- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 8 months ago by
jacoline.
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5th March 2020 at 2:00 pm #11332
I was intrigued by a “new feature request” on the webtrees forum, raised by a fellow New Zealander “chiefchimp”.
https://www.webtrees.net/index.php/en/forum/help-for-2-0/34175-wish-list#75578
It is something I had considered briefly myself on a few occasions. So I was tempted to try and solve the request, which, in kiwitrees at least, is not particularly hard to do.
I have it working, but I would like to have it tested in a wider range of place names, particularly in countries not represented in my own test data.
In brief, it is to extend the “autocomplete” feature for place names to allow a new locality to be autocompleted with the appropriate region and country parts if they already exist.
So, if I am adding, for the first time, the (fictitious) town of “Fred” in the county of Kent, in England, United Kingdom, this happens:
- I start typing ‘Fre’, and as usual, autocomplete offers a list of places that contain that string, but none are what I need.
- I continue with “Fred” and now nothing is offered, as that is a completely new place string.
- So I extend it further to “Fred, Kent”. The new code takes over, triggered by the “, ” (comma plus space) I added, and autocomplete now offers “Fred, Kent, England, United Kingdom” which I select
(Note: The “comma plus space” is essential, as it avoids the possibility the single comma might form part of a legitimate place name, somewhere in the world. I think/hope that having comma plus space is less likely.)
If you are able to help, all you need to do is:
- Copy the file “kiwitrees/autocomplete.php from your webserver to your local machine and store somewhere safe, so you can revert to the published version if you want to after the test.
- Take the same file from the zip folder attached to this topic, and upload it, replacing the existing version.
- If you use “Geonames” as a source of place names (Administration>Family trees>your family tree>Edit options>Use GeoNames database for autocomplete on places) disable it for the test, otherwise it might confuse the results. Re-enable it later if you wish.
- Start adding places, where the first part (or parts) do not already exist using autocomplete.
- Let me know here how you find it, if it works and if you see any issues, etc.
(Note: kiwitrees hosted clients, if you want to test this, just drop me an email and I’ll copy the autocomplete file to your installation.)
Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info
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