Joaktree Version 2

As a reminder: Joaktree was created by Niels van Dantzig and then adapted to Joomla! 3, but was discontinued in 2014 due to lack of availability.

Since 2017, I've been trying to improve Joaktree 1.5 for Joomla! 3 and make it compatible with PHP 8, and then from the first alpha versions of Joomla! 4 to adapt this version to Joomla! 4 and then 5.

I resumed my attempts at the beginning of the summer of 2024, with a great deal of difficulty, but little by little my tinkering was sufficiently effective for me to be able to move test sites from version J3 to version J5, with still a few errors that were not very annoying, at least in my own use, but it was tinkering.

At the beginning of October, Pascal Leconte (pmleconte on the French Joomla! forum - https://www.conseilgouz.com) got to grips with this extension and practically rewrote it to the new J5 standards.
I'd like to thank him very much!

The pack is now available, in beta1 version at the time of writing, on the GitHub account of Niels van Dantzig, the creator of Joaktree: https://github.com/joaktree/J5

As everyone has their own way of using it, we are calling on anyone who has already used Joaktree to test the migration to this new version on a copy of their site and report any residual anomalies to us.
Those who have never used Joaktree before will be able to do so on a new test site, but will need a few explanations on how to proceed.
A long-time Canadian user, Jayson Dayman, has started a rewrite of the English documentation (the only one available so far for the previous version of Joaktree). Some things have changed since version 1.4.2 for Joomla! 2.5, so this rewrite is necessary.

The procedure depends on whether or not you have used Joaktree before.

•  Old installation under J3:
  • Migration of the site to J4 then J5 according to the usual procedure 
  • Installation of Joaktree 2.0.2 
  • Checking the general parameters, in particular the mapping 
  • Everything should work, except for the positioning of the modules on the new template if that of the J3 site has been replaced

I tested this method yesterday on two local sites, without prior deactivation of the various elements of Joaktree and without any incident.

• New installation:

  • Classic installation
  • From the Joaktree administration panel, open the settings page and check 
  • If you plan to use event location maps, define the type in the "Mapping" tab, insert the Google API key if the geolocation is to go through Google, validate 
  • We're ready to start :
    • The first thing to do now is to define a data "source" on which everything will then be based.
    • The easiest way to test this is to start with a GedCom-standard genealogy file (examples can be found on the web); adding a new source requires its name and in its settings the location of the imported file on the site (by default "tmp" but I prefer another folder to avoid the tmp folder being emptied of this file if an extension is installed) and its name: example.ged file and "gedtmp" folder (at the root) for example. For the import, in France, there is no need to add a surname, so we define it in the "GedCom parameters" tab, and if we want a card associated with the person, at the very bottom of this tab, we just need to define its type.
    • Once these settings have been saved, selecting the source activates the import, which takes a variable amount of time depending on the weight of the GedCom file and must end with the complete import information. At the same time, a family tree is created and the individuals are assigned to it. If geolocation has been defined, the coordinates of the locations are defined at the same time by using the selected provider. ▪ We are then ready to create menu links to the index of names and the like.
    • The other method requires you to create a source without GedCom, and then a tree linked to it. Then, all insertions of individuals and data about them will have to be done from the front end of the site.

While waiting for the new version of the documentation, that of version 1.4.2 is here: Manuel Joaktree 1.4.2 (6.59 MB)

A part of the french text was translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version). Some changes were then made.