treeview style in the themes directory and use it if exists, using the module native embedded style only as a fallback feature.

The new treeview module does NOT use any javascript to draw or redraw itself when loaded, so all bugs related to these scripts are eliminated by this new module.

If team's leaders agree, I would like to see my new module integrated to the SVN, now, to simplify next contributions on this module and cooperative work on it.

dF

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

<<If team's leaders agree, I would like to see my new module integrated to the SVN, now>>

I think this decision should wait until after the 1.1.0 release. We should concentrate on fixing the last few critical bugs before adding new code.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Adding a new module is consequentless for the existing code. In the other side, making a new release with only the old tree module means making a new release with known bugs. I suggest at least to integrate the new module as soon as possible (thus, in the next release), and only in a second time to totally replace the old tree module by the new treeview one. So, the next release could offer to anybody the choice between old buggy tree module and the new one. For me personnaly, that doesn' t really matter as I can use the code I developped as soon as I want ;-)

When the next release is scheduled for ? And what are the requirements for adding new modules to the SVN trunk ?

[ToyGuy (toyguy)]

Daniel
Since your Treeview has been fully developed (albeit without regard for theme at this time and with some non-usual webtrees elements (the scroll/parchment-like device, etc), we would normally use this as an opportunity to actually remove the interactive tree feature from the core product and ADD your module into the Add-On features concept of webtrees.

Most of us do not use the interactive tree and it was a carry-over from PGV. It was not planned as a core item, but there were (and still are) more important things to fix than to take the time to remove that feature from our code. That is, most likely, what we would do with the IAT functions - remove them from core, post them in Addons and let the original developer be responsible for maintaining the code and its functionality with the core product, allowing those who wished to use it to simply add it.

As is, I can not imagine its addition as it would greatly conflict with all the colors themes, and we simply do not have the time available in the next couple of days to remove the existing IAT tab. That will have to wait for at least v1.1.1, IMHO.

Personally, I appreciate your effort and can see some excellent coding work as a result of your module.
-Stephen

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

<<So, the next release could offer to anybody the choice between old buggy tree module and the new one.>>

I do not want to have two interactive-tree modules in the same release.

<<When the next release is scheduled for ?>>

As soon as we have fixed a few critical bugs. We have added inline editing (using jQuery/jEditable), but there are some browser compatibility issues.

Hopefully by the weekend?

<<And what are the requirements for adding new modules to the SVN trunk ?>>

I guess that I have ultimate control over the project - but I make decisions with the agreement of the other developers, and if appropriate, the user community.

Can you wait until next week?

[dF (geomagicien)]

That's ok for me, and there's absolutely no problem at waiting for the weekend or next week.

By the way, there's 2 remaining outdated calls to the Family class instead of calls to the new WT_Family class in the file treeview/class_treeview.php uploaded here : this MUST be fixed, otherwise this bug result in never-ending ajax calls.

[dF (geomagicien)]

@ Stephen : I allways use the interactive tree as a "browser" in my genealogy. It's very convenient ... until the tree module works well ! ;-) That's why I developped these one. About its theming, every styled element is defined by CSS and could be thematized. But that need themes maintainers to produce some customized treeview CSS for their theme. On my side, I also "tune" my code when I find some bit freetime and I have yet rewrited the css in a more efficient way (but without changing the look). Until it will be possible to cooperate with SVN, I offer to "publish" here these updates, to ensure that when it will be possible, other contributors could start from the very latest vesion to realize adapted theming. To facilitate that, I will modify the "next update" in a way to enable "cascading" the CSS from a theme when exists, automatically.

[ToyGuy (toyguy)]

Daniel (dF)
OK - please so don't be so defensive or offensive. I said absolutely nothing derogatory about you or the code, but merely stated the facts, and the reasoning for not taking a wild leap moments before we are due to release code:
1) Personally, I can't see any advantage to visualizing any substantial tree with a tree viewer, but perhaps that's just me. Anything beyond a couple of generations becomes mind-numbing at best, confusing at worst. I know from personal experience with supporting hundreds of users and dozens of admins that few people use this module. Pleased that it is important to you and pleased that you have nearly completed a webtrees compliant module for others. (No response needed.)
Still - under the new philosophy, any tree view would most likely be an Add-On feature.
2) Our team considers theme compatibility to the module developer responsibility, as can be seen with Brian's GEDFact Asst and GM work. While a coder seeking help doing so is always provided with assistance and guidance, it is still the coders' responsibility.

Please understand that we are literally hours away from a delayed (end of JAN targeted) release and we have frozen any changes that do not resolve major bugs, and all that may affect other code (like yours). This is why Greg has kindly suggested that we hold your module, and further discussion, for at least a week (perhaps through the weekend).
-Stephen

[wooc (wooc)]

<<Still - under the new philosophy, any tree view would most likely be an Add-On feature.>>
So Stephen and Nigel would like to see this module as Add-on module.
I'm in opposite. I would like to see this module to be replacement of current interactive tree module.
I use this module personally and know people which are happy with that kind of tree presentation.

If it is not possible to include it in 1.1.0 version I would be happy to see it in the next version.

[dF (geomagicien)]

I will upload soon another version with many improvements, if somebody's interested.

And before, here is the scan of a part of a big tree printing done with this new module. For peoples like wooc and me who think than printing genealogical trees is a or even THE central feature in a genealogical software ...

[ToyGuy (toyguy)]

Daniel
Just can't resist being pushy, argumentative or demeaning? "For peoples like wooc and me who think than printing genealogical trees is a or even THE central feature in a genealogical software"

We all have our own goals, and I've never seen anything that defines a program as being substantially (central) deficient if it doesn't print trees. Again, we all have our opinions, and you may have yours. Please just don't demean those who feel differently. The tone of your posts are quite grating and are counterproductive to your obvious coding talent. What you can do is appreciated, as previously stated. Let that talent speak for itself.
-Stephen

[dF (geomagicien)]

Stephen, please read yourself again, above : you answered to me not on technical matter, but by criticism about me to be "defensive or offensive". I'm neither "defensive" nor "offensive" : I have a point of vue, just you and everybody. I'm a bit bored to read such assertions discussed in place of technical questions. The only question that really matter for me is "can I contribute to webtrees with an improved tree view (and printing) feature to go toward the genealogical software I dream of ?". If your answer is "yes", let us see together how to proceed, in my total respect for the great job ever done by your team. If your answer is "no", please say it truely. I can understand that for some peoples, a genealogical software could be something different than for others, but the modularity of the software can, and should, enable everybody to share efforts despite of these differences in opinions.

The users/developpers of a free software could have different points of view, and that is not a shame, but an asset if all can cooperate to develop a framework that fits all differents needs. On the webtrees home page, somebody wrote : "it aims to to be efficient and effective by using the right combination of third-party tools, design techniques and open standards.". Let's just hope that is and will stay a leading rule for your team.
Thus, Stephen, please take a time of self-criticism re-considering the tone of YOUR post above. Each of us have his own goals, and that's pretty normal to exchange about that without other considerations than technical ones.

For example, I consider that is not a good thing to get in a hurry for a new release with the old buggy tree "module" from PGV, which is in fact not really a module but something still closely integrated to the core, BUT I fully understand and respect this choice as the expression of other respectable opinion. I DO NOT feel to contest that !
In the contrary, the new module is really developped as a module, without any interference with any other part of the software. I also disagree a bit about styling "rules" : a good coder is not allways a good designer, and vice-versa, so it's a good thing to facilitate coders+designers cooperations by a clean code separation between both.

But for the moment, let us keep our energy for coding, according to our own priorities, and let us see together later, when it will be compliant with your roadmap, how to do our best to fit almost all needs. Waiting, I'm very interested by constructive criticism about the code, and very few by arguing without serious reasons.

Waiting one or even two week is something reasonnable, which could help both your team to preserve time for its own goals and priorities, and me to receive criticism and suggestions about the current state of my new module code. I've yet taken in consideration changes done by wooc in consequence of changes in the core from 1.06 to latest trunk, and by you and fisharebest about CSS theming, and thus I've rewritten these parts with the greatest consideration for these helpful feedbacks. I've also changed the default yellow parchemin background and icons to something more neutral, and keeped these styling e...

[dF (geomagicien)]

In free software, there's a well known advice : "release soon, release often". So, here is my latest version, with Lightbox integration and big trees printing capabilities. Please read the embedded README file and click on the help window once the module is installed to get important informations on how to use it.

I've added a sample CSS file that contains an "howto" to help whoever wants to style these new TreeView module for the existing styles. I've also tested widely the printing of big trees on large sheets, and I deeply think that is a great, essential, almost astonishing (!) feature.

Therefore, I've some few additionnal technical questions for the team :

- how to add properly the direct link to the new TreeView module in the diagrams AND reports menus ? Why the features in menus are not defined by and only by enabled Modules ?

- about the Module class, I think it lacks a method to embed CSS and javascripts stuff in the <head> section properly. Such a method should include a load order parameter to give control on the load order of the stuff embedded in the <head>. (In the "old PGV" and earlier webtrees, this was done - without load order control - by a global variable defined before a module call, but this variable reading is removed in 1.06, and nothing else had replaced it. A new method is probably the best solution for the future)

Yours,
dF

[dF (geomagicien)]

About the report menus, I found the response myself, and here's an update with a direct link in the report menus. And about the Charts menus, it's hard-coded and therefore not possible properly. Fisharebest replied to me very quickly by mail and he say that how menus are managed in WT certainly need to be at least debugged and improved, or rewrited. I agree.

Call for alittle help :
- I've noticed that I have probably not taken in account the choice of the gedcom file everywhere in my code, yet. If you tested my new module, could you please report here where it's mandatory to add the gedcom in urls, in TreeView ? And more generally any bug or wish you found ?

[jon48 (genea-jaubart)]

Hello,

I have tried your new version of the Interactive Tree, and it is just great! I was not a huge fan of the standard version (too slow, looked buggy), so I do not use it very often, but I might now change my habits.

Some questions/suggestions:
- I had some difficulties displaying the tab in the first place. I enabled it in the module administration, but it did not appear on the individual pages until I modified the tab order (it was 1 by default, I changed it to something else). It might be the normal behaviour, but I found it quite confusing.
- I have not looked at the code yet, but could you please precise what is customisable in terms of style? I have read in the previous comments that the background is, but what about the border? Also, would it be possible to have different styles within the same theme (in a dropdown list for instance), which would allow to adapt the tree display to the user's usage (online navigation, printing...)?
- Finally, the only bug/regression I have noticed so far: it seems the multiple spouses feature does not work. I have some examples of husbands married twice and only the second wife and her issue is displayed. I have tried clicking on the "Show/Hide other spouses" button, but nothing changed. I am happy to test for you if necessary.

Congratulations anyway for this contribution, and I hope this is only the first one!
Regards.

Jonathan

[dF (geomagicien)]

Hello, Jonathan,

Thank you for your feedback, congratulations, and at first for your suggestions.

- "displaying the tab in the first place" : I have not this problem, and the TreeView tab is displayed where you want. Thus, that need deeper investigations. It may be an initialization issue, and that must be tested to find if something is not properly initialized before you had gone in the admin page to set the tab position and save it. It's difficult to say more because I can't reproduce this problem. Could you try to find and report a reproductible test case ?

- everything in the tree is customisable, including font, boxes look, borders, backgrounds, colors, round-corners, and shadows. There is a sample file called css/mytreeview.css.txt bundled with the module : you can copy/paste its content in your theme's CSS to fully customize your TreeView. Just be careful NOT to change others parameters that are required for TreeView to be properly drawn. The CSS sample file is widely commented to help designers to customize their own TreeView. If you do so and produce some pretty borders images and background textures, please send it to me for what is following :

- about your idea to have different styles within the same theme, I have had the same idea on my side ! ;-) Your analysis is pretty accurate : it would be a very good idea to have different styles for screen (72 or 96dpi for background images) and for printing (at least 300dpi for background images). So, I will integrate an admin page with this choice in the future versions. By default, we will have the theme's customized TreeView style, and a choice in a list of styles will overwrite the default style at the user convenience.

- the multiple spouses feature works well for me. This feature is even enhanced compared to the old byggy tree : it display multiple childs, and multiple ancestors as well. Did you tested my latest version ? The first releases didn't implemented this feature. My latest version is called "TreeView module rev 6" and was uploaded here yesterday. I can't see another explanation for this because for my family's tree multiple spouses are perfectly drawn.

Yours,
dF

[wooc (wooc)]

<<the multiple spouses feature works well for me.>
If the person is marred twice or three times, it only shows the children from the last marriage.
To display children from the first marriage I need to show the tree of the spouse.
It needs to be improved.

[dF (geomagicien)]

@ wooc : please check if the "allPartners" parameter in the url is "1" or "true". If it is 1, it results from a bug in my last upload which de-activate the display of all children expected in the "allPartners" mode. I've corrected this bug, but I'm now working on the Jonathan's idea about styles, and therefore I prefer to delay the upload of a new version with this bug fixed. Waiting, you may fix this bug yourself by replacing in treview.js. "this.ajaxUrl = ..." by

  this.ajaxUrl = "module.php?mod=treeview&instance=" + treeviewInstance +
   (allPartners == "true" ? "&allPartners=" + (allPartners ? "true" : "false") : "") +
   "&mod_action=";

It's probably at line 21.

[dF (geomagicien)]

Here is a first attempt to implement the excellent idea expressed by Jonathan. I've also fixed the bug reported above.

How does the styles works ?
1) TreeView has a default style;
2) If the theme CSS has styles for TreeView, the theme is ised instead of the default style;
3) In any case, the TreeView itself can be customized in one click by the end-user. So, the end-user can choose different presentations for printing, whatever the theme he use.

What is still to do ? Many things :
- styles for printing (background images must have a resolution > 300dpi);
- and take a look at the embedded readme file ...

[wooc (wooc)]

Daniel,
Could we move this disccussion to the forum? I belive that more people look there.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Yes, we can ! ;-) Please fell free to open a forum thread and/or to what should be done to go ahead.

[wooc (wooc)]

The discussion should be moved to:
http://webtrees.net/en/forums/4-customising/8283-custom-tree-view-module#8283

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Here is the latest version. No major changes but many small enhancements. Please check the embedded readme file for infos, known bugs and roadmap.

The discussion was moved where wooc said, but I will still upload files here until the webtrees forum accept the upload of files compressed with bzip2.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Treeview rev 9 : fixed some bugs. See http://webtrees.net/en/forums/22-custom-tree-view-module-by-qgeomaticienq/8283-custom-tree-view-module for more informations, since this discussion had moved there.

[Daniel Faivre (geomaticien)]

Probably the last dev version before release. Some new functions implemented. Now works also on IE 6. See embedded README file.

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

This new code was committed to SVN a couple of weeks ago.....

[fisharebest (fisharebest)]

Fix released in webtrees 1.1.2