Why are some collections images being overtaken by the newer Images viewer?
I learned something new today!
I was just editing a 1930 Census record and the first time from the older indexing app it opened the older image viewer (Search> Records). I went back to explain what I had done to the OP here in Community and another Community member had responded. I went back and this time when opening the image it opened in the new image viewer (Search> Images). The first time - prior to editing in the old viewer there had been no index on the new image viewer (yes I actually had checked) - after editing in the old viewer there was an index in the new viewer (it actually had both the original and new entries for Birth Name)! Freaky... seeing it in real-time while editing one it wrote/appeared in the other.
Anyway I suppose that what is occurring is the Community initiated index of the Search> Images new viewer index through migration of the old viewer index ... cool (hope that makes sense to everyone).
So I guess the question is - is that right? Is that how the index is going to be created/migrated to the new image viewer? Cool! because not only does that take advantage of all the Indexing app indexers hard work (over many years) - but also allows correction (a new indexing pass) if need be! I had thought the computer/AI indexer would have done the initial pass (as it has or appears to have done on some collections) and then the 'edit every index' field would be available in the new viewer - but this way works as well.
I just hope the record/page is locked when possibly there might be several indexing the same page at the same time?!
Here's another post/example that may help explain.
Happy Easter!
Best Answer
-
@genthusiast FamilySearch is working to make more of the record collections fully editable. As collections become fully editable, they open in the new image viewer. As you discovered, the 1930 US Census is one of the records where you can now edit all fields in the new viewer.
As far as I know, there is no lock on an image when you are in the process of editing it. The chances of 2 people editing a given page at the same moment are pretty remote.
1
Answers
-
The chances of 2 people editing a given page at the same moment are pretty remote.
Those chances greatly increase if multiple people attempt responding to a person's query here in Community. I think it might be good for the engineers to implement a token ring/library checkout type model such that users are not competing for highlights/edits? Likely the engineers have already considered/implemented something - I just don't know what that is. Having experienced disappearing highlights several times (and given feedback) - it would be nice to know what was the cause (yes I tried to carefully select Done each time).
1 -
Hi everyone,
I work on the team that created the new image viewer. Thank you for your comments and insights! Eventually we'll work on restricting access though as of now it's not an issue since multiple people working on a single record is rather remote. Though any suggestions you have please let me know and I'd love to look into them!
Thanks
Ashley
0 -
Ashley, I've been having trouble with images within the new image viewer freezing. Is there a way for me to view images in the old viewer until bugs are fixed? A recent example is an image in the 1930 Census.
I appreciate your work!
0 -
@Gary Spring, switching from the new viewer to the old one is pretty easy: delete the question mark and everything after it from the URL. For example,
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DY99-W5S?view=index&action=view
is the new viewer, while
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DY99-W5S
resolves into
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DY99-W5S?i=50
which is the same image in the old viewer.1 -
This trick doesn't appear to be working anymore. I noticed when I opened a collection today from the catalog and viewed images that it immediately went to the new viewer. Changing the URL didn't work; it resolved from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TNK-FQ2
to https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TNK-FQ2?i=0
0 -
@Cousin Vinny, both of those links are for the old viewer, and the question mark goes away on image zero. If I page ahead, it stays and adds a bit more (such as ?i=3&cc=1887904), but that's still the old viewer, too, so it's immaterial. It's not the presence of the question mark and stuff that's the determiner, it's the specifics of the stuff. The new viewer-and-editor's URL addendum starts with ?view=index, and the short way to go the other direction (old viewer to new) is to add ?view=index&action=view at the end of the URL (or to replace the question mark and stuff after it with that string). (The string often has a lot more stuff, which I think determines the contents of the right-hand panel. The short one brings up the Index tab with no particular index entry selected.)
0 -
Very odd, both of those links open for me in the new viewer. This is using Edge.
However, if I open them in Firefox, it comes up in the old viewer.
So there must be some new behind-scenes programming that defaults Edge to the new viewer (for this collection at least; I haven't checked others yet). And I can't get the old viewer to load.
Similarly, if I open a film directly from the catalog in Edge, it opens in the new viewer.
0 -
Perhaps it's something in Edge being overhelpful? I hope it's just that, because we need to be able to use the old viewer: the new one is completely unsuited to browsing images. It's interminably slow, shows blank gray screen at least 90% of the time, and the zoom and pan functions both "bounce" nauseatingly.
0
