Bug - non-standardized info won't save
As of the past week or so, when I try create a new individual (and occasionally when I try to edit an existing one) the date and place information that I enter isn't being saved unless it corresponds to a standardized location. I work with a lot of rural villages in Poland, not all of which show up in the standardized places yet. I used to be able to enter the village name as it appears on a record (i.e. Rysiewko, Lipno, Poland) when I created an individual. Then after creating the person I could go back and choose the closest corresponding location (i.e. Lipno, Kuyavia-Pomerania, Poland) from the standardized database, while STILL leaving the original text I had entered with the more specific/correct information. Now, if I type out a non-standardized location while creating someone, it doesn't save. After the person is created, their birthplace field is blank, and the location I typed doesn't show up. This is a big problem--and really annoying because I had created several individuals with carefully typed out locations before noticing that none of those locations had saved. The same issue happens with dates. If I try to create someone with a customized date like "1756 or 1759" it won't save. The date field goes blank when the record is created.
A similar problem happens when I try to edit an existing person. I used to be able to save a standardized location, then go back and edit the text that shows to reflect the more correct location that isn't yet in the standardized place database. Now, when I choose edit, add a village name that isn't in the standardized database, and click save, the extra info I typed does NOT save. The record still only shows the original standardized location I had chosen.
This problem exists both in the app and the web browser version of the site.
Best Answer
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A few other people have bee reporting some quirky behavior in entering place names. It makes me wonder if they are halfway through updating some stuff.
After you type in the full name of the place, are you clicking on the red type that is identical to what it just typed in? In this post: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/156637/unable-to-edit-place-names#latest the conclusion was that the older method of being able to click anywhere outside the text entry box to preserve what you just typed in no longer works and now you have to click the red line of type.
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Answers
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Thank you for that insight. I’ll try to get out of the habit of clicking outside the box, since that’s the only way I’ve done this for a long time. If I recall correctly, in the past, clicking the option that’s identical to what you typed would reject any sort of standardization so it hadn’t occurred to me to try that. I feel like there could be a more intuitive/straightforward to choose a standardized option than the text entered. I’ll look forward to future updates. As a side note, is there a blog or forum anywhere for the developers to post updates about little functionality tweaks like this? I’d enjoy being able to follow that.
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Were you able to get place names to save properly? I didn't have any trouble when I tested this out, but sometimes as updates get released they are rolled out slowly so not all users are working with the same version of the website. That means that some people can see a problem that other's can't.
I did notice with testing, that if I type in the extended place name and click outside the box that although the name I typed remains, the Save button does not activate. I do have to click on the red type to be able to save. I could picture this being intentional to get people to pay attention to what they are actually entering and what standard is automatically linked to it. Or it could have been accidental because the programmers forgot that a lot of people still use the older "click outside the box" method of entering a place name and this is actually an unintended new bug.
There is no place to see all the minor daily updates done to the programming.
@lyleblunttoronto1, Do you know if this was an intentional change or not?
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Yes, clicking on the red type works. Thank you for solving that for me. I appreciate you taking the time to answer and help out :)
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