PhpGedView Overview

Web3us LLC  provides hosting for your PhpGedView site for $2.41 a month (U.S. funds). That price includes a database of up to 3,000 individuals and 30 MB of data. Larger databases are available for increased fees.

PhpGedView is a genealogy program that allows you to view and edit genealogy data that is stored on your personal web site. You can use PhpGedView in the same manner as most other genealogy programs with three exceptions:

• It is installed on a web server and stores its data there instead of on your own hard drive.
• You can use PhpGedView with any Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or even handheld computer.
• You can make PhpGedView private so that only you can see the data. If you prefer, you can also give access to a few other family members or to everyone in the world. You can give read-only access, or you can give others the ability to input data as well. You can even give one level of access to some people and a different level to others. You can grant or remove anyone's access at any time. If you are the owner, or system administrator, of the database, all access is under your control at all times. The choices are yours to make.

Your latest genealogy information is always available on your website within seconds after the data is entered. It is also available within seconds for others to see if you allow them to have access.

While the program runs on a web server that might be many miles from where you are sitting, PhpGedView allows you to edit the data and run reports almost as if the information was on your own desktop or laptop computer. You open a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.), connect to the web server, and edit your genealogy data as you wish. You can import data from GEDCOM files, manually add or edit data, or even add multimedia files, such as photos and document images. You can also run reports.

Of course, the Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and handheld computers that work with PhpGedView must have Internet connectivity. All the PhpGedView software is installed on a web server. To use it, all the user needs is any modern computer with a web browser.

All of this sounds complicated and, indeed, it can be. Then again, it also can be super simple. In fact, PhpGedView can even be easier to install and configure than any Windows or Macintosh genealogy program by simply letting someone else do the installation for you!

First of all, it doesn't make financial sense to purchase a web server in order to use PhpGedView. There are dozens of web hosting services that will provide plenty of space for your project on their shared servers for $5.00 a month or so. That is much cheaper than purchasing your own web server. In addition, you don't have the headaches of maintaining it, doing the backups, and fixing things that go wrong. For five bucks a month, someone else gets those headaches.

Next, you can find several hosting services that willingly install and configure PhpGedView software for you or anyone else who wishes to use their services. You need to have almost zero technical skills to use one of these "turnkey services." Computer newbies will find that using one of these turnkey services is easier than installing a regular genealogy program on a home computer.

If you are involved in a multi-person genealogy project with your family association or with a local genealogy society, you should carefully evaluate PhpGedView. It could simplify your life. Running a multi-user program such as PhpGedView, along with a multi-user database, has a number of advantages over the typical single-user genealogy program designed to run on a desktop computer. For instance, in a multi-person effort using PhpGedView, each user sees the latest data all the time. Using PhpGedView for a group project with several people contributing data is much easier than using a traditional genealogy program on a home computer for the same purpose.

First, if all the group members are using individual programs on their own home computers, how do they share the data? How do they synchronize their databases with each other when they make changes on one computer? With PhpGedView, the answer is easy: everyone works directly on the same database at the same time. Everyone sees the same thing at all times. The program is designed to allow two, three, or more people to input data simultaneously, assuming that each is inputting data about different people. When any authorized user makes a change, everyone else can see it instantly. There is only one database; so, there are no synchronization problems.

PhpGedView is an excellent choice for multi-user projects. In fact, PhpGedView might be one of the best solutions available for a family society or a local genealogy society where a number of people are contributing data to one database.

When it comes to publishing data on the web, most desktop genealogy programs can generate web pages. Almost all of today's programs have an option to generate HTML files, which then can be uploaded to a personal web server. This is a multi-step process that is unnecessary in PhpGedView. In this case, PhpGedView is installed on a web server, and the appropriate HTML files are generated instantly as needed. There is no multi-step upload process from one computer to another; everything originates and finishes on the one web server. 

PhpGedView also handles the privacy issues nicely, something that is a bit more difficult in other genealogy programs where the data is generated on a desktop system and then uploaded to a web server. PhpGedView will even automatically hide or show private information, based on whom you allow to have access to it. That is, you can give user IDs and passwords to multiple people. Depending on the security levels that you set, some of the people will see data that does not show any information about living people. Yet you can give a higher level of access to "trusted friends," who will then be able to see all the data, including information about living people. That is only one of a number of options.

PhpGedView is available in the following languages: Chinese (partially translated), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. In fact, this program will operate in multiple languages simultaneously. Your relatives in the U.S. can view the pages in English while those back in "the old country" can simultaneously view the pages in their native languages. These language options obviously only apply to the menus and "static" pages created by the program. The data and text notes that you enter will remain in whatever language you used when you created the information.

You can find a listing of more than 500 other PhpGedView-powered sites at http://phpgedview.sourceforge.net/registry.php. Some of them are using PhpGedView just as it is configured "out of the box" while others have made extensive customizations. Many of those sites are in languages other than English.

PhpGedView can create numerous reports, including the following:

• Fan Chart - View an individual's ancestry as a fan.
• Ancestry Chart - View the ancestry of a person including aunts and uncles and their spouses.
• Zoom Chart Boxes - On charts you can allow visitors to zoom in on the boxes and get more information and bigger fonts or zoom out for the "big picture."
• Anniversary Calendar- Lists all of the events that happened on a given date. Filter the events to show only living people or only recent events.
• Relationship Chart- Provides a visual reference of how two individuals link together.
• Timeline Chart- You can chart up to 6 people on a single timeline. From the timeline chart you can see how people's lives overlapped, find out how old they were at different times, and chart the course of their life through time.
• Multiple Generation Pedigree Chart - View as many generations as you want and quickly navigate up and down the pedigree tree. Click on any person or family to get their details.
• General Keyword and Soundex Searches - Search the entire GEDCOM file for keywords or based on Soundex values of individuals' last and first names.
• Descendancy Chart Navigation - View descendancy charts and move up and down the chart or easily switch branches with simple mouse clicks.
• Place hierarchy - Browse through all of the places in your GEDCOM file and quickly see who lived where. For example, start with browsing in the United States, then choose a state such as Arizona, then choose a county. At any time you can click on the view results link to see who lived in those areas.
• Individual, Family, and Source Lists - View lists of the sources, families, and individuals, broken down by surname.
• PDF Reports - The reports menu allows you to generate nice PDF reports of your data for printing. XML report templates allow for simple creation of new reports.
• Photos and Multimedia - View photos and other multimedia items in the Multimedia list or attached to records in the GEDCOM.

In addition, PhpGedView has numerous other options, two of which I do not remember seeing in other genealogy programs:

• RSS Feed - PhpGedView comes with an RSS feed generator for your users who like to view the latest updates through RSS feeds.
• GEDCOM Clippings Cart - The clippings cart gives visitors to your site the ability to take Family Tree Clippings from your family tree, download them as a GEDCOM file and import them into their favorite family history program.

So, how much does this powerful, multi-user, multi-language program cost? The answer is, "Not one cent."

That's right: PhpGedView is free of charge for everyone. There are no limited trial versions and no "beg screens" asking for payment. PhpGedView is open source and is hosted at SourceForge.net, an organization that provides storage space to many open source projects. While there is no cost whatsoever to use the program, you can make a donation to help support the development of the project, should you wish to do so.

PhpGedView is an ongoing project with new updates released every few months. It is being developed by a very talented group of software developers from several countries. You can see a list of those contributing to this project at http://phpgedview.sourceforge.net/about.php#developers.

Now let's address the biggest issue with PhpGedView: installation and configuration. Even those tasks can be trivial. In reality, you don't need to install the software yourself; you can have someone else do that for you.

Most desktop genealogy programs require you to either download a file or insert a CD-ROM disk into your computer, then double-click on SETUP or some similar file name. You then sit back and watch while the software installs itself more or less automatically.

PhpGedView is different. Assuming that you plan to install the software yourself, PhpGedView requires you to download files from SourceForge.net, change some configuration files, and then upload the files to the web server that is hosting your data. To be sure, this is not a complex process; hundreds of other people have done exactly that. You do not need to be an experienced system administrator to do these chores, but I still would not recommend this for computer newcomers. However, if you are comfortable with computers and would like to learn more about software and web servers, PhpGedView is an excellent project for you.

For those who prefer to have someone else do the work, there is an excellent alternative: sign up with a hosting service that will install and configure PhpGedView for you. All you have to do is create an account with such a service, wait a day or two for them to do the installation, then log onto your new site and start using it. That is even easier than installing your own programs on a Windows or Macintosh computer!

Several such hosting services are available:

PGVHosting.com provides hosting for your PhpGedView site for $5.95 a month (U.S. funds). That price includes a database of up to 4,000 individuals. Larger databases are available for increased fees. You send your GEDCOM file to PGVHosting, and they do all the rest of the work for you. The company will create a web site, install and configure PhpGedView, and then import your GEDCOM file. More information is available at http://www.pgvhosting.com. Also check out the company's demo of PhpGedView in operation at http://www.pgvhosting.com/demo/.

OurRoots.info hosts PhpGedView data and will perform the software installation for you. The starter service for $2.08 per month is limited to 2,500 individuals in the database and 20 megabytes of disk space. Larger databases and more disk space are available for fees starting at $4.99 a month. You can find more information about OurRoots.info at http://www.ourroots.info. Also check out their demo of PhpGedView running on their systems at http://www.ourroots.info/phpGedView.

TreeShare.com is a PhpgedView hosting service based in Canada but with customers all over the world. TreeShare provides all setup, hosting, maintenance, and support. For an extra fee, TreeShare.com will even modify your site to fit your personal preferences. When you sign up, TreeShare usually creates your site within one business day. You will be notified by email when the site is ready. Prices start at $4.99 (U.S. funds) per month for a database of up to 5,000 individuals and 40 megabytes of disk space. Additional capacity is available for modest increases in fees. For more information, look http://www.ourroots.info. You can also view TreeShare.com's demo version of PhpGedView at http://www.ourroots.info/phpGedView.

123-FamilyTree.com offers two PhpGedView hosting plans start at $4.95 a month. Details may be found at http://123-familytree.com/.

The final PhpGedView hosting service that I found is Genview, a company in The Netherlands. I found less information about Genview since their web site is in Dutch, a language that I cannot read. Newsletter readers in The Netherlands or elsewhere who want their pages hosted on a Dutch service should look at http://www.genview.nl.

Written by Dick Eastman , 2007