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Gedcom - a module to manipulate Gedcom genealogy files
Gedcom - a module to manipulate Gedcom genealogy files
Version 1.13 - 6th December 2003
use Gedcom;
my $ged = Gedcom->new;
my $ged = Gedcom->new(gedcom_file => $gedcom_file);
my $ged = Gedcom->new(grammar_version => 5.5,
gedcom_file => $gedcom_file,
read_only => 1,
callback => $cb);
my $ged = Gedcom->new(grammar_file => "gedcom-5.5.grammar",
gedcom_file => $gedcom_file);
return unless $ged->validate;
my $xref = $self->resolve_xref($value);
$ged->resolve_xrefs;
$ged->unresolve_xrefs;
$ged->normalise_dates;
my %xrefs = $ged->renumber;
$ged->order;
$ged->write($new_gedcom_file, $flush);
$ged->write_xml($new_xml_file);
my @individuals = $ged->individuals;
my @families = $ged->families;
my $me = $ged->get_individual("Paul Johnson");
my $xref = $ged->next_xref("I");
my $record = $ged->add_header;
add_submitter
add_individual
add_family
add_note
add_repository
add_source
add_trailer
my $source = $ged->get_source("S1");
Copyright 1998-2003, Paul Johnson (pjcj@cpan.org)
This software is free. It is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.
The latest version of this software should be available from my homepage:
http://www.pjcj.net
This module provides for manipulation of Gedcom files. Gedcom is a
format for storing genealogical information designed by The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (http://www.lds.org). Information
about Gedcom is available as a zip file at
ftp://gedcom.org/pub/genealogy/gedcom/gedcom55.zip. Unfortunately, this
is only usable if you can access a PC running Windows of some
description. Part of the reason I wrote this module is because I don't
do that. Well, I didn't. I can now although I prefer not to...
Requirements:
Perl 5.005 or later
ActivePerl5 Build Number 520 or later has been reported to work
Optional Modules:
Date::Manip.pm to work with dates
Text::Soundex.pm to use soundex
Parse::RecDescent.pm to use lines2perl
Roman.pm to use the LifeLines function roman from lines2perl
The Gedcom format is specified in a grammar file (gedcom-5.5.grammar).
Gedcom.pm parses the grammar which is then used to validate and allow
manipulation of the Gedcom file. I have only used Gedcom.pm with
version 5.5 of the Gedcom grammar, which I had to modify slightly to
correct a few errors. The advantage of this approach is that Gedcom.pm
should be useful if the Gedcom grammar is ever updated. It also made
the software easier to write, and probably more dependable too. I
suppose this is the virtue of laziness shining through.
The vice of laziness is also shining brightly - I need to document how
to use this module in much greater detail. This is happening - this
release has more documentation than the previous ones - but if you would
like information feel free to send me mail.
This module provides some functions which work over the entire Gedcom
file, such as reformatting dates, renumbering entries and ordering the
entries. It also allows access to individuals, and then to relations of
individuals, for example sons, siblings, spouse, parents and so forth.
The distribution includes a lines2perl program to convert LifeLines
programs to Perl. The program works, but it has a few rough edges, and
some missing functionality. I'll be working on it when it hits the top
of my TODO list.
There is now an option for read only access to the gedcom file.
Actually, this doesn't stop you changing or writing the file, but it
does parse the gedcom file lazily, meaning that only those portions of
the gedcom file which are needed will be read. This can provide a
substantial saving of time and memory providing that not too much of the
gedcom file is read. If you are going to read the whole gedcom file,
this mode is less efficient unless you do some manual housekeeping.
Note that this is still considered beta software - caveat emptor.
Should you find this software useful, or if you make changes to it, or
if you would like me to make changes to it, please send me mail. I
would like to have some sort of an idea of the use this software is
getting. Apart from being of interest to me, this will guide my
decisions when I feel the need to make changes to the interface.
There is a low volume mailing list available for discussing the use of
Perl in conjunction with genealogical work. This is an appropriate
forum for discussing Gedcom.pm and if you use or are interested in this
module I would encourage you to join the list. To subscribe to the
regular list, send a message to majordomo@icomm.ca and put subscribe
perl-gedcom as the body of the message. To get on the digest version
of the list, put subscribe perl-gedcom-digest.
To store my genealogy I wrote a syntax file (gedcom.vim) and used vim
(http://www.vim.org) to enter the data, and Gedcom.pm to validate and
manipulate it. I find this to be a nice solution.
This space is reserved for something of a tutorial. If you learn best
by looking at examples, take a look at the test directory, t. The
most simple test is birthdates.t.
The first thing to do is to read in the Gedcom file. At its most
simple, this will involve a statement such as
my $ged = Gedcom->new(gedcom_file => $gedcom_file);
It is now possible to access the records within the gedcom file. Each
individual and family is a record. Records can contain other records.
For example, an individual is a record. The birth information is
a sub-record of the individual, and the date of birth is a sub-record of
the birth record.
Some records, such as the birth record, are simply containers for other
records. Some records have a value, such as the date record, whose
value is a date. This is all defined in the Gedcom standard.
To access an individual use a statement such as
my $i = $ged->get_individual("Paul Johnson");
To access information about the individual, use a function of the same
name as the Gedcom tag, or its description. Tags and descriptions are
listed at the head of Gedcom.pm. For example
for my $b ($i->birth)
{
}
will loop through all the birth records in the individual. Usually
there will only be one such record, but there may be zero, one or more.
Calling the function in scalar context will return only the first
record.
my $b = $i->birth;
But the second record may be returned with
my $b = $i->birth(2);
If the record required has a value, for example
my $n = $i->name;
then the value is returned, in this case the name of the individual. If
there is no value, as is the case for the birth record, then the record
itself is returned. If there is a value, but the record itself is
required, then the get_record() function can be used.
Information must be accesed through the Gedcom structure so, for
example, the birthdate is accessed via the date record from the birth
record within an individual.
my $d = $b->date;
Be aware that if you access a record in scalar context, but there is no
such record, then undef is returned. In this case, $d would be undef if
$b had no date record. This is another reason why looping through
records is a nice solution, all else being equal.
Access to values can also be gained through the get_value() function.
This is a preferable solution where it is necessary to work down the
Gedcom structure. For example
my $bd = $i->get_value("birth date");
my $bd = $i->get_value(qw(birth date));
will both return an individual's birth date or undef if there is none.
And
my @bd = $i->get_value("birth date");
will return all the birth dates. The second birth date, if there is
one, is
my $bd2 = $i->get_value(["birth", 2], "date");
Using the get_record() function in place of the get_value() function, in
all cases will return the record rather than the value.
All records are of a type derived from Gedcom::Item. Individuals are of
type Gedcom::Individual. Families are of type Gedcom::Family. Events
are of type Gedcom::Event. Other records are of type Gedcom::Record
which is the base type of Gedcom::Individual, Gedcom::Family and
Gedcom::Event.
As individuals are of type Gedcom::Individual, the functions in
Gedcom::Individual.pm are available. These allow access to relations
and other information specific to individuals, for example
my @sons = $i->sons;
It is possible to get all the individuals in the gedcom file as
my @individuals = $ged->individuals;
I have not gone the whole hog with data encapsulation and such within
this module. Maybe I should have done. Maybe I will. For now though,
the data is accessable though hash members. This is partly because
having functions to do this is a little slow, especially on my old
DECstation, and partly because of laziness again. I'm not too sure
whether this is good or bad laziness yet. Time will tell no doubt.
As of version 1.05, you should be able to access all the data through
functions, and as of version 1.10 write access is available. I have a
faster machine now.
Some of the more important hash members are:
This contains the gedcom grammar.
See Gedcom::Grammar.pm for more details.
This contains the top level gedcom record. A record contains a number
of items. Each of those items are themselves records. This is the way
in which the hierarchies are modelled.
If you want to get at the data in the gedcom object, this is where you
start.
See Gedcom::Record.pm for more details.
my $ged = Gedcom->new;
my $ged = Gedcom->new(gedcom_file => $gedcom_file);
my $ged = Gedcom->new(grammar_version => 5.5,
gedcom_file => $gedcom_file,
read_only => 1,
callback => $cb);
my $ged = Gedcom->new(grammar_file => "gedcom-5.5.grammar",
gedcom_file => $gedcom_file);
Create a new gedcom object.
gedcom_file is the name of the gedcom file to parse. If you do not
supply a gedcom_file parameter then you will get an empty Gedcom object,
empty that is apart from a few mandatory records.
You may optionally pass grammar_version as the version number of the
gedcom grammar you want to use. At the moment only version 5.5 is
available. If you do not specify a grammar version, you may specify a
grammar file as grammar_file. Usually, you will do neither of these,
and in this case the grammar version will default to the latest
available version, currently 5.5.
The read_only parameter indicates that the Gedcom data structure will be
used primarily for read_only operations. In this mode the gedcom file
is read lazily, such that whenever possible the Gedcom records are not
read until they are needed. This can save on both memory and CPU usage,
provided that not too much of the gedcom file is needed. If the whole
of the gedcom file needs to be read, for example to validate it, or to
write it out in a different format, then this option should not be used.
When using the read_only option an index file is kept which can also
speed up operations. It's usage should be transparant, but will require
write access to the directory containing the gedcom file. If you access
individuals only by their xref (eg I20) then the index file will allow
only the relevant parts of the gedcom file to be read.
With or without the read_only option, the gedcom file is accessed in the
same fashion and the data structures can be changed. In this respect,
the name read_only is not very accurate, but since changing the Gedcom
data will generally mean that the data will be written which means that
the data will first be read, the read_only option is generally useful
when the data will not be written and when not all the data will be
read. You may find it useful to experiment with this option and check
the amount of CPU time and memory that your application uses. You may
also need to read this paragraph a few times to understand it. Sorry.
callback is an optional reference to a subroutine which will be called
at various times while the gedcom file (and the grammar file, if
applicable) is being read. Its purpose is to provide feedback during
potentially long operations. The subroutine is called with five
arguments:
my ($title, $txt1, $txt2, $current, $total) = @_;
$title is a brief description of the current operation
$txt1 and $txt2 provide more information on the current operation
$current is the number of operations performed
$total is the number of operations that need to be performed
If the subroutine returns false, the operation is aborted.
$ged->write($new_gedcom_file, $flush);
Write out the gedcom file.
Takes the name of the new gedcom file, and whether or not to indent the
output according to the level of the record. $flush defaults to false,
but the new file name must be specified.
$ged->write_xml($new_xml_file);
Write the gedcom file as XML.
Takes the name of the new gedcom file.
Note that this function is experimental. The XML output doesn't conform
to any standard that I know of, because I don't know of any standard.
If and when such a standard surfaces, and probably even if it doesn't,
I'll change the output from this function. If you make use of this
function, beware. I'd also be very interested in hearing from you to
determine the requirements for the XML.
$ged->collect_xrefs($callback);
Collect all the xrefs into a data structure ($ged->{xrefs}) for easy
location. $callback is not used yet.
Called by new().
my $xref = $self->resolve_xref($value);
Return the record $value points to, or undef.
$ged->resolve_xrefs($callback);
Changes all xrefs to reference the record they are pointing to. Like
changing a soft link to a hard link on a Unix filesystem. $callback is
not used yet.
$ged->unresolve_xrefs($callback);
Changes all xrefs to name the record they contained. Like changing a
hard link to a soft link on a Unix filesystem. $callback is not used
yet.
return unless $ged->validate($callback);
Validate the gedcom object. This performs a number of consistency
checks, but could do even more. $callback is not properly used yet.
Any errors found are given out as warnings. If this is unwanted, use
$SIG{__WARN__} to catch the warnings.
Returns true iff the gedcom object is valid.
$ged->normalise_dates;
$ged->normalise_dates("%A, %E %B %Y");
Change all recognised dates into a consistent format. This routine uses
Date::Manip to do the work, so you can look at its documentation
regarding formats that are recognised and % sequences for the output.
Optionally takes a format to use for the output. The default is
currently ``%A, %E %B %Y'', but I may change this, as it seems that some
programs don't like that format.
$ged->renumber;
my %xrefs = $ged->renumber(INDI => 34, FAM => 12, xrefs => [$xref1, $xref2]);
Renumber all the records.
Optional parameters are:
tag name => last used number (defaults to 0)
xrefs => list of xrefs to renumber first
As a record is renumbered, it is assigned the next available number.
The husband, wife, children, parents and siblings are then renumbered in
that order. This helps to ensure that families are numerically close
together.
The hash returned is the updated hash that was passed in.
$ged->order($ged->sort_sub);
Default ordering subroutine.
The sort is by record type in the following order: HEAD, SUBM, INDI,
FAM, NOTE, TRLR, and then by xref within the type.
$ged->order;
$ged->order($order_sub);
Order all the records. Optionally provide a sort subroutine.
This orders the entries within the gedcom object, which will affect the
order in which they are written out. The default sort function is
Gedcom::sort_sub. You will need to ensure that the HEAD record is first
and that the TRLR record is last.
my @individuals = $ged->individuals;
Return a list of all the individuals.
my @families = $ged->families;
Return a list of all the families.
my $me = $ged->get_individual("Paul Johnson");
Return a list of all individuals matching the specified name.
There are thirteen matches performed, in decreasing order of exactitude.
This means that the more likely matches are at the head of the list.
In scalar context return the first match found.
The matches are:
1 - Xref
2 - Exact
3 - On word boundaries
4 - Anywhere
5 - Exact, case insensitive
6 - On word boundaries, case insensitive
7 - Anywhere, case insensitive
8 - Names in any order, on word boundaries
9 - Names in any order, anywhere
10 - Names in any order, on word boundaries, case insensitive
11 - Names in any order, anywhere, case insensitive
12 - Soundex code
13 - Soundex of name
my $xref = $ged->next_xref("I");
Return the next available xref with the specified prefix.
add_header
add_submitter
add_individual
add_family
add_note
add_repository
add_source
add_trailer
Create and return a new record of the specified type.
get_header
get_submitter
get_family
get_note
get_repository
get_source
get_trailer
Return all records of the specified type. In scalar context just return the
first record. If a parameter is passed in, just return records of that xref.
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