The plugin is plugged in

Well, that got a bit out of hand!

My little proof-of-concept experiment for a flexible CSV import plugin for Family Historian grew into a little project to actually make such a plugin… and then expanded into a project to make one good enough for the Family Historian plugin store… with assorted extra features thrown in along the way!

Getting the plugin to import the information took a little work. Trying to make a useful interface, and to cover the situations that could arise if people don’t use it exactly the same way I do took a lot longer! Aside from a bit of frustration at times playing whack-a-mole with bugs, I enjoyed the process. For each problem (just about), I found a solution. I’m not a programmer. I have no illusion that it is brilliant code – but it does the job.

Last weekend I submitted it to Family Historian. It has now been approved and is in the plugin store. I do hope it will make life easier for some genies out there!

Plugin progress

Here’s the final message from the latest trial run of my ‘Import CSV’ plugin for Family Historian. 35 seconds feels like a long time to wait but it’s certainly a lot faster than entering 10,000+ names by hand.. with source citations, I might add!

Plugging away at a plugin

I had good intentions of writing up a post after Congress 2015. I started, but never quite finished. Somewhere along the way I got distracted by a project that hadn’t even been on my to-do list, but has since because the primary focus of my attention.

Since Congress, in my spare moments, I have been chipping away at writing a Family Historian plugin. It started when I was talking to Jill Ball at Congress. She mentioned that she had looked at the CSV import plugins currently available but they hadn’t quite met her needs. The goal of a “CSV import” plug-in is to move spreadsheet style information into a family history package.

I have a few ideas about how a flexible CSV import tool might work… one you could customise without having to get into the code. Sparked by Jill’s comment, I tried a few proof-of-concept experiments and my little obsession project grew from there.

As at today, I have a plugin that seems to work as intended. I’m thinking about refining it to a point where I could submit it to the Family Historian plugin store so that anyone who has Family Historian can use it.

Right now I’m on the lookout for a few more sample files to try it with. Please leave a comment if you have something that might fit the bill and I’ll get in touch with you.