Bug- GEDCOM export should convert all templates to expanded form

Question

When exporting a GEDCOM, all templates for wiki markup (including profile links [[Crawford-7109|Jon Crawford]], url links [www.wikitree.com wikitree], external templates {{FindAGrave|foo|sameas=no}}, DAR, Ancestry, etc.) should be expanded to be the formatted output so that data is not lost.

Answer 1

Hi Jonathan. Your URL example should actually be [https://www.wikitree.com/ wikitree], shouldn't it? I don't see any need to expand that one, because the full URL is already present.

For the WikiTree ID links and the templates, expanding them in place is going to produce quite ugly text. It might be better to add a list at the end of the biography as a key, indicating the translation of the templates to the full URLs. There are other advantages in leaving the templates present as well. They are easy to read, and could be useful in the future if the site in question changes its URL  format.

Personally, I would prefer to retain the option to keep everything as it is at the moment, because I would use local software to turn templates and so forth into whatever form I wanted. I know this won't suit many people, so the proposal has merit. If there is a change, it will be good if the GEDCOM download page can provide a choice between the old and the new arrangement.

Comments

I forgot to add in free space links too. Good point about the url already being there.

I like the idea of a list, and then you would still see both. Not sure if thats easier or harder.

---

Thank you for the star, Jonathan. I don't see why a list would be harder. The code could just collect the templates as it went along, then at the end insert a series of bullet points like this:

* {{FindAGrave|9999999|sameas=no}} : https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9999999

---

Just because the display code already does it in place for the html, is what I was thinking.

---

This is a good idea and something we should do the next time GEDCOM exports are worked on.