Place name entry is more complicated on new page

Albin Dittli

In the new page the birthplace and death place entry is harder. In the old page I could enter spiring and it would show me Spiringen, Uri, Switzerland to select. It was nice to not have to enter the full location name.

In the new page I have to enter the whole name Spiringen. This can be much more time consuming, especially for longer place names, and when we are entering a lot of children. Please fix this to the way it was on the old page.

Another example: in the old page gurtne would bring up Gurtnellen, Uri, Switzerland

and Gurtn would bring up several possible selections, one of which is Gurtnellen, Uri, Switzerland

Thanks,

Albin Dittli

Áine Ní Donnghaile

@Albin Dittli If you haven't yet, please consider joining the New Person Page Group, where we have the chance to talk directly with the developers. https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/316-new-person-page

Gordon Collett

I hadn't noticed this and it has not been discussed in the New Pages Group by anyone. As suggested, you should join that group and repost you concern there. I do see that the predictive aspect of place name entry has been tightened up to require a match on a full word rather than just part of a word.

I would wonder if this was just an oversight in recoding the name entry routine, a section of the coding that is not completed yet, a concern that people were entering place names too quickly and getting the wrong name entered accidentally too often, or a response to complaints that the drop down menu was too long and it was too hard to find the right place name on it.

Paul W

I just tested this with the example of a "spring" input and was returned with 15 options when I used the new page, but 20 using the old page. I don't see how you are being offered the "Springen" option when there are so many places in the drop-down menu that are for locations actually named "Spring", albeit the first two options for a "spring" input on the old page are for "Spring Valley" locations.

Ah, but I now see that hitting the space bar after entering "spring" drops those Spring Valley options from the old page! Still 20 options, but all now for places just with "Spring" before the first comma. Repeating this action (hitting space bar after input) does not change the order on the new page - i.e., the same 15 entries in the same order.

Albin Dittli

I am now using the new page. here is what I see regarding this problem.

On an existing person missing a location in birth or death or marriage, when I add the location it woks good like it did in the old page. Thank you for fixing that.

However, in the ADD NEW PESON form it is not working correctly. We have to type the entire town name before we can select it. Perhaps you can copy the code from the new page to the Add page.

Thanks.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

When you add a location (or person) via Source Linker, it uses the old algorithm. That's why it works then.

The new algorithm can best be described as infuriating.

If I type just "Brighton", it lists places on every continent except Europe. I have to go look up the correct jurisdiction and type in the county (Sussex) in order for the town in England to show up. I should not need to do that.

Maile L

@Albin Dittli I edited your original question to remove your email address , for privacy reasons

Albin Dittli

The problem still exists on the add a new person page. For a place name like Gurtnellen I still have to type every letter before it lets me select Gurtnellen, Uri, Switzerland in the Birthplace field. This is frustrating when I am entering a lot of children into the same family.

I notice that on the same page when I add a surname in the Last Names field it is remembered so that when I enter another child it will let me select from Surnames that I have entered as soon as I type the first letter of the name. I can click on the correct surname and it is placed in the field. This is nice, especially when I have a family with a long surname

Perhaps the code for the Last Names entry field could be copied to the Birthplace field and the Death Place field. I think that would be a helpful solution and probably an easy fix.

Thanks

Gordon Collett

That quick last name entry you are noticing is the auto-fill function of your browser. it is not part of the coding for the website.

Albin Dittli

Thanks. I did not know that. Why does that feature work the same on the place name fields in add a new person?

In the page for an existing person when I enter gurtne it presents me with Gurtnellen, Uri, Switzerland which I can click on and it fills the field. Perhaps that code could be added to the code for the add a person page.