Question Newcomer User/Developer - Platform Overview?

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tonyg wrote:

I have no idea of exactly how wt_getcom and it's tables work.

For merely running a site with webtrees, you don't need to
To me the database is a black box. You never really need to look at it or intervene with it.

Only if you start developing custom modules... you need to interact with the webtrees core code, which then still is responsible for interacting with the database. I think even when writing customizations, then direct contact with the database is discouraged.

One thing I do know worth knowing is that the primary GEDCOM records (Individual, Family, Note, Media, Source, Repository) are all stored basically as rough GEDCOM text with data derived from that in separate tables for indexed searching: names, dated events, addresses, etc.

> I'm surprised at the lack of links between families, individuals, places, dates, etc

Our "master" copy of the data is the GEDCOM data. This is free-text. It doesn't lend itself to structured databases.

From this we create tables containing search-indexes (tables: dates, places, links) which allows us to create reports, searches, lists, etc. These are updated every time we edit a record.

I'm currently working on improvements to these "search index" tables. But the master-copy will remain the GEDCOM data (tables: individuals, families, sources, media, other).

Good confirmation on the search-indexes, thanks! Could you complete the list of those tables so that I/we can understand that they are secondary tables and not primary? I'm hoping you might just say that anything at the bottom of my screenshot above, not linked, is a search-index table.

Are there common functions to be used for extracting specific fields from the GED text or inserting fields into an existing record?
Anything that extracts a link from GED to another record (like media) or creates a correct link for insertion to the GED text?
For standardization and to avoid misformatting of text that will be processed by other GEDCOM parsers, I'm thinking the platform would not be oriented toward repeated instances of common text manipulation.

TY

> Are there common functions to be used for extracting specific fields from the GED text or inserting fields into an existing record?

Look at App\Services\GedcomImportService

> I'm thinking the platform would not be oriented toward repeated instances of common text manipulation.

Search/replace options are available (including regex) which operate on the GEDCOM data. The search indexes are updated automatically after such actions.