HTML Export Add-on gives you the ability to export your GEDCOM in the form of a tree of hyperlinked HTML files, which can be uploaded to a Web server. The HTML conversion code used by HTML Export Add-on is shared with that used by GEDCOM Viewer, so the output produced is essentially the same as what you see in the viewer, except for the addition of index files. The output produced by HTML Export Add-on is similar to that produced by the older GED2HTML program, and it has most of the configurability of that software, except that HTML Export Add-on cannot currently be reprogrammed to produce completely different output formats.
To use HTML Export Add-on, first make sure that you
have loaded the add-on, as described
here.
If the add-on has been loaded successfully, then its presence
will be indicated in the About screen.
Also, there will be an Export HTML item under
the Tools menu.
Assuming HTML Export Add-on has been successfully loaded,
use the File menu to load the GEDCOM that you
wish to export in HTML format.
Then, select Export HTML from the Tools
menu. A file chooser dialog will open, asking you to choose
the root directory (folder) for export. You should use this
dialog to select a folder where you want the generated HTML files
to be placed. Usually you will want to select an otherwise empty
folder here. When you click on "Open", the export process will
begin. A progress indicator will tell you how many files have
been created.
When the export process is complete, the folder you selected will
contain a number of files, including index.html,
which is the entry page. You can view the results by loading that
page into a browser.
An example of the output can be viewed
here.
The entry page gives links to two indexes:
a surnames index and a persons index.
Both of these indexes are hierarchical, tree-structured indexes
that make it possible to navigate quickly to the information on
a desired individual, even if there are a great many names
in the GEDCOM.
To place the generated HTML files online, you must upload the output folder and all its contents to your Web server. Exactly how you accomplish this will depend on the type of Web service provider you have. It is very important that the uploading process preserve any sub-folders and their contents, and does not make any changes to the names of the files, such as converting lower-case to upper-case or changing ".html" to ".htm". If the output folder is uploaded exactly as it was created, all the links between the files should still work properly once the files are on the Web server.
There are a number of option variables that can be tweaked to control
the characteristics of the output produced by
HTML Export Add-on.
These option variables can be accessed via the Edit Options
item in the Options menu.
For more information on setting, saving, and restoring options
variables, see here.
There are a number of options that affect the appearance of the generated HTML pages when they are viewed in a browser.
TEXT_COLOR
Setting this variable to a color specification in HTML
"#rrggbb" format affects the color of the text.
LINK_COLOR
Setting this variable to a color specification in HTML
"#rrggbb" format affects the color of hyperlinks.
VISITED_COLOR
Setting this variable to a color specification in HTML
"#rrggbb" format affects the color of
hyperlinks that have been visited.
BACKGROUND_COLOR
Setting this variable to a color specification in HTML
"#rrggbb" format affects the background color
of the pages.
BACKGROUND_IMAGE
This variable can be set to the URL of an image file to be used
as a page background image.
The URL used can be an absolute URL, which specifies the location
of the image file independently of where the HTML documents
happen to be located.
However, the URL can also be a URL relative to the "root"
folder of the generated output (i.e. the folder you
selected as the one into which the output should be placed).
HTML Export Add-on automatically modifies
this URL so that it works properly, even for files that are
located in sub-folders of the root folder.
FONT_SIZE
The font size can be changed by setting this option variable to a string describing either an absolute or relative font size, e.g. 12pt, small, medium, large, larger, smaller, 150%.
FONT_FAMILY
Setting this to a prioritized comma-separated list of font family names, e.g. 'gill, helvetica, sans-serif' affects the browser's choice of font for the document.
STYLE_URL
This variable can be set to the URL of a style sheet to be used in rendering HTML pages, or null for no style sheet. The URL can be either an absolute URL, or a URL relative to the root of the document tree and the "right thing" will happen. By specifying a style sheet, you can affect many aspects of the rendering of the HTML pages for which HTML Export Add-On has no explicit option variable.
GENERATE_INDEX_PAGESIf set to false, the index pages will not be generated.
GENERATE_INDIVIDUALS_PAGESIf set to false, the pages corresponding to GEDCOM individual records will not be generated.
GENERATE_FAMILIES_PAGESIf set to false, the pages corresponding to GEDCOM family records will not be generated.
GENERATE_SOURCES_PAGESIf set to false, the pages corresponding to GEDCOM source records will not be generated.
GENERATE_NOTES_PAGESIf set to false, the pages corresponding to GEDCOM note records will not be generated.
SUPPRESS_SOURCESIf set to true, no source information will be included on any of the individual, or family pages.
SUPPRESS_NOTESIf set to true, no note information will be included on any of the individual, family, or sources pages.
NO_LDS_ORDINANCESIf set to true, the information on the individual and family pages will not include LDS-specific events.
HTML_ROOT_DIRECTORY
This variable remembers the name of the last directory that was specified as the root directory for HTML export and it is used to initialize the file chooser that is displayed when HTML export is selected.
HTML_FILE_STRATEGY
"File strategy" refers to the approach used by HTML Export Add-on to the organization of the output files and the placement of information in the output files. There are three basic strategies:
RIN" strategy.
In this strategy, information from each GEDCOM record is output to a separate file. The GEDCOM id of the record is used as a basis for constructing the file name and except for the index files, all files are placed in the top-level directory. For large GEDCOMs, this can result in an unmanageably large number of files in the root directory.
SERIAL" strategy.
This strategy can place information from multiple GEDCOM records into a single file. The file names are generated sequentially, and the records are assigned to files according to the serial order in which the records appear in the GEDCOM.
HASH" strategy.
This strategy can also place information from multiple GEDCOM records into a single file. GEDCOM records are assigned to files more or less randomly under the control of a "hash function" that is applied to the GEDCOM id of the record. It is not guaranteed that the same number of records will be assigned to each file. An advantage of this strategy over the "serial" strategy is that the assignment of records to files can remain stable across multiple export runs. This means that external links to individual records will not have to be changed just because the HTML files have been regenerated.
RECORDS_PER_FILE
In the "serial" strategy, this variable controls the number of
GEDCOM records that will be output to a single HTML file.
Set this variable to a number larger than 1 to decrease the
total number of output files.
In the "hash" strategy, the number of records per file will
be somewhat variable, and will depend on the total number of
records to be output, the
FILES_PER_DIRECTORY variable, and the
NUMBER_OF_DIRECTORIES variable.
FILES_PER_DIRECTORY
In the "serial" and "hash" strategies, this variable controls the number of subdirectories of the root directory that will be created to hold information from GEDCOM records.
NUMBER_OF_DIRECTORIES
In the "hash" strategy, this variable controls the number of
subdirectories of the root directory that will be created to hold
information from GEDCOM records.
In the "serial" strategy the number of directories is determined
by the total number of records to be output, the
RECORDS_PER_FILE variable, and the
FILES_PER_DIRECTORY variable.
HTML_SUFFIX
This variable can be used to change the default filename suffix used for HTML files.
FILENAME_TEMPLATE
This variable can be used to affect the way in which filenames are constructed from integer serial numbers in the "serial" and "hash" strategies. The default is "%07d" which means that the serial number will be converted into a 7-digit format with leading zeroes.
DIRECTORY_TEMPLATE
This variable can be used to affect the way in which subdirectory names are constructed from integer serial numbers in the "serial" and "hash" strategies. The default is "%04d" which means that the serial number will be converted into a 4-digit format with leading zeroes.
There are several options to control the format of the hierarchical persons and surnames indexes.
PERSONS_LEAF_WIDTH
This sets the maximum number of entries in each "leaf" node of the persons index.
PERSONS_NODE_WIDTH
This sets the maximum number of entries in each "internal" (non-leaf) node of the persons index.
PERSONS_DEPTH
This sets the maximum depth of the persons index tree.
You should set one or the other, but not both,
of PERSONS_NODE_WIDTH and PERSONS_DEPTH.
SURNAMES_LEAF_WIDTH
This sets the maximum number of entries in each "leaf" node of the surnames index.
SURNAMES_NODE_WIDTH
SURNAMES_DEPTH
This sets the maximum depth of the surnames index tree.
You should set one or the other, but not both,
of SURNAMES_NODE_WIDTH and SURNAMES_DEPTH.
PEDIGREE_DEPTH
Setting this variable to a non-zero value causes the inclusion of GED2HTML-style pedigree charts in the pages corresponding to individual records. The value of the variable determines the number of generations in the chart. If the variable is set more than about 4, the charts become fairly large.
PEDIGREE_DATES
Setting this variable to true causes birth/marriage/death years to be included in the pedigree charts.
HTML Export Add-on includes a feature for inserting
an image into each page corresponding to an individual.
If this feature is enabled (by setting the INCLUDE_IMAGES
option variable to true -- see below), then each generated
page for an individual will contain HTML code that looks like
the following:
The <IMG> tag serves to link to the image file.
The src attribute that names the image file for an
individual is formed by concatenating a base URL that specifies where
the image files are located,
followed by the GEDCOM ID of that individual (as specified in the
input GEDCOM file) followed finally by an extension indicating the
image file type.
The alt attribute specifies alternative text to be used
in case a browser is unable to load the image file.
The class attribute makes it possible to name these
<IMG>
elements within an external style sheet or from
style information located in the header of the HTML document.
There are several option variables that can be used to modify various parameters:
INCLUDE_IMAGES
Setting this variable to true enables the image inclusion feature.
IMAGE_EXT
This variable contains the extension (such as .jpg
or .png) to be appended to the GEDCOM ID of an
individual in order to construct the name of the image file.
IMAGE_URL
This variable supplies the base URL where the image files can be found by the browser. If the URL is a relative URL, the location will be relative to the root of the document tree.
IMAGE_CLASS
This variable determines the class name that can be used in an external style sheet to control default attributes of an included image. For example, if an external style sheet is specified in the HTML header, then that style sheet could contain the following code:
The effect of this code would be to cause all of the included images to have a height of 30ex and for any alternative text used in case an image cannot be found to be output in red.
IMAGE_ALT
If this variable is non-null, then its value is text to be used by the browser in case the specified image file cannot be loaded.
IMAGE_STYLE
This variable contains style settings for included images.
The default setting of this variable is
float: right; which causes the images to float
to the right of the output page and for the text to wrap
around them.
It is placed in a <STYLE></STYLE>
element under the HTML <HEAD></HEAD>
element. As such, any settings specified here will override
those specified in an external style sheet, so if the
floating behavior is not desired it must first be disabled,
for example by setting this variable to the empty string.
Once that is done the desired settings can be made in the
external style sheet.
CONTACT_URL
This variable can be set to a URL (for example,
a "mailto:" URL) for contacting the host or author
of the information.
CONTACT_NAME
This variable sets the name to be placed in the host or author contact link.
LANGUAGE
This variable selects the human language to be used in generating
the HTML. It can be set to a lower-case, two-letter ISO-639 code.
The best way of setting it is to use the Set language
item of the Options menu, where the list of supported
languages will be displayed.