The “What’s New” page is a good place for visitors to your site to see what you have added or changed most recently. It lists the additions and updates for each of your media types first, then people and families.
Top of the “What’s New” page
By default it shows at most 10 items from each category, and only items changed or added in the past 30 days are considered. You can change that from the TNG General Settings page, under Miscellaneous, with these values:
If you want to includ
TNG’s GEDCOM import tool is a very complex piece of software in its own right, and it has to co-exist with a variety of different server environments. As such, there are a number of common problems. For example:
The import halts. Perhaps you were watching the progress bar and it just seemed to stop at some point. Two common reasons for that are 1) The server has a limit on how long a PHP script can run, and your import was taking too long; or 2) Something in your file threw the process for a
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TNG lets you choose a particular thumbnail photo for each person that will then be shown on all charts and next to that person’s name at the top of all their pages. That is referred to in TNG as the person’s “Default” photo. So how do you do that?
First, make sure you have at least one photo linked to that person, and that a thumbnail has been created for that photo. You can do that as
You may not realize it, but people from other parts of the world may be accessing your site. Wouldn’t it be great if those people could read your site in their own language? Actually, they can! TNG has already been translated (at least in part) into almost 30 different languages. In just a few easy steps, you can configure your site to be readable in some or all of those. Here’s how:
Make sure you have dynamic language changing turned on. To do that, go to Admin >> Setup >> Gener
Did you know you can “tag” people in your TNG photos? This is a very helpful feature when more than one people are in the picture, as it helps visitors quickly determine who is who. Here’s what that looks like:
TNG image tags, as seen by a public visitor.
Note how each person has a box around their face, along with the name directly underneath. Also, each face and name is a link back to that person’s page.
I should also say that the boxes are not visible initially. I made them all vis
Thanks to all who helped make the v15 upgrade a success, and thanks also to everyone who has already downloaded and installed the new version. I’ve heard lots of good comments!
As I’ve helped install the upgrade for many of you, I’ve come across a few common situations that I thought I’d mention for the benefit of those who haven’t yet taken the step:
The database step shows an error and nothing works. This usually means that you’re still running an older version of PHP. TNG v15 requires
Tables and columns in a MySQL database are created with a “collation”, which dictates what characters can be used in the information. When new tables or columns are added to your TNG database during an upgrade, the database will use its default collation to create those. Normally that’s what we want, but if your default collation has changed since your tables were originally created, then you could end up with a mismatch that MySQL doesn’t like. That when you’ll see this message like this on you
One problem TNG site owners sometimes have during an upgrade is discovering that some images or other files are missing when the upgrade is complete. How did that happen?
The cause of this trouble is folders that get uploaded in “replace” mode (as opposed to “merge” mode). When a folder is uploaded in “replace” mode, the new folder totally replaces the old folder, so if there were any files not included in the new folder, those files will end up getting deleted from the website. In contrast,
With the release of TNG 15, I thought I’d once again take a minute to go over some of the things to watch out for while you’re upgrading your site. All of these apply no matter which version you’re installing.
Make sure you choose the right upgrade. Before you begin, go to your TNG Admin menu and look at the top of the screen. It should say there what your current version is. Anything that starts with “14” (like 14.0.1 or 14.0.6) counts as “14.x”. You will see links for several different upg
With the impending release of TNG 14, I thought I’d take a minute to go over some of the things to watch out for while you’re upgrading your site. All of these apply no matter which version you’re installing.
Make sure you choose the right upgrade. Before you begin, go to your TNG Admin menu and look at the top of the screen. It should say there what your current version is. Anything that starts with “13” (like 13.0.1 or 13.1.2) counts as “13.x”. You will see links for several different up
TNG 14 is almost here! This major upgrade includes more than 100 enhancements, fixes and new features. Here’s a quick summary of the most significant changes:
Import: The inner workings of the GEDCOM import have been improved to make the process much more robust. Unresponsiveness issues have been addressed, and “resume” operations should be seamless. Also, support has been added for some GEDCOM 7.0 features. Media included with a zipped GEDCOM file can now be extracted at the time of impor
With TNG 13 being released today (Sep. 21, 2020), I thought I’d take a minute to go over some of the things to watch out for while you’re upgrading your site. All of these apply no matter which version you’re installing.
Install the upgrade, not the full version. When you get to the v13 downloads page, the first link near the top will be for brand new TNG users. What you want is a little further down in the Updates section. Also take note that a new version of the full version readme.html f
TNG 13 is just around the corner! This major upgrade includes more than 100 enhancements, fixes and new features. Here’s a quick summary of the most significant changes:
New Templates: Two new templates have been added, and more third-party templates are also available for purchase at Genealogy Web Templates. One of the two was contributed by Marsha at GWT.
Media Enhancements: Many improvements and small changes have been made to the way TNG handles photos and other media. These include a
For the tenth year in a row, TNG is a winner of the GenSoftReviews Users Choice Award! Thanks to all who contributed!
Awards are presented to all programs achieving a 4.00 or more star rating
based on 10 or more total user reviews, with at least one review in the qualifying year. TNG has 158 total reviews (10 in 2018), and has an average rating of 4.83 stars. That’s good enough for 5th best among 287 different programs that received at least one review!
More information on the awards can be f
TNG 12 is almost here! This major upgrade includes dozens of enhancements, fixes and new features. Here’s a summary of the most significant changes:
DNA: Jeff Robison’s DNA mod has been incorporated, providing several significant enhancements to the previous method of tracking DNA tests.
Mod Manager: Rick Bisbee, Ken Roy and others have added significant improvements to this utility that allows users to easily install or remove code modifications and add-ons.
Translations: TNG has now been
Like TNG, the underlying PHP is constantly changing, and new updates are released every few months. Hosting providers don’t always install the latest version right away, but they almost always get to it eventually.
When that happens, there are usually a handful of PHP functions that for whatever reason are no longer supported in the newer version. For example, the “session_register” and “session_unregister” functions were removed a while back, and all the “mysql” functions (like mysql_query) we
Parts of TNG have already been translated into 21 languages (besides English), but there are quite a few languages that are not supported as of yet. If you have thought about translating TNG into a new language, here’s what you’ll need to do.
First, use an FTP program or the file manager on your site control panel to navigate into the “languages” folder and create a new folder for your new language. You should see folders for all the other languages there, like this:
Afrikaans
Afrikaans-UTF8
Today I’m putting the spotlight on a feature that’s new in TNG 11, the fan chart. First of all, many thanks go to Ben Wagner, a TNG user who contributed most of the code. Great job, Ben!
To find a fan chart on any TNG 11 site, just search for any individual, then click the Ancestors tab near the top of the page. Finally, click the Fan Chart option on the menu bar just below the tabs.
I love the fan chart because it gives you a great visual sense of a person’s ancestry while making more efficie
For the eighth year in a row, TNG is a winner of the GenSoftReviews Users Choice Award! TNG is one of only six programs to do that. Thanks to all of you for all the wonderful reviews!
Awards are presented to all programs achieving a 4.00 or more star rating
based on 10 or more total user reviews with at least one review in the qualifying year. TNG had 136 total reviews in 2016 and received an average rating of 4.87 stars. That was ninth best among more than 250 different programs that received
A few months back I highlighted a few of Jim Benedict’s TNG “how to” articles (specifically the ones relating to GEDCOM imports & exports). Now I’m going to mention a few more that spotlight the new features in TNG 11. Even if you’ve had version 11 for a while now, these posts may help you get to know these features a little better. Thanks Jim!
TNG v.11: TNG and DNA Tests
Managing DNA results, and linking your test results to the people in your trees.
TNG v.11: Admin menu now shows catego
A lot of people have asked me lately how they’d go about moving their TNG site to a new site without losing any data. In a nutshell, here’s what you’d have to do:
1. Back up your TNG data, either with TNG (under Admin/Utilities) or with phpMyAdmin (on your site control panel or “cPanel”; recommended for larger sites). The TNG backup creates a series of .bak files in the “backups” folder on your site. If you use phpMyAdmin, you should end up with a large .sql file on your computer.
2. Download
If you’ve seen the TNG Facebook page , you may have also seen Jim Benedict posting a lot of helpful “how to” articles on various TNG-related topics. You can see them all on his site at http://tng.one-name.net/, but I’d like to spotlight some of them here as well. Today I’m going to highlight all of the ones relating to “Trees” (as defined in TNG) and the importing and exporting of GEDCOM files:
How to import a GEDCOM
Getting all your family data into TNG, including an explanation of the Import
TNG 11 is almost here! The currently estimated release date is about March 16 or 17, 2016. This major upgrade includes nearly a hundred fixes, enhancements and new features. Here’s a summary of the most significant changes:
DNA: Aid your research by keeping track of DNA tests taken by the people in your tree. Enter the specifics once and link them to those affected.
Fan Charts: A fan-oriented chart of ancestors can now be displayed for each person in your tree.
Data Validation: Several precon
If you’ve forgotten your TNG admin login, here are a few things you can try to regain access to your site: 1. Go to the TNG login page (either on the public side or the admin side) and use the … Continue reading →
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With TNG 10 being released today (Feb. 12, 2014), I thought I’d take a minute to go over some of the things to watch out for while you’re upgrading your site. All of these apply no matter which version you’re … Continue reading →
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