Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ)

No.

You may have purchased a "full" or "upgrade" license, but there is only one installer program, and it does not require a previous version to be present. See the installation page for more details.

You edit the Main Page User Item in the User Items list. The Main Page item is a custom Page that GedSite adds to all new files, and you can add content to it as you see fit.

There are several ways to add links to people on custom Pages, including the Main page.

The easiest way is to add a Person Link User Item as a child item of the main Page.

For the most control over the placement of the link in text, use the Person Code on the Text Codes help page.

If the external document, such as a PDF file, is an exhibit (media item) that is linked to a record in your genealogy database, and that record is part of the site, GedSite will automatically include a link to the document.

For an external document that is not an exhibit:

• Put a copy of the file in a subfolder of the Input (-i) folder. The name of the subfolder is up to you. Use something short, and all lower-case, perhaps "docs".
• You may create a link to the document by adding a Link User Item or by adding the HTML yourself.
• If you are creating a list of documents, the Link User Item is a good choice. GedSite will automatically create a list for you when you have several Link User Items in a row. In the Link User Item, set the Title to the link text and set the HREF to the subfolder name and document name. For example, if the subfolder is named "pdfs", and the file is named "story.pdf", set the HREF to "../pdfs/story.pdf" (no quotes).
• If you want the link to the document to appear in a paragraph of text, you can add the HTML yourself in that text. For example, if the document title is "Migration Story", the file is in the "pdfs" subfolder, and the file is named "story.pdf", use the following HTML:

  <a href="../pdfs/story.pdf">Migration Story</a>

First, make sure you remembered to upload the latest version of the site to your web hosting account. For FamilyHistoryHosting.com customers, you can use the Family History Hosting > Publish command to publish your site.

If you have published the site, your browser may be showing you stale content.

When you visit a URL (page), your browser uses your Internet connection to contact a remote server and fetch content, including the HTML for the page. Relative to accessing local files, that's a slow and expensive operation even though it usually seems fast to a human observer. To avoid fetching the same content repeatedly—and save network bandwidth—browsers keep a local copy of the content they have fetched recently. When you visit the same URL again, the browser shows you the saved (AKA "cached") content. That saved content may be out of date if the remote server's content has been updated.

As a site publisher:

1. You go to a page on your site and you do not see the content associated with recent changes in your genealogy data.
2. You make your site and verify that the local version (the version of the site on your PC) now includes the desired updates.
3. You use the Family History Hosting > Publish command in GedSite (for FHH customers) or upload the new content for your site using an FTP client (for customers of other web hosting services).
4. You revisit the page on your site and—OOPS—the content is still out of date.
5. You press CTRL+F5 and—voila!—the updated content appears.

   CTRL+F5 means press and hold CTRL, then press F5 and release both keys.

6. You may have to use CTRL+F5 for other pages, but that depends on several factors. If you suspect you are seeing old content, press CTRL+F5.

Browser behavior will vary based on the browser preference settings but the behavior described above is typical.

The most popular desktop computer browsers use CTRL+F5 to force a full refresh of the current page. Your browser may use a different command key combination. The rules vary for browsers on mobile devices.

The unwanted outcome—showing old, cached content—affects site publishers more than other site visitors. Visitors typically don't visit a page before and then immediately after an update. Someone who has not visited your site recently will see the most current content because his or her browser will not have an out of date, cached copy of the content.

Windows has an optional security feature, Controlled Folder Access, that may be the cause. If Controlled Folder Access is enabled, Windows will prevent GedSite from creating files and/or folders under your Documents folder.

If Controlled Folder Access is enabled, you have two choices.

1. Disable Controlled Folder Access
2. Configure Controlled Folder Access to allow GedSite to operate.

Here are the steps to implement #2.

1. Open Windows Security: Click the Start menu and type "Windows Security," then select it from the search results.
2. Navigate to Ransomware Protection: In the Windows Security window, select Virus & threat protection on the left-hand side. Scroll down and click Manage ransomware protection.
3. Allow an App: Click on the option that says Allow an app through Controlled Folder Access.
4. Add an App: Click the + Add an app button.
5. Select GedSite: Browse to GedSite's executable file (.exe). It should be in c:\Program Files\GedSite. Click the GedSite.exe file to select it.
6. Confirm: Click Open or OK to add the application to the allowed list and confirm the change.

GedSite parses sentence templates and other text in your data file to find variables that it resolves into values. The "No item to pop" message usually indicates that there was an error parsing some text, and the attempt to resolve variables in it has failed.

To find the text that caused the problem, look in the Application.log file. There is usually an error message before the "No item to pop" message that indicates the origin of the text that caused the error.