old_dog's sandbox: FTree

A module for importing a gedcom file and facilitating the display of a family tree on a personal web-site, using common tools like Views and Page Manager. The module is not intended for on-line creation or maintenance of genealogical data.

It is born of an urge to "scratch an itch" and out of dis-satisfaction with the approach taken in the Family module.
My problems with the Family module's strategy of creating nodes for each individual and family are:

1. It is SLOW! There is so much overhead involved.
   When importing an updated gedcom, all existing nodes must be deleted first - this is 2 to 3 times slower than node creation.
2. There is only rudimentary provision for importing large files. In a shared hosting environment, php time-outs are likely. There is no provision for time-outs during the even slower deletion process.
3. The id's from the gedcom file are not retained, making an update process (as opposed to complete replacement) impossible.
4. The nodes all have body fields ostensibly for containing biographical and / or anecdotal data, that would be entered on-line. Only a mug would enter anything, since it would all be deleted when importing an updated gedcom.
5. When uninstalling, the attached tables are deleted, but all the nodes are left behind.

In this module, individuals and families are defined as entities, each with their own database table. The primary id for each record is the id number from the gedcom file. Foreign keys on these id's enable CTools and Page Manager to see the relationships. When updating, these tables are simply truncated (time measured in milliseconds).

The import process monitors elapsed time and pauses prior to reaching the php maximum time limit, prompting for continuation.

For stories, photos, etc., I anticipate using stock-standard pages and/or articles linked to the relevant individual or family using either Entity Reference or Relation modules. Since the entity id's will not change when importing an update, the references will not break.