www.itowler.com

As most of you know the Familytree.itowler.com runs PGV (PhpGedView).  I have been using the program for a few years now, and have seen it grow and become better and more refined.  One of the newer (although I must admit, I am not sure how new) features is the ability to add historical dates to the time line. 

When you click on an individual from the tree, you are taken to their page.  The default view for the page is the "Personal Facts and Details" tab.  On this tab you get a summary of the events in their life, Birth, Marriage, Census, Death, etc.  If you choose to implement the historical dates feature, you will have the option of adding in those dates as well.  This is a great feature, and helps put the person’s life in context with the events that were happening during their life.

To implement this feature you will need to do a little editing.  Here is how you do it.

1. On your server, navigate to the PGV install, and then into the Languages folder
2. Look for the histo.demo.php file, and then download it to you desktop
3. Open the histo.demo.php file with a text editor (notepad is fine).

When you open the file you will see a bunch of "code" but, here is the part that you need to pay attention to:

$histo[] = "1 EVEN\n2 TYPE History\n2 DATE 11 NOV 1918\n2 NOTE WW1 Armistice";

This is a single entry that adds the date 11 Nov 1918, WW1 Armistice to the timeline.  As you can see there are only 2 entries in the timeline to start with (WW1 and WW2 Armistice) in the file. To add you own dates to the timeline you will need copy one of the entries and modify it.  Change the date to the date of your event.  Be sure to leave the date format as 2-digit day, Month, 4-digit year.  The AFTER the word NOTE add the description for your event.  Repeat this for every new event that you would like to add.  Below is an example entry in my History File:

$histo[] = "1 EVEN\n2 TYPE History\n2 DATE 4 JUL 1776\n2 NOTE Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence";

Once you are done adding your events, you will need to rename the file from hist.demo.php to hist.XX.php, where the XX is the 2 letter code for your language.  As an example you would rename it hist.en.php for English.  Once you have renamed the file, upload it back to the languages directory in your PGV install and you are set.

After your new History dates file has been upload you will be presented with a check box on the "Personal Facts and Details" Tab of an individual.  All you have to do is click on the box, and all dates that fall within that person’s life will be displayed.  It is important to note, the historical dates will only be displayed if the person was alive during the event.

Currently the dates are only showing up in the "Personal Facts and Details" Tab of an individual, but in the future they may add the dates to the Timeline chart.

This is a great feature, and it really helps add perspective to the individual that you are looking at.

Hope this was helpful.