Addon:Historical Context

This is a Third-party Addon. The Addon/Plugin system is controlled by the Plugin Manager. Please use carefully on data that is backed up, and help make it better by reporting any issues to the bug tracker. Unless otherwise stated on this page, you can download this addon by following these instructions. Please note that some Addons have prerequisites that need to be installed before they can be used.

Historical Events for Blanco, Daniel (1752-1805) from the example.tree

Historical Context gramplet

This gramplet is in development. The documentation is currently in the GitHub (online code development management system) repository of Kaj Mikkelsen. Review the README.md in the HistContext repository.

Available in the Dashboard, People and Relationship category views, this Gramplet displays historical events that occurred within the lifespan of the active person. It references lists which have the start year, end year, the Event descriptions and a URL about that Event.

A double-click on a row will open your preferred browser at the provided Link.

Configuration options dialog for version 0.2.26

Configuration options

The View -> Configure... offers a variety of filtering options for the lists of Events.

• Filter string - excludes Events where the "Text" column starts with a particular exact string

If the string is set to "Cen", then all lines where the text starts with "Cen" will be filtered out. (i.e., "Census" as well as "Century")

• Use filter - deselected by default,enables the filter if selected
• Hide outside life span - selected by default, show only those in the life span of the Active Person.
• Files -
• Foreground color items in lifespan - (black, default) text color
• Background color items in lifespan - (white, default) shading

#ffffef pale yellow in screen capture

• Foreground color items outside lifespan - (black, default) text color

#a00000 dark red in screen capture

• Background color items outside lifespan - (light grey, default) shading

File locations

Event Lists

The Historical Context event lists are CSV lists of dated Historical Events (with the semicolon as the delimiter) that are loaded and compared against the lifespan (birth year through death year) of the Active Person. These files can be changed with any editor that saves in plain text.

• default_data_v1_0.txt - combined list of historic events
• pandemi_v1_0.txt - list of Pandemic Events (after 1500 CE)
• da_DK_data_v1_0.txt- list of Dansk historical events
• en_US_data_v1_0.txt - list of USA Presidential terms
• uk_UA_data_v1_0.txt - list of Ukrainian historical events

If you have created a custom Event file (named custom_v1_0.txt) then those Events will be merged into the list. After creating the custom Event file, adding it as a Media object means the file will be included in backups with media. And if the default viewer for .txt files is a text editor instead of a simple view, then you can use Gramps to add or remove Events from its historical event list.

The format is one Event per line, each line:

start year;end year;description;URL hotlink

For Events that only last one year, enter the same year for both start and end date. For ongoing Events, leave a blank for the end year. If either of the dates are missing the gramplet assumes a life span of 100 years. (Not the Preferences limit for "Maximum age probably alive".)

When entering a URL from services like wikipedia, remove any language (e.g., en. for english) or platform (e.g., m. for mobile indicator subdomain). This allows wikipedia to adapt to the target machine.

configuration options

The undocked size options are saved independently in the .ini files for the splitbars in each view mode. The gramps.ini file merely has the window position for the undocked dashboard gramplet.

Configuration options are saved in the HistContext.ini found in the addon's subdirectory in the gramps/gramps60/HistContext.ini file.

[HistContext]
name=HistContext
height=20
expand=True
detached_width=602
detached_height=496
state=maximized
help_url=Addon:Historical_Context
navtypes=['Person', 'Dashboard']
page=3

Once the View -> Configuration is uses and saved, there will be HistContext.ini in the addon folder with the options:

[myopt]
;;bg_sel_col='#ffffff'
;;bg_usel_col='#ededed'
;;fg_sel_col='#000000'
;;fg_usel_col='#000000'
;;files='custom_v1_0.txt'
;;filter_text='String in beginning of text'
;;hide_outside_span=1
;;use_filter=0

alternative Color Picker

Click on any color swatch in the Colors tab of the Edit -> Preferences to show the palette Pick a Color dialog. Then click the + button in the Custom colors at the bottom to show the color picker. Copy the value to the Historical Context options. Cancel the gradient Pick a Color dialogs.

"Pick a Color" - palette selector dialog

"Pick a Color" - gradient selector dialog

See Also

• GitHub
  • kajmikkelsen repository
  • HistContext
• Discourse
  • My first gramplet - for gramps 5.2
  • error building a listing for a new gramplet
  • add option for boolean options in gramplet
  • translating addons
  • Discourse tag: timeline
• MantisBT
  • Feature Requests 13498: To be implemented in Historical Context gramplet

• House Timeline - addon person gramplet
• Historical Context - addon person gramplet
• Timeline Chart built-in Report
• Timeline Pedigree Report - addon Web pages Report
• Timeline Pedigree - addon Charts view mode
• Timelines Map - addon Geography view mode
• Timeline - addon Quick view for Persons
• Timeline tab of the Combined view mode addon in Relationships category