Any trouble with the new system for creating profiles (version 3)?

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

As many of you know, we have been testing a new system for creating profiles. If you're not already using it, click here and check the box that says "Turn on Beta test," and then save your settings.

We're expecting to switch everyone to the new system on Friday.

[Update: As of Friday, March 24, the new system is live for everyone.]

The only problems that we're currently aware of are with the old WikiTree X browser extension.

If you're experiencing a problem with the new system, please let us know here. (Please post an answer instead of a comment. Comments at the top will be hidden after they are read once.)

Thank you!

Chris and the WikiTree Team

Comments

I absolutely love the new system with all the extensions. WikiTree Sourcer is my favorite, and once one tries using it on any profile, you will be amazed at just how much time it saves.

Keep up the amazing work Chris and the WikiTree Team

Answer 1

When I use the Patronymic naming system (father's first is son's last name) in the old system I could copy and paste from the same page, this was helpful because many of the names had non-english characters now I need two pages open to do the C&P. Also now I don't see the father's DOB & DOD I use them to add an Est. date if I don't have one.

These are just nice to have, Overall everything seem to be working just fine.

Comments

The WikiTree Browser Extension has a feature that puts the name, dates, and locations of the first person on the 'add profile' page.

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I don't see that option on the "Enter Basic Data" page. How do I turn it on or off? I can hover over the father and see the info.

Also about a week or two ago at the top of that page it had the link and (birth-death) dates, Now just the link shows,

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  Oh... I don't see it working either.  Maybe a recent change from the tech team stopped it from working.  I'll take a look and fix it.

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I've found the problem and fixed it.  I'll get an update out soon.

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Hi Richard, where were you copying the information from on the old page?

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If I remember correctly the name was on the top of the add child page. It was like what you have now but without the link, and smaller text.

Please, don't get rid of that link back it's a nice feature, Maybe Ian could add the name to his part,

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I tried the extension and it's not adding ==Sources == or ref tag

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John, Can you expand on this?  I assume you're talking about the WikiTree Browser Extension.  Where do you expect it to be adding == Sources == or 'ref tag' and why?  Thanks.

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Yes, WikiTree Browser Extension. I added a new child or spouse. In the bio section old system would add a small dio with dio header and source section. New has no bio header, no source and no ref.

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I don't think this is related to the extension.  The new system is just the site's new system.  The extension is written by volunteers to add things to the site, but the new system is a core part of the site. I think the basic option of the new system will give you a short (one or two sentence) bio.  The Advanced option of the new system gives you this (below).  Let me know if I've misunderstood.

== Biography ==

== Sources ==

<references />

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Mine is adding it but in the wrong place (right after the brief bio).  I have been cutting and pasting at the bottom.

Answer 2

I have been using the new system since it was first available and have had no problems at all.

I like it!

Answer 3

When you create a profile for the second parent of a person who already has one parent, there is no option in the creation process for making the second parent a spouse of the first.

You have to marry the parents once the profile is created.

Creating both parents from the profile of child is a quite logical way of proceeding when you start building a family tree. New users may easily overlook that the parents have not been married by default.

Comments

I also really like having the marriage information entered when I'm adding a spouse.  I do forget to occasionally enter that even in the old system.  I'm pretty sure that won't be better if I don't get asked for it.

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When you add the profile of a spouse to the other spouse you are asked to add the marriage information, so that's not a problem.

At least that's how it works in the new system. I have been using it since the Beta version came out, so I have more or less forgotten how it works in the old model.

The problem is when you add the profiles of two parents, starting from their child both times. Then you end up with a couple of unmarried parents, which is not what you want, most of the time.

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Got it -- and I still agree it's a "forgetfulness" problem.  I also tend to start from the child (but not always).  I'll definitely have to make a mental note to pay attention in the Connect-A-Thon in April!

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Thank you Eva, I suspected I had missed a bug like this.

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Hmmm. I'm trying to confirm this bug, but it seems to be behaving correctly on the dev server.

Just to confirm this is what you are doing when running into this issue:

1. Create child profile.

2. Add a father or mother from the child's profile.

3. Add the other parent from the child's profile.

And when performing step 3, you aren't seeing the "Family Connections" section at all?

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That sounds right, Jamie.

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Oh, I see you fixed it.

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Worked fine yesterday, now it has managed to go missing again. I'm adding a mother to a guy who has a father and I get these steps:

Steps: Enter basic data > Review matches > Add source > Create and edit profile.

No "family connections".
I should perhaps say that this is the second wife of the father, but should that matter?

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Oh, the second spouse is probably the reason -- we don't show the section if the parents are already married to each other, but maybe it's just skipping it if one of the parents are married at all.

Answer 4

Will the new system be mandatory, or would I be able to keep the old one? I just hate interface changes (if not broken don't fix it, is my favourite motto)

Comments

I'm pretty sure it's mandatory.  ("We're expecting to switch everyone to the new system on Friday.")

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Yes, there will just be one system.

Our community is constantly asking for improvements. We don't make them at anything like the pace that Ian does with the browser extension, but we do make some. To keep things relatively simple and extensible by Ian and others, we don't want to maintain multiple systems.

There's more on this at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Developers

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Thanks ... so will live with that as with anything else

Answer 5

The logic of the placement of profile info makes more sense. But, when we are adding information about birth and death, we can confirm the accuracy of the date but not the place. Why is that?

Comments

Hi Richard,

The system is broken up into steps. We don't want to encourage members to do all their editing before the profile is created (and before drafts can be saved to prevent data loss). The first step is mainly about seeing if a profile already exists. The date status indicators are useful for this, but the place status indicators are not.

Chris

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Chris, still irritating. I know best at that moment the accuracy of the info. Please just let us clear that info at the start. Thanks.

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There's a lot you can't enter at that first step. You want to be able to add the location status indicators. Others will want to add something else. Others will complain that the page is too cluttered. Everything is a compromise.

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Been using the new system since shortly after it was introduced and after a bit I got used to it and seems to work well and I can set up a profile quickly. I do agree with Richard about being able to mark the indicators when adding info but understand your compromise ... can't please everyone.

Answer 6

I clicked on the "click here". Was taken to the login screen and then after logging in to my home page.  Did NOT see any "Turn on Beta test" box there.  Where is it supposed to be?  Am I even on the right page?

Comments

Hi Rikard. Sorry for the confusion. Now that you're logged in, does https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Settings#Misc work for you?

Answer 7

When you create a profile with this new system it doesn't create a bare bones biography like before?

Comments

It does create a bare bones bio. At least it did five minutes ago when I created a new profile!

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Really? I'm not getting any bio at all on Mac/Chrome or on my iPhone:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dunphy-707

Safari on laptop (no extensions): https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sutton-15389

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It did create one on mine also.

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I get a bio.

When I was testing it I noticed if I clicked advanced on the last screen I did not get an automated bio. Advanced bio gives more options and personalisation. Some people prefer it.

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Thanks Kathy, I have tried both settings and still no bio. :(

"Advanced bio gives more options and personalisation." I'm not seeing any difference in looks between the two settings...

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Could it be that you are using an app to create profiles?

I don't, but I think I have glimpsed in G2G that they don't always do well together with the new system.

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Hi Eva!

Yes, I use BEE, Sourcer, and the new Browser Extension (Preview).

This morning I am seeing both text/advanced edit option screen differences and I'm getting a simple bio like before, Thank You team!!!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dixon-18097

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So all is well that ends well :-)

Answer 8

I looked at the new system again…pulled up the Profile Page and I see that the programmer didn’t put in the empty space where one can park facts or notes-ie..birth, death, where born and died, etc.  I use this box as it saves me time to go back and forth between Wikitree and my original work.  (I don’t use the gedcom system as I want to be able to correct or change my original work if needed so I need to copy and paste data in a little space). 

This info is before I add Source data.     

Comments

I've created 2 profiles with the new feature and after creation using the auto bio feature results in the fact that the parents are not recognized. Is it already known that the auto bio is having a problem? And is it being caused by this new creation feature or is the auto bio functionality having this problem.

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It sounds like you need to use the Advanced option. Try it!

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Ellen, thanks.  Is this what you mean in the Settings section under Misc. Settings?  

     * Default to Advanced Option for Sources (text editing) when creating profiles

Lynn

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That's the setting.  I've been testing/using the beta version for quite some time now, and I've had Advanced as my default ever since WikiTree made that option possible, so I didn't know how the selection setup looks for members who are new to this new system.

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I have been using the Beta version since the start, clicking over to the Advanced option since that was introduced, since I am in the habit of starting my profiles by putting one of the sources there, inline in the bio.

I was very grateful the other day when there was a tick box for making Advanced my default option.

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I work on an ipad so space is limited.  I still can’t pick up any little space to plop a little data in..aka notes.

Answer 9

Just added my first profile using this new layout.  I'm in love!

Answer 10

When I created a profile with Sourcer filling in the data, I did not get a basic bio when the profile was created. On the source page, it had the headings so I added the source but Biography section as blank.

Comments

Thank you for posting Nancy! Same for me... even if I don't use Sourcer to create the profile.

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Hi Nancy, if you use the "Advanced Sourcing" option (the one with the headings), the basic biography won't be generated as it assumes you will be adding your own.

If you use the "Basic Sourcing" option (where you just insert your sources), it will generate a basic bio.

Answer 11

The new system asks for a source and then puts that source in the sources section.  I have to take an extra step to to move it up into the text section where it used to go automatically.  Not a big deal but an annoyance.  Otherwise it's good.  Oh wait. I echo the previous comments about marrying the parents now being another extra step.

Keep up the good work!

Comments

Sounds like you're another customer for the Advanced option: switch to text editing.

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Thanks Eva,

How do I switch to text editing.?

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Hi Ward,

On the source section, there should be a link above the source box that says "Advanced Option: Switch to Text Editing". You can also make the advanced option the default by using the checkbox that says "Default to Advanced Option".

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Thanks very much.  I tried that and found it does make it easier to put my text where I want it, but it does away with the info about the parents which I liked.  
Thanks again.

Answer 12

I’ve been using Beta for quite a while (Advanced option). I had a few issues at the start but these have been ironed out by Jamie and others . One request please - I want to be able to set Privacy when I am creating the profile. Currently the default is 100% open (green) and I need to manually change it after the profile is created .

Comments

Hi Susan, we won't be able to get to the privacy idea before tomorrow, but I've made a note of it.

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Thanks Jamie. I see this as really important. Yesterday I left a death date blank (intentional) but did not check the still living  box (well I tried to check it but it didn’t work for some reason). Then the profile was completely open for a short period of time. But I also want the option to select other Privacy settings before the profile is created and published.

Answer 13

sorry Chris, but I frankly do not like it at all, click here click there a click here a click there a click... , old McDonald died of it.  Makes it a longer process to create a profile, not shorter.

On the part where you have ==Biography== ==Sources== <references />, there should be a space between the biography and the sources headers, I don't use ''automatic bio''.  The way it's set up now, one has to create a space between the headers to enter text.  Didn't see anything about sources on there at all.  Maybe because I entered them right away in there, but you may be seeing unsourced profiles more.

Comments

Danielle, are you saying the "Biography/Sources" stuff is all showing on the same line, with no white space?

What browser/device are you using?

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no sorry, shows up as

==Biography==

==Sources==

<references />

No space at all between the lines, unlike the above.

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just added a wife to a man, boy, this is definitely not user friendly, had to bounce back and forth at each step to look at the data on the man's profile to be able to transfer it to the successive parts (3 of them!).  EEEEEEEKKKKKK !  Not a happy camper, before I could copy the full item with source with the data on it of name, marriage date, place, etc etc etc, copy it onto the bio section, and just look up and down on the same page to add the relevant facts where they belong.  Now I have to bounce, bounce bounce.  

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The new Wikitree editor is like bicycle training wheels because once you learn you no longer need training wheels but then one day you go to buy a new bicycle and they only come with training wheels that can't be removed ( It will slow you down a lot). Let us choose how we edit the profiles don't make us all use "training wheels". ☹️

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I'm in the same boat.  I'm willing to relearn things but this just added more screen changes and I lost the all on one page aspect which was good to do a general oversight of what was entered and if it all works together.

My brain is scattered by this setup. :-(

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I don’t mean to whine, but please give a little notepad space to refer to our work from another source and that includes the first page with birthdates, years, and areas where people are born and died.  I don’t work with a mouse on an ipad..Consider that not everyone can or even want to split screens…my last request on this..I promise.

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How about a little note space we can pull down from the top under the ADD heading… when we are done with our notes after filling out the boxes for dates and places, we click and its goes away.  It doesn’t take up computer space except while we use it.  The memory it takes while we use it, would not be permanent.   And, it would streamline adding a profile as it makes it so much easier for some of us.

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I would much prefer the old form!

I want to see the WHOLE PAGE AT ONCE! while I’m working on it to review & catch errors right then & there,  And the ‘click, click here - click, click there” is irritating.

It feels like treating everyone as novices as opposed to the scholars we strive to be.

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This is actually discouraging me from adding profiles, have a whole family group to add, sources galore, but really having to do this bit and piece creation of a profile is hurting my hand!  Clickety-click is abusive!

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Yes, I think it's great for new folks and folks using phones but there should be a way for pc and laptop users to be able to see everything on one page (with scrolling of course).

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When adding a spouse to someone with children already, the section asking if this spouse is parent to any of these children needs to be emphasized, right now not very obvious and easy to miss.  Makes for more work if you miss it.

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If you use the WBE, Ian added an option to turn it back to one screen: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1563396/wikitree-browser-extension-new-features

Answer 14

I've been using it since it first became available. There was a few wrinkles in the beginning, but it's really a much simpler and cleaner interface than the old one. I wouldn't want to go back.

Answer 15

Seems to work  I immediately set the advanced mode as default.

I'm troubled by the presence of the non-advanced mode, nonetheless, because I really don't like the idea of suggesting to anyone that a single source is sufficient grounds to create a profile. Very rarely does one primary/contemporaneous source source provide birth, marriage, and death and contextual information sufficient to fully identify a person.

Is Wikitree just sort of giving up trying to even encourage its former standards, much less expect or insist on them?

Comments

Hi Daphne. For a long time WikiTree has had "a low bar for creating modern profiles". This is sometimes controversial, but there hasn't been a change from former standards.

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The goal of the add person form is for someone to quickly check that there aren't any duplicates, that the data is logical, and that the profile has a least one source. It then drops the person off on the Edit page so they can continue working on the profile.

The "basic" box is the same as it was on the previous form. We do want to add some sort of sourcing help to that step of the form in the future (but we are going to work on the search/duplicate finding step before that).

The "advanced" option was added after we tested the first version of the beta with the Leaders -- a lot of them used to use the "Notes" box for adding inline sources to start the profile off, and we definitely don't want to discourage the use of those!

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"Quickly" must be subjective, because I had a certain birth date (year), a certain death date (year), and it took several minutes (I went to another tab and watched a guy talking about Explosive Chemistry (he made lots of flashes and bangs!) only to have the search for possible duplicates for a one-year-old still ongoing (I'm glad the last name was not Smith)).
Is this likely to be the case every time?

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It's always very fast for me. As an experiment I just used the Add New Person form to look for duplicates (without creating a profile). I asked for Jane (Smith) Jones (1820 - 1870). It found 100 matches in about two seconds, so fast I couldn't even measure it accurately with a stopwatch.

(100 is a very round number: perhaps a built-in limit?)

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All I know is, it was exceedingly slow for me.  Long enough I could have watched even more pyrotechnics while waiting.  (If anyone is interested, I now have a list of fascinating videos on various topics (only some of them are about flash-bangs) from The Royal Institution.)

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Would you like to tell us the names and dates, Melanie, or try again with the same ones yourself? It's a repeatable experiment: you can stop after the duplicate-finding stage, without proceeding to (re)create a profile. Maybe it was a one-off glitch somewhere.

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We did find a bug with search that is causing the server to return results really, really, slowly.

Melanie, is this happening with people who had an initial in their name?

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Jamie, no.  It was a child where I input his full names.  It just seemed so wrong that it took such a long time to check for duplicates for a 1-year-old where I had marked both birth and death as certain -- and where I had already done a search prior to adding the profile.

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Are you still having problems like this, Melanie?

Answer 16

Hi,

Anyone getting the following when wanting to add to a profile? I get the message Forbidden. You don't have permission to access this resource.

Has this anything to do with the update?

Comments

I do get this 403 

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access this resource. 

But I am clicking on the link to the mother's profile

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Du%20Plessis-884

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This is the same issue reported here: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1556370/bug-report-wrong-format-wikitree-id-in-tree-no-used - the underscors in two-part LNABs has gone missing.

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Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon. Wanted to work on a couple of profiles, but clicking on those profiles gives the error message. At least I'm not alone in this.

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I am trying to access some profiles created during the past week, and encounter the same problem:   Error 403: Forbidden : no permission to access this resource. As Sieger says: hopefully it will be resolved soon

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The Tech Team is aware and working on this.

In the meantime, you can change the %20 in the URL to an underscore _.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Du%20Plessis-884 should be https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Du_Plessis-884.

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This was just an unfortunately-timed bug with a security update. It should be fixed now (and the beta is also live now).

Answer 17

In creating Reid-21177 by creating spouse of Elizabeth McConnell, Samuel Reid b 1843 d 1926 received a died young sticker.

Comments

created using Sourcer, also have Wikitree Extension beta and Bee loaded.

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Hi Gary. Do you mean Samuel Reid-21177 (abt.1855-1926)? Sorry if I missed it, but I can't see a Died Young sticker anywhere in the change history for that profile.

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Hi

 Yes, but I edited it out as being clearly wrong before I saved the new profile,

 I've had this issue occasionally but ignored it in the past, as best as I can remember it is on profiles with some dates set as uncertain.

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Thanks for the details, Gary. If it happens again, perhaps you might leave the sticker there temporarily, to allow it to be seen and maybe assist in diagnosing the issue.

Answer 18

After uploading images to a profile (in a new tab), a message appears saying that the image is not found, and apologies for the inconvenience. However, the images do get uploaded (when I tried to redo the upload, a warning came up asking if I want to upload the image again). One has to go back to the profile however, to access the image for editing.

Comments

It happened to me as well.

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Ina and Louis,

Is this still happening? We installed a security update on our server last night and it had some unexpected consequences (unrelated to the changes to creating profiles). They should be fixed. Please post a new message in G2G if not.

Thank you, and our apologies for the inconvenience.

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Hi Chris, thank you very much. All seems to be working well again!

Answer 19

I'm loving this!! Finally, all the birth/death daters AND locations together. I've been asking for this for a long time and am so glad to see it this way.

No bugs or issues for me. Thanks to all who helped put this together. I am totally on board.

Answer 20

Seems to have disabled the Sourcer and BEE options to fill in the fields from Ancestry, is this intended?

As it is working right now, it is MUCH slower and feels clumsier to use than before. Bluntly, it sucks.

Comments

A new version of Sourcer has been released that should fix the problem.

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Thank You Rob!!!!! This makes the new changes a lot more tolerable. 

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Yippie!   It works beautifully!  Thanks so much Rob.  Awesome job!

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Well, hate to be the bearer of bad news (or maybe I'm just being stupid), but I can't get Sourcer to work in transferring my data from an Ancestry tree profile to a new WT profile. Sourcer saves the person data, but I don't see any way to load it into the new WT profile. I checked and do have the current Sourcer (1.6.5). After searching thru G2G found this thread and hoping for some help.

Back to maybe I'm being stupid...Took a month break from working on WT, so thought I just forgot how I use to do this. Tried the old copy/paste, read about Set fields from Person Data...on the Sourcer help page, but I can't find that anywhere (I'm looking for it in the [1] Sourcer menu...and everywhere else when it didn't show up there, LOL. I've read the Adding profile in WikiTree: From a profile (at Ancestry) on the Sourcer help page over and over AND OVER... Went thru it all very carefully and "nada". Is it me or is there still a problem? Thanks for any suggestions!

Edit: using Google Chrome

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There are instructions here.

However I have not updated the Add Person instructions for the latest change to the WIkiTree site. (I will do that now).

When adding a person you must continue to the second page where "Enter basic data" is in bold like this: 

Steps: Enter basic data > Review matches > Family connections > Add source > Create and edit profile.

Then the Sourcer menu will have Set Fields on it.

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Thanks, that is where I was looking. Here's what I see...

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Rob Pavey, I switched over to Firefox and Sourcer worked as expected for me, so there is still something off for some Chrome users. Let me know if you need more info from me.

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I briefly tried the updated Sourcer on Chrome and had the same issue as before, it was only brief because on my second attempt Chrome crashed and wiped all open windows and tabs, then on reload Chrome failed to restore.

 As I had changed to Avast browser where Sorcerer works properly,  I've continued with Avast.

 Tried Vivaldi, now working properly.

 Tried Chrome worked perfectly, I then re-enabled Bee and Sourcer failed to have the menu option to paste the persons saved data into Wikitree, same as before.

 I don't know where Sourcer stores it's saved person data, I do know where Bee saves it's data in Chrome and to me this issue behaves as if Bee's use of Chrome browser storage is blocking Sourcer from finding it's saved data, as I only get the problem when Bee is enabled.

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I'm not able to reproduce this problem on my setup (Chrome on Mac, I have Sourcer, BEE and the WBE installed and enabled). I don't think it is related to where the extensions are storing their data. It is probably related to not being able to parse/scrape the HTML page.

If someone is seeing the problem could you do "File -> Save Page As..." in Chrome and send me the resulting HTML file (you can ignore the additional folder that it saves) as a PM. Do this when on the "Enter basic data" step.

It could be some specific settings in BEE or WBE that causes the issue. Switching to Firefox might fix it just because you have different BEE or WBE settings there. I have tried all the BEE and WBE settings that I can think of that could cause an issue but still can't reproduce the problem.

Thanks.

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Just FYI it will not show the "Set fields ..." menu items unless you have saved the person data in the last 24 hours.