Barton, Two basic types of family tree sites exist: static pages and dynamic pages.
Static pages means you create all of the pages you wish to upload to whatever hosting service you wish to use. After you create the pages on your PC; you then have to upload all of the pages by FTP (or some similar tool) to your hosting service. You may wish to create some pages as home pages to tell your story. The disadvantage of this technique is that it does not scale well. As the size of your family file gets bigger, you have more and more pages. Further, many of them will be small and, as a result, consume large amounts of hosting space. In the late 1990s, a program was created called IGM by Randy Winch. The idea behind IGM was that you uploaded your Gedcom file to your hosting service along with the IGM software and had IGM process your Gedcom and allow you to have IGM create your web pages dynamically as visitors requested them. Randy enhanced IGM for RootsWeb and that is what RootsWeb's WorldConnect service is using. In the early 2000s, two software products were created to take the IGM experience to a higher level. They have the limitation that the hosting service has to support php scripting MySQL databases that not all "free" or cable company hosting provides. They also expect the user to have, or have access to, some basic webmastering skills. Both require a quality hosting service and for you to acquire a domain name for your site. One is the OpenSource product phpGedView. This has the advantage that it is free. It is also slow. The other is the commercial product TNG. License cost is minor, and based on personal experience, the visitor experience is far superior and the customization tools provided by the vendor are effective and fairly easy to use. Further, it is the closest in data model to Legacy. Not identical, but most of your Legacy data can be imported into TNG and used as you would expect, including media and mapping. In many respects, all of the cloud based genealogy programs, including Ancestry Trees, are derivative of these ideas. To understand any of these dynamic solutions, think of them like you think of importing a Gedcom into Legacy. You import the Gedcom and Legacy/TNG/WorldConnect/etc. load your data from the Gedcom, as best as they can, into the programs database so that you can explore, and in some cases like TNG, edit your data using the program as a genealogy program. --> I have at times edited my TNG family file directly when a visitor pointed out a problem that needed immediate correction; however, normally, for me, corrections come when I update a new Gedcom as Legacy files are always my master file. Last year, I was part of a team of members of the Guild of One Name Studies who looked at these solutions. The Guild has decided to pilot a program where members can get hosting space with the Guild for a web site that after paying for it while living will be retained after the member "retires" as a means of providing that members' research is not lost and continues to be available. The selected tool for dynamic web sites is TNG. BTW, one of the issues with any web site is how it plays with the various search bots. The Chicago company SimplyHosting is considered to be so TNG friendly that they have TNG specific hosting packages that cost under $5 a month, and they will even install the TNG software for you. (I have no financial interest in any of these vendors.) I use their services after having issues with other services. --> if you want easy places to preserve your data for no cost, I would suggest WorldConnect or FamilySearch (their community trees are based on limited version of TNG). Both have limitations on what can be displayed and what, if any, media items you can attach to your tree. Questions? john. At 12:01 AM 4/14/2015, Cathy Pinner wrote: >Hi Barton, >Thought I'd get your email out of an irrelevant thread. > >I can't help with your hosting and compatibility issues. > >However, Legacy Web Pages are generated on your computer and you can >view them in your browser. >Uploading them to a host is a another step. > >So go to Internet Ribbon and choose an option in the Create Web Pages >section and play. > >To see what others have done with Legacy Web Pages, Google "with Legacy >8.0 from Millennia" including the quotes. > >Cathy > > My cable provider for a nominal fee provides > web hosting so I upgraded. I started using > Kompozer to build a website. I donât think > itâs going to be adequate to what I want to > do and also I've had problems with it -- the > cable provider says it's creating problems and > they recommend using their tool to build the > website. Itâs free. But I donât like its > templates -- they're not suited to what I want > to do. I am now worried about this host > provider not being "compatible" with whatever > website building tool I choose. I'm not sure > if I should be - don't know enough about it. I > want to find a website building tool that gives > me freedom to design the look of my site. I'm > somewhat tech savvy and willing to deal with > the learning curve. Do I need to have a web > host that is "compatible" with whatever website > building tool I use? I am wondering if I need > to change from my cable provider to another > host. The domain name is my first and last > name so if it means changing to another domain > name, I really would prefer not to have to do that. > > > > Finally, I guess I would want to upload my > Legacy pages to the site as opposed to renter > data but I don't feel I have seen enough > examples here to know what different options > there are or how they would look. Is there any > way to "test" print a Legacy page to see what > it looks like on the web? What "page" does one > publish to the web -- is it a report? If not, what is it, exactly? > > > > Pat Hickin's Wikitree pages appealed to me > but he/she (sorry Pat I donât know if > youâre a Patrick or Patricia) said the Legacy > conversion to Wikitree was difficult. Any > answers to the above questions or thoughts would be appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Barton > > > > > >Legacy User Group guidelines: > >http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > >Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: > >http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ > >Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: > >http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ > >Online technical support: http://support.legacyfamilytree.com > >Follow Legacy on Facebook >(http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and >on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). > >To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://support.legacyfamilytree.com Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
