Exhibits Section

Overview

The Exhibits section includes properties related to TMG exhibits. Exhibits are written using GEDCOM records that describe multimedia objects.

Include Exhibits

The Include Exhibits property determines whether exhibit records are included in the GEDCOM file. The default value is checked, and exhibits are included.

Include Primary Indicators

The Include Primary Indicators property determines whether TMG to GEDCOM includes a custom record to indicate the primary image exhibit for a person. The default value is unchecked.

The default custom GEDCOM tag is _PRIM, but that value may be changed in the GEDCOM Tag Names section. See Primary Indicator Tag.

Export Method

The Export Method property determines which variation of GEDCOM records are written to describe multimedia objects in the GEDCOM file. The choices are described below. The default is "GEDCOM 5.5.1 Linked (v1)".

Multiple export methods are supported primarily because some GEDCOM readers expect GEDCOM 5.5 records even though they are reading a GEDCOM 5.5.1 document. In addition, some GEDCOM readers support additional properties when using linked records versus direct records, and vice-versa.

It is usually best to accept the default value, "GEDCOM 5.5.1 Linked (v1)". That method is the most compliant with the GEDCOM standard. If some data is not transferred as you expect, do tests to determine if one of the other methods produces better results.

In the descriptions below, the "parent record" refers to the record to which the exhibit is attached. For person exhibits in TMG, the parent is the person record, for an event exhibit, the parent record is the event, and so on.

1. GEDCOM 5.5.1 Linked (v1)

   This method writes a "cross-reference" record as a child record of the parent record. The exhibit details are written later in the document. It follows the GEDCOM v5.5.1 specification.

   Part 1 after parent record:

   0 @I1@ INDI
   1 OBJE @O1@

   Part 2 with other media records:

   0 @O1@ OBJE
   1 FILE c:\Exhibits\john-doe.jpg
   2 FORM jpg
   2 TITL John Doe, 1911
   1 NOTE Taken in California

2. GEDCOM 5.5.1 Linked (v2)

   This method writes a "cross-reference" record as a child record of the parent record. The exhibit details are written later in the document. It follows the GEDCOM v5.5.1 specification except:

   • The TITL record is written at level "n+1" rather than "n+2". This resolves an inconsistency in GEDCOM 5.5.1 where the TITL level is "n+1" in the direct structure and "n+2" in the linked structure.

   Part 1 after parent record:

   0 @I1@ INDI
   1 OBJE @O1@

   Part 2 with other media records:

   0 @O1@ OBJE
   1 FILE c:\Exhibits\john-doe.jpg
   2 FORM jpg
   1 TITL John Doe, 1911
   1 NOTE Taken in California

3. GEDCOM 5.5.1 Direct (v1)

   This method writes the GEDCOM records as child records of the parent record. It follows the GEDCOM v5.5.1 specification except:

   • TMG to GEDCOM exports the exhibit description using a NOTE record that is not included in the GEDCOM 5.5.1 specification, but appears to be widely supported.

   1 OBJE
   2 FILE c:\Exhibits\john-doe.jpg
   3 FORM jpg
   2 TITL John Doe, 1911
   2 NOTE Taken in California

4. GEDCOM 5.5.1 Direct (v2)

   This method writes the GEDCOM records as child records of the parent record. It follows the GEDCOM v5.5.1 specification It follows the GEDCOM v5.5.1 specification except:

   • The TITL record is written at level "n+2" rather than "n+1". This resolves an inconsistency in GEDCOM 5.5.1 where the TITL level is "n+1" in the direct structure and "n+2" in the linked structure.
   • TMG to GEDCOM exports the exhibit description using a NOTE record that is not included in the GEDCOM 5.5.1 specification, but appears to be widely supported.

   1 OBJE
   2 FILE c:\Exhibits\john-doe.jpg
   3 FORM jpg
   3 TITL John Doe, 1911
   2 NOTE Taken in California

5. GEDCOM 5.5 Linked

   This method writes a "cross-reference" record as a child record of the parent record. The exhibit details are written later in the document. It follows the GEDCOM v5.5 specification except:

   • In GEDCOM 5.5, multimedia records (with level zero) were intended only for multimedia files whose contents were encoded inside the GEDCOM file. That method was never widely adopted or supported. When using this method, TMG to GEDCOM uses a level zero OBJE record that includes a non-standard FILE subrecord to indicate the external file that contains the multimedia data.

   Part 1 after parent record:

   0 @I1@ INDI
   1 OBJE @O1@

   Part 2 with other media records:

   0 @O1@ OBJE
   1 FILE c:\Exhibits\john-doe.jpg
   1 FORM jpg
   1 TITL John Doe, 1911
   1 NOTE Taken in California

6. GEDCOM 5.5 Direct

   This method writes the GEDCOM records as child records of the parent record. It follows the GEDCOM v5.5 specification:

   1 OBJE
   2 FILE c:\Exhibits\john-doe.jpg
   2 FORM jpg
   2 TITL John Doe, 1911
   2 NOTE Taken in California

Relative Path

Leave Relative Path empty unless your GEDCOM reader requires relative paths, which is rare.

If Relative Path property is set to the path to a folder, TMG to GEDCOM uses that path to create relative file paths for exported exhibits. If the path to an exhibit begins with the path of the indicated folder, the matching portion of the path is removed. That yields an exhibit path that is relative to the given path.

Example

Internal Text Exhibits

The GEDCOM OBJE media record does not support creating a text exhibit where the text is contained in the GEDCOM file. When TMG exports a GEDCOM file, it silently omits internal text exhibits from its GEDCOM export.

TMG to GEDCOM exports internal text exhibits using a NOTE record. This is not a perfect solution as (A) the user may have used an exhibit specifically to avoid having the text appear as a note to an event, and (B) if there are multiple notes for an event, the GEDCOM reader may or may not do something useful with it. The challenges are similar with NOTE records attached to other records. Still, the NOTE ensures that the text is not lost.

Online Services

Some online services support exhibits, and some do not. Even if an online service supports exhibits, the service may or may not import exhibits from a GEDCOM file.

In order to import an exhibit, the upload process for the online service will have to detect media (OBJE) records in the GEDCOM file and upload the files with the paths specified in those records. That implies an upload process that is not based in a web browser. Web browsers are prevented from uploading files unless the user manually selects the file to be uploaded. So, an online service can ask you to upload a GEDCOM file, and that's OK from a security standpoint. Any files referenced by the GEDCOM file cannot be uploaded because the web browser doesn't detect those file paths and even if it did, the web browser won't upload a file that the user did not explicitly choose from the browser's user interface.

To upload exhibit files, an online service must have a custom application for uploading a GEDCOM file or an application with a synchronization feature. An online service could provide an FTP account where the user can upload exhibit files, but I am unaware of any service using that approach.