Help: General Settings

Database

Database Host, Name, User Name, Password

This is the information TNG and PHP will use to connect to your database. These fields must be filled in before your database can be accessed. Note: The user name and password mentioned here may be different from your regular web site login. If, after entering this information, you continue to see an error message that TNG is not communicating with your database, then you know at least one of these values is incorrect. If you don't know the correct information, ask your web hosting provider. The host name may also require a port number or a socket path (i.e., "localhost:3306" or "localhost:/path/to/socket"). Case is important, so be mindful to type in everything exactly as it was given to you. If you are acting as your own webmaster, be sure you have created a database and added a user to it (the user must have ALL rights).

Maintenance Mode

When TNG is in Maintenance Mode, the data cannot be accessed from the public side of your site. Instead, visitors will see a polite message telling them that you are performing maintenance on the site and they should try again later. You might wish to put your site in Maintenance Mode while you are re-importing your data. If you are resequencing your IDs, Maintenance Mode is required. If you ever find yourself "stuck" in Maintenance Mode, you can edit your config.php file directly and reset the $tngconfig['maint'] variable to 0 or blank.

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Table Names

Table Names

You shouldn't have to change any of the default names unless you already have one or more tables with one or more of these names. Always make sure all table names are filled in and that all names are unique. Do not change any existing table names.

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Paths and Folders

Root Path

This is the system path to the folder or directory where your TNG files are located. It is not a web address. You must include a trailing slash. When you first open this page, your Root Path should be correct. Do not change it unless you are an advanced user or have been instructed to do so. If you blank out the field and save the page, the correct path will appear here the next time you load the page, but you will need to save the page again to keep the new path.

Config Path

If you would like to put your TNG configuration files in a more secure location outside of the "web root" directory (so they aren't accessible from the web), enter that path here. It must end with a trailing slash (/). It will likely be the first part of the Root Path. For example, if your Root Path is "/home/www/username/public_html/genealogy/", then you might choose "/home/www/username/" as your Config Path.

IMPORTANT: Use of this field is completely optional and will not affect the operation of your site one way or the other. You should only enter something here if you are very familiar with your web site's directory structure. If you do enter a path here, you must move the following files to the Config Path immediately after saving and make them writeable (664 or 666 permissions): config.php, customconfig.php, importconfig.php, logconfig.php, mapconfig.php, mmconfig.php, pedconfig.php and templateconfig.php. If you don't, nothing on the site will be operational. If you make a mistake and your site stops working, you will need to manually edit your subroot.php file in order to correct the $tngconfig['subroot'] path (setting it back to blank will return your system to the way it was before).

Photo / Document / History / Headstone / Multimedia / GENDEX / Backup / Mods / Extensions Folders

Please enter folder or directory names for these respective entities. All should have global read+write+execute permissions (755 or 775, although some systems will require 777). The Multimedia folder is intended as a "catch all" for any media items that don't fit cleanly into the other categories (e.g., videos and audio recordings). These folders can be created from this screen by clicking on the "Make Folder" buttons.

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Site Design and Definition

Home Page

All TNG menus include a link to the "Home Page". Enter the address for this link here. By default this is the index.php page in the folder with your other TNG files. It must be a relative link ("index.php" or "../otherhomepage.html"), not an absolute link ("http://yoursite.com").

Genealogy URL

The web address for your genealogy folder (i.e., "http://mysite.com/genealogy").

Site Name

If you enter something here, it will be included in the HTML "Title" tag on every page and will show up at the top of your browser window.

Site Description

A short description of your site for use on the RSS feed page.

Doctype Declaration

This string is placed at the top of every page in the public area to give the user's browser the information it needs to render the page correctly. Validation tests run against the pages will use this information to determine what problems may exist. If you leave this blank, the default XHTML Transitional doctype will be used.

Site Owner

Your name, or your business name. This name will appear on outgoing e-mail messages originating from TNG.

Target Frame

If your site uses frames, use this field to indicate in which frame the TNG pages should display. If you are not using frames, leave this as "_self".

Custom Header / Footer / Meta

File names for the page fragments to be used as your TNG page header, footer and HEAD section ("meta"). Files with the default names are supplied. To use PHP coding in these files, they must have .php extensions. To make use of TNG's design templates, you must keep these the header and footer named topmenu.php and footer.php respectively.

Tab Style Sheet

The file that dictates the style of tabs displayed on many of the public pages. The default style (tngtabs1.css) features slanted tabs, but an alternate style with "squarish" tabs (tngtabs2.css) also comes with TNG. To view tabs with this style, enter "tngtabs2.css" in this field and click "Save" at the bottom of the page, then look up any individual in the public area. The default style (tngtabs1.css) makes use of two images, "tngtab.png" (inactive tabs) and "tngtabactive.png" (active tabs). To change the color of these images, you may use any image editor, or click on the link at the end of this paragraph. On the next page, enter decimal values for the red, green and blue components of the desired new color, then click Submit. You will then see a new image, which you can save on your site as either tngtab.gif or tngtabactive.png. http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/switchcolor.php

Menu Location

The TNG menu may be located on the top left of every page, just above the individual's name or other page heading, or on the top right of every page, directly across from the name or other page heading. The dynamic language selection dropdown will be located in the same section of the screen.

Show Home / Search / Login/Logout / Share / Print / Add Bookmark Links

Some of these options (Home/Search/Login) are located at the top left of every page, just under the page heading and above the row of tabs. The others (Share/Print/Add Bookmark) are located at the top right, just under the menu bar. Each of these options can be turned on or off using these controls.

Search Link Destination

The default behavior of the Search link at the top of every page is to open a small window where you can search by entering a name or ID. This is called "Quick Search". You may choose instead to have this link go to the Advanced Search page by choosing that option.

Hide Christening Labels

This option allows you to hide all mention of the "Christening" event.

Hide all DNA pages and data

If you're not going to use any of the DNA-related features and would like it removed from all public pages, set this option to Yes. DNA Tests will no longer be accessible from the public menus, nor will they be seen on any person's individual page.

Default Tree

When more than one tree exists, all pages where a selection is possible (including the search utility on your home page) will default to "All Trees". If you instead want to point this to one tree in particular, select that tree here. Whenever a user enters a URL without a tree ID (or with a blank tree ID), the request will be rerouted to this tree. NOTE: If you have only one tree, it is better to leave this field blank.

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Media

Photos Extension

The file extension assigned to all small pedigree-style photos. Other photos need not have this extension. The .jpg extension is recommended for most photos.

Show Extended Photo Info

If this option is checked, any available extended information will be displayed for each photo. This includes the physical file name, the dimensions in pixels, and any existing IPTC data.

Image Max Height and Width

When these values are set (pixels), images larger than these dimensions will be scaled down (using HTML) when displayed in the public area.

Thumbnails Prefix

When generating thumbnails automatically, TNG will prepend this value to the original image file name to create the thumbnail file name. If the file name of the original includes path information, the prefix will be included directly before the file name. This prefix can include a folder name (ie, "thumbnails/"). If you will be using a folder name as part of the prefix, be sure that this folder exists and has the same permissions as the main Photos folder.

Thumbnails Suffix

When generating thumbnails automatically, TNG will append this value to the original image file name to create the thumbnail file name.

Thumbnail Max Height

When TNG automatically creates a thumbnail image, the image will be no taller than this (pixels).

Thumbnail Max Width

When TNG automatically creates a thumbnail image, the image will be no wider than this (pixels).

Use default thumbnails

If a person does not have a default photo and this option is enabled, a generic, gender-specific thumbnail will be used instead on all pages that reference this person.

Columns in Thumbnail View

When browsing all photos in thumbnail view, this many thumbnails will be displayed in a single row. If more exist, additional rows will be displayed up to the "Maximum Search Result" number of rows.

Max characters in list notes

If you want notes to be truncated when they are shown on list pages (like on the public Photos, Documents and Histories pages), set this to the maximum number of characters that should be displayed. Leave it blank to always show the entire note.

Enable Slide Show

Allows a set of photos to be shown automatically in succession from the public area when the "Start Slideshow" link is clicked. Setting this option to 'No' hides the link and disables the feature.

Slide Show Auto Repeat

Setting this option to 'Yes' allows the slide show to run continuously.

Enable Image Viewer

Setting this option to 'Always' shows every image-based media item (.jpg, .gif and .png files) in the image viewer. Setting it to 'Documents only' turns the image viewer off for all image-based media that are not 'Documents' or other media types that behave like Documents.

Image Viewer Height

Setting this option to 'Always show full image' will ensure that the entire image is viewable by default. Setting it to 'Fixed (640px)' causes images taller than 640 pixels to be cropped at that height when the image is initially displayed. The viewer controls may still be used to pan around the image or to zoom in or out.

Hide Personal Media

If this option is set to "Yes", then media listings on a person's individual page will start in a collapsed state. Instead of seeing thumbnails and descriptions, you will see only a total count for each media type. Visitors will still be able to expand each media section, but they will be collapsed again if the page is refreshed.

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Language

Language

Your default language folder (i.e., 'English'). You may have more than one language available to visitors, but this language will always display first.

Character Set

The character set for your default language. If this is left blank, the browser's default character set will be used. The character set for English and other languages using the 26-character Roman alphabet is ISO-8859-1.

Dynamic Language Change

If you have set up more than one language and want users to be able to select a different language "on the fly", select Allow.

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Privacy

Require Login

Normally anyone can view your public pages, with a login to see data for living individuals being optional. If, however, you want to require everyone to log in before they can see anything beyond the home page, check this box.

Restrict access to assigned tree

If Require Login is set to 'Yes', then setting this option to 'Yes' will cause users to only see information associated with their assigned trees. All other individuals, families, sources, etc. will be hidden.

Show LDS Data

To always show LDS data (where available), select Always (this was the default before). To turn off all LDS information and the ability to manually enter LDS data, select Never. To make this switch dependent on user permissions, select Depending on user rights. In this case, only logged-in users who have rights to see LDS data will see it. It will be hidden from all others.

Show Living Data

To always show living data (dates and places for living individuals), select Always. To turn off all living information, select Never. To make the display of living data dependent on user permissions, select Depending on user rights. In this case, only logged-in users who have rights to see living data will see it. It will be hidden from all others.

Show Names for Living

To hide the names of individuals marked as Living (no death or burial information, plus a birthdate less than 110 years ago), select No. Names of living individuals will be replaced with the word "Living". To show the surname and first initial(s) of living individuals, select Abbreviate first name. To always show the names of living individuals for everyone, select Yes.

Show Names for Private

To hide the names of individuals marked as Private, select No. Names of private individuals will be replaced with the word "Private". To show the surname and first initial(s) of private individuals, select Abbreviate first name. To always show the names of private individuals for everyone, select Yes.

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Names

Name Order

Dictates how names will be displayed in most cases (some lists always display the surname first). Choose to display the first name first (Western) or the surname first (Oriental). If nothing is selected, names will be displayed "first name first".

Uppercase All Surnames

Allows you to dispay all surnames in upper case. If this option is set to "No", then names will appear as they were entered or imported.

Surname Prefixes

Governs how surname prefixes (i.e., "de" or "van") are treated. By default, anything imported in the GEDCOM surname field is part of the surname, and this dictates how surnames are sorted ("de Kalb" comes before "van Buren"). You can elect to keep surname prefixes as part of the surname, or you can choose to treat them as separate entities (thus, "van Buren" would then sort before "de Kalb"). Existing surnames will not be affected unless manually edited or converted with surnameconvert400.php.

Prefix Detection on Import

If you have elected to treat surname prefixes as separate entities, this section will provide rules to help the import routine decide what is a prefix. Prefixes are defined as portions of the name separated by spaces, but you can choose how many prefixes from each name will be part of TNG's prefix. In other words, if you indicate that the "Num. prefixes each (max)" is 1, then only the "van" from "van der Merwe" would be moved to the prefix field. On the other hand, if you set this value to 2 or higher, "van der" would be the prefix. You may also indicate one or more specific prefixes that should always be treated as full prefixes. In other words, if you set this value to "van der", then "van der" will always be considered a valid prefix, regardless of how high or low you set the previous value. Separate multiple values with commas. To recognize a prefix offset by an apostrophe, include the apostrophe in this list. For example: "van,vander,van der,d',a',de,das".

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Cemeteries

Max lines per column (approx.)

If you have a lot of cemeteries defined, this number will tell TNG to split the list and create another column when the number is reached.

Suppress "Unknown" categories

If you define a cemetery with a missing locality (e.g., no state or no county), TNG will normally create a heading labeled "Unknown" to accommodate the empty fields. Choosing this option will cause TNG to leave the "Unknown" headings off.

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Mail and Registration

Email Address

Your email address. When visitors request a new user account, an email message will be sent to this address. Submissions from the "Contact Us" page will also be sent to this address. Messages originating from the "Suggest" form will go this address if there is no email address associated with the tree corresponding to the page from which the suggestion was sent (otherwise, the message will be sent there).

Send all mail from address above

When someone sends you a message using TNG, the program attempts to send it as if it came from them so that you can easily reply. Some hosting providers do not allow that, however. They will refuse to send email unless the sender's email address comes from the same domain as your site. If you find that email from TNG is not being sent, your host may be doing this to you. If that's the case, setting this option to Yes cause TNG to send all mail from the TNG administrator's address (entered above on this page). That should correct the problem.

Allow new user registrations

Allows you to turn off the option for visitors to request a user account on your site.

Notify on reviewable submissions

Setting this option to "Yes" will cause an email message to be sent to the administrator whenever a tentative change is entered by someone with "Submitter" rights and is waiting for administrative review.

Create new tree for user

If this option is set to Yes, a new tree will automatically be created for each new user registration, and the user will be assigned to that tree.

Auto approve new users

Normally, all new user registrations require the administrator's approval before the accounts can become active. Changing this setting to Yes will automatically activate all new user requests. You will still want to edit the account settings to make sure the user has the rights you want them to have.

Send acknowledgement email

If this option is set to Yes, an email will be sent to each potential new user, informing them that their request has been received and is being processed. Does not apply if new registrations are automaticaly activated.

Include password in welcome email

Normally a user's chosen password is included in the "welcome" email informing them that their account is now active. If you don't want the password to be included, set this option to No.

Use SMTP Authentication

Normally TNG sends email by way of the PHP "mail" function. If you'd rather use the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (meaning that a login must be supplied by the program before the mail can be sent), then set this option to "Yes". More options will then become visible. They are: SMTP host name, Mail username, Mail password, Port number and Encryption. Your hosting provider should be able to give you the correct values for these fields.

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Mobile

The Mobile section allows you to control how TNG is displayed on smart phones and tablets.

Mobile site name

if this option is set to in mobile menu bar, then the site name will be displayed in the mobile menu bar.
The default is to display the site name below mobile menu bar.

Enable Responsive Tables

If this option is set to yes, the Tablesaw jQuery plugin that enables the Responsive Tables will be activated.
If set to no, then the Tablesaw jQuery plugin options will be bypassed.

Responsive Table Type

The Responsive Table Type can be set to

  • Toggle, which is the default, displays data columns based on the screen width and priority assigned. Rotating the smart phone or tablet screen from portrait to landscape orientation will display additional data columns.
  • Stack, which stacks the table headers to a two column layout with headers on the left when the viewport width is less than 40em (640px).
  • Swipe, which allows the user to use the swipe gesture (or use the left and right buttons) to navigate the columns.

Enable Responsive Tables Mode Switcher:

The Mode Switcher option allows the user to switch between toggle, stack, or swipe table column displays.

Enable Responsive Tables Mini Map

Use data-tablesaw-minimap to add a series of small dots to show which columns are currently visible and which are hidden. Only available on swipe and toggle options.

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Prefixes and Suffixes

These letters are combined with a number to form IDs for the people, families, sources, repositories and notes in your database. Most genealogy programs use the same set of standard prefixes (and no suffixes). If your desktop program uses suffixes or different prefixes instead, enter them here. If the proper prefixes or suffixes are not entered, some TNG features may not work correctly.

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Miscellaneous

Max Search Results

This limits the number of results that can be displayed for any public search query. This should be a relatively small, manageable number in order to maximize efficiency and enhance the user experience.

Individuals Start With

This indicates which information will be initially viewable when an individual record is displayed. If you select "Personal Information Only", then other categories such as Notes, Citations or Photos and Histories will be hidden until they or "All" are explicitly selected by the user.

Show Notes

Allows you to choose where notes are displayed on the individual page. The options are:

  • In Notes Section: Displays all notes in a separate block at the bottom of the page.
  • Underneath corresponding events where possible: Event-specific notes are displayed directly underneath the events to which they correspond. General notes are displayed at the bottom of the "Personal" section and each "Family" section. If the general notes are long, scroll bars will be provided to prevent the pages from getting too long (the max height of the area can be found in genstyle.css, in the "notearea" block).
  • Underneath events, except general notes: Same as above, but general notes are always displayed in a separate block at the bottom of the page. No max height is imposed.
Scroll citations

Setting this to "Yes" will cause the Sources area at the bottom of each person's individual page to have a maximum height. If any person has enough source citations to make the area taller than the maximum height, then the area will be scrollable.

Server time offset (hours)

If your server is in a different time zone than you are, enter the difference in hours here. If your time is behind the server time, enter a negative number.

Edit timeout (minutes)

The number of minutes a user is allowed to have exclusive edit rights to any individual or family record. During this time, any other user who tries to edit the same record will see a message indicating that the record is locked. If the original user is still editing the record when the time is about to elapse, that user will see a message warning them to save their changes soon. If the user does not attempt to save before another user succeeds in gaining access to the record, those changes will be lost.

Max Generations, GEDCOM download

The number of maximum number generations that can be exported in a publicly requested GEDCOM file.

What's New Days

The number of days to keep new items on the "What's New" page. To remove this limitation, set the value to zero. Doing that will cause older items to remain on the list until bumped off by newer items.

What's New Limit

The maximum number of items in each category to display on the "What's New" page.

Numeric Date Preference

If you enter a numeric date (e.g., 04/09/2008), this option determines whether to interpret the entry as Month/Day/Year (9 Apr 2008) or Day/Month/Year (4 Sep 2008).

First day of week

When the Calendar page is displayed, this day will be in the first column from the left.

Parental data on person page

Choose which events (if any) to display relating to the family of the individual's parents.

Line Ending

This is the character string that will included at the end of each line when exporting a GEDCOM file. It's also the string that will define the end of a line when importing. The default is "\r\n", which means "carriage return plus line feed". Some programs or operating systems prefer just a carriage return (\r) or a line feed (\n), so you may wish to adjust this setting at least temporarily in some cases.

Encryption type

Passwords in TNG are encrypted before they are stored in the database. Because of that, you can't simply change or remove your password by manually editing the database. The default encryption method is md5, but you may select another method here.

Assign Place records to Trees

If this is set to "Yes", then each Place record will be associated with one of your Trees. That means that if you have multiple trees, you could have the same place appear multiple times in your Places table because it is associated with more than one tree. If you change this option to "No", you will be given the chance to automatically merge all Places into a single list. If you change this option to "Yes", you will see the option to assign a particular Tree to all the Places (since they previously wouldn't have had any assignment).

Geocode all new places

If this option is set to "Yes", then all new places entered in Admin/People and Admin/Families will be automatically geocoded (assumes an Internet connection).

Re-use deleted IDs

If this option is set to "Yes", new People, Families, Sources and Repositories will try to reuse ID numbers that were previously deleted.

Show last import

If this option is set to "Yes", the date of the most recent GEDCOM import will be shown on the What's New and Statistics pages when a tree is selected.