Organise your files - Revision history

Romjerome: /* Jerome's system */

2012-01-25T08:51:25Z

‎Jerome's system

Romjerome: /* Jerome's system */

2012-01-25T08:48:18Z

‎Jerome's system

Dsblank: /* Your system? */

2011-05-19T12:41:02Z

‎Your system?

Romjerome: /* Jerome's system */

2011-01-27T11:00:50Z

‎Jerome's system

Romjerome: /* Jerome's system */

2011-01-27T10:56:26Z

‎Jerome's system

Romjerome: /* Jerome's system */

2010-09-28T10:20:45Z

‎Jerome's system

Romjerome: /* Jerome's system */

2010-09-28T10:20:19Z

‎Jerome's system

Duncan: /* Duncan's planned system */ cleaning up my old mess

2009-12-12T18:53:43Z

‎Duncan's planned system: cleaning up my old mess

Duncan: /* Duncan's system */ this idea is obsolete.

2009-12-12T18:29:17Z

‎Duncan's system: this idea is obsolete.

Fsmunoz: Family-based approach

2009-09-20T17:22:47Z

Family-based approach

@@ Line 149: / Line 149: @@
   ./Docs/ numerical sources (scanned certificates, papers, acts, hand written sources)
   ./Identity/ passport sized images use for generating reports
-  ./Places/ (photos of gravestones, living places or address)
+  ./Places/ (photos of gravestones, living places, buildings or addresses)
   ./Other/ not in the first ... (videos, sounds, groups photos)

@@ Line 156: / Line 156: @@
 All objects are also duplicated on an other support (backups and searchs).
-I use tags on my database and share the common branch/folder with my distant cousins.
+I use [[Gramps_3.3_Wiki_Manual_-_Navigation#Tagging|tags]] on my database and share the common branch/folder with my distant cousins.
 -- [[User:Romjerome|Romjerome]] 26 July 2008 (EDT)

@@ Line 184: / Line 184: @@
 * Since it is Family based (and not Individual based) documents that relate to an individual are split between two folders.
 * Sometimes one doesn't have information about the marital status of an individual, and when that is latter discovered files could have to be moved. An example would be the military record of an individual that doesn't contain information about his marriage, and since there is no other source that contains such an information it is not possible to create a Family directory. When latter that information surfaces those documents would have to be moved to the Family folder.
 = Your system? =

@@ Line 151: / Line 151: @@
   ./Places/ (photos of gravestones, living places or address)
   ./Other/ not in the first ... (videos, sounds, groups photos)
 All objects are also duplicated on an other support (backups and searchs).

@@ Line 137: / Line 137: @@
   ISO 8601 date_description.extension
   ./Docs/ numerical sources (scanned certificates, papers, acts, hand written sources)
@@ Line 143: / Line 152: @@
   ./Other/ not in the first ... (videos, sounds, groups photos)
-Subdirectories with 4 folders.
+All objects are also duplicated on an other support (backups and searchs).
-All objects are duplicated on an other support (backups and searchs) with my grandparents' surname :
-−
- ./Surname of the mother of my mother (maiden)
- ./Surname of the father of my mother
- ./Surname of the mother of my father (maiden)
- ./Surname of the father of my father
-I use tags on my database and share the branch with my distant cousins.
+I use tags on my database and share the common branch/folder with my distant cousins.
 -- [[User:Romjerome|Romjerome]] 26 July 2008 (EDT)

@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
-= Duncan's planned system =
+= Duncan's system =
-== The goal ==
+'''The goal'''
-After researching for the [[Portable Filenames]] article I've decided to aim for a system designed to work on any computer made after 1994.
-Directory depth is limited to media plus 7 (limit of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9660 ISO 9660])
+I've decided to aim for a system designed to work on any computer made after 1994. This means I can put the files on virtually any media and virtually anyone can read them. But this comes at a cost:
- media/2/3/4/5/6/7/file
-File and directory names are limited to
+* Directory depth is limited to media plus 7 (limit of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9660 ISO 9660]). For example: ''media/2/3/4/5/6/7/file.ext''
-  a-z Lowercase alphabetical characters (see below)
+* File and directory names are limited to
-  A-Z Uppercase alphabetical characters (see below)
+  a-z Lower-case alphabetical characters (see below)
 -9 Numerals
   - Hyphens/ dashes (must not start a files name)
   _ Underscores
-  all names have a combination of lower and uppercase letters so they don't change case
+  (And all names need a combination of lower and upper-case letters so Windows doesn't change the case)
+* File path lengths need to be limited to 256 characters (limit of [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247.aspx Windows Path Size]). Currently this requires manual checking.
 File path lengths need to be limited to 256 characters (limit of [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247.aspx Windows Path Size])
- Requires manual checking
 Indicating unsure or incomplete dates
@@ Line 89: / Line 86: @@
   --1810-_-10--
-== Problems in progress ==
+'''Directory tree'''
-* When I want to work on one family with a small portable computer?
-** all folders need to under the family name directory, for families under a dual name directory, children under their own family name.
-* What about a family portrait not from a known event?
-** I think it's best to regard pictures of groups as an event, maybe event=gathering
-−
-== Directory tree ==
-−
-The base directory is not shown. A name like Imported_2008-12-23 is recommended to record when the data was moved to this machine from some other machine.
 Directory naming rules:
-* Top directory is <upper case letter><lower case start of range>-<lower case end of range>, ie ''Aa-z'' for all the ''A''s or ''Sl-z'' for surnames starting with ''Sl'' through to ''Sz''. This may look like overkill but it is primarily to avoid directories with letters in only one case as these can change case without warning on older Windows systems, breaking file paths.
+* Top directory is <upper case letter><lower case start of range>-<lower case end of range>, ie ''Aa-z'' for all the ''A''s or ''Sl-z'' for surnames starting with ''Sl'' through to ''Sz''. This may look like overkill but it is primarily to avoid directories with letters in only one case as these can change case without warning on older Windows systems, breaking Posix file paths.
 * Start words in directory names with capitals so Windows file systems don't change the case.
 * Once a family starts (shared address, children or legal union) any common files go into a family directory (alphabetically sorted) ie: ''Jensen__Williams''
   <upper case letter><lower case start of range>-<lower case end of range>/
-    <family name>/
+ - <family name(s)>/
-       <record type>/
+ - - <record type>/ (Ind, Sou, Evn or Sou)
-          <file>
+ - - - <file>
            or
-          <given name(s)>/
+ - - - <given name(s)>/
-             <file>
+ - - - - <file>
            or
-          <event type>/
+ - - - - <event type>/
-             <file>
+ - - - - - <file>
 For example
-  Ja-z/Jetson/Ind/Jetson__George/Sou/S--award--jetson--george--luna_city--2014--his_pilots_license--0562.jpg
+ Ga-z/
-  Ga-l/George__Spencer/Evt/Marriage/S--marriage--george__spencer--charles__diana--england_somewhere--1981--wedding_certificate--0065.png
+ - George__Spencer/ (because 'G' comes before 'S')
 = Jerome's system =

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:29, 12 December 2009
Line 57:		Line 57:
	* ''./Need_To_Process/'' Any new files, photos, etc that I need to process into Gramps. Kind of a holding area.		* ''./Need_To_Process/'' Any new files, photos, etc that I need to process into Gramps. Kind of a holding area.

−	~~= Duncan's system =~~

−	I'm still working this one out but here goes... I have an NTFS partition which I can access from both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux, that's where I keep all my genealogy files. Because my main computer for doing genealogy work switches between two machines every now and then I name the directory after when I move it to that system. At the moment it's called ''Database_in_2008-06-20'', which I won't type every time, consider './' to mean 'the main directory'.
−
−	~~./Backups/ - has GRAMPS XML files as backups, I do this about once a month and after any large change.~~
−	~~./Dropbox/ - has anything I haven't dealt with yet (it's quite full!)~~
−	~~./Events/$EventNames/ - has media files which are primarily related to an event.~~
−	~~./Individuals/$Surnames/ - has images primarily related to an individual. The files are sorted after the persons (birth) surname.~~
−	~~./Individuals_icons/ - has passport sized images use for generating reports~~
−	~~./Places/$Country/ - has files primarily related to a specific place. I will start subdirectories by country.~~
−	~~./Rapports/$Surname - has some rapports I've sent out.~~
−	~~./Sources/$Source - has all sorts of files which contain direct information, scanned letters and so on... Sorted by the source's source.~~
−	~~./2008-03-11_4.gramps - there are often quite a few of these backups which I go through and put a couple in the ./Backups/ directory and throw the others out.~~
−
−	~~I don't think this system is so great so I'm working on improving it, see below.~~

	= Duncan's planned system =		= Duncan's planned system =

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:22, 20 September 2009
Line 158:		Line 158:

	-- [[User:Romjerome\|Romjerome]] 26 July 2008 (EDT)		-- [[User:Romjerome\|Romjerome]] 26 July 2008 (EDT)
		+
		+	= Frederico's system =
		+
		+	I'm converting my physical storage system from a ad-hoc solution based on a 2-ring binder with all the documents (organised by the Soza number) to a vertical filling system that is organised by manilla folders that contain all the relevant information for each family. The focus is thus less on the individual and more on the family. Using folders allow for a much easier way to aggregate all relevant documents (certificates, photos, research logs, etc) and also facilitates research since each folder is pretty much self-contained and can be easily retrieved when needed, and taken to the archives for investigation.
		+
		+	With that in mind it makes some sense to mirror this physical approach when organising digital documents, especially since every document has both a physical copy and a digital one. I am experimenting with creating a directory for each family under a Sources folder (it could also be named Families, or any other name really), like this:
		+
		+	./SMITH,John+BLACK,Mary
		+	./LEWIS,Edward+MCDONALD,Jane
		+
		+	The contents follow the same rules as the physical archiving. Of note is the fact that each person is generally present in two different folder: as a son they are present in the folder of the parents, and as one of the members of a family they have their own folder. Documents related to pre-marriage events go into the parent's folder, and from the marriage onward to their own folder.
		+
		+	Filenames follow more or less the examples given, e.g. BAP--John_Smith--1830.png.
		+
		+	The advantages I can see so far are:
		+
		+	* Consistency between physical archive and digital storage. It makes is easier to compare the completeness of both of them so they they are not our of sync.
		+	* Easy to access all documents that relate to a family. Since many documents have information that applies to more than one family member it makes sense.
		+	* Each directory can be archived and sent to someone else and all the relevant sources are contained therein.
		+
		+	Some disadvantages:
		+
		+	* Storing the birth certificates (or any pre-marriage information) of an individual not under his own folder but under the parents' folder can be a bit counter-intuitive in the beginning.
		+	* Since it is Family based (and not Individual based) documents that relate to an individual are split between two folders.
		+	* Sometimes one doesn't have information about the marital status of an individual, and when that is latter discovered files could have to be moved. An example would be the military record of an individual that doesn't contain information about his marriage, and since there is no other source that contains such an information it is not possible to create a Family directory. When latter that information surfaces those documents would have to be moved to the Family folder.

	= Your system? =		= Your system? =