Family Tree Validator on Google
Hello! I wanted to see if anyone has used or come arcoss this plug in. I have messaged someone that is using it with family search and encouraged me to use it. I wanted to get a bit more information before downloading it. It links to family search and looks for inconsistencies.
Answers
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I've had a poke around.
This does not appear to be listed on the FamilySearch Solutions Gallery, so (unless I have missed something) it is not formally supported by FS (or, not yet).
I would not be at all worried about that if it was (like, for example, getmyancestors) only reading the Tree.
But, the fact that it apparently has a 'Fix It' button implies that it can make changes to the Tree. That is normally strictly controlled by FS; my understanding is that normally (and rightly in my view) no updates are permitted via the publicly available interfacing mechanisms (APIs), only via the mechanisms available to approved solution developers.
This extension is clearly very new and its website is clear that it is still in testing mode. So maybe it will pop up on the Solutions Gallery shortly.
Could a moderator check whether this product is supported by FS please?
(Given that this is all happening in a signed-in browser, another possibility is that the extension is somehow using automatic navigation (screen scraping) to do its updates, but I can't tell without trying it out on the live Tree, which I'd be nervous about. So let's check for formal FS support first, as above.)
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Looking through the information about this extension at: https://findmyroots.tech/getting-started/ I see a couple of concerning items including:
Checking for normalization of dates and places and suggesting corrections for these. It isn't clear what this means. Is it going to suggest stripping additional information from place names so they always exactly match the standard?
Checking sources and flagging "missing" information. I assume this includes information in the source that is wrong and should not be in a profile or that was deliberately left out as being redundant or trivial.
The author does stress repeatedly that all suggested changes need to be thoroughly checked and only invoked if it is a real problem. But will users do that or just click "Fix It" without thinking.
Being in the Solutions Gallery does not mean that FamilySearch supports a product, only that the product follows the guidelines Family Search has set. I suspect that this program is not reading or writing the Family Tree database but rather reading the information the browser has downloaded then runs automated routines to simulate one's mouse and keyboard to type in information just like we would.
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I am afraid my answer to the OP's question, unless and until more positive information surfaces, is no, I would not recommend you try this product.
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'Being in the Solutions Gallery does not mean that FamilySearch supports a product, only that the product follows the guidelines Family Search has set.'
This document is interesting:
I quote: 'Ideal applications will facilitate growth of data in FamilySearch Family Tree (persons, memories or other rich data being added)'
Added, but not improved?
There is zero reference that I can see to optimising data quality when carrying out updates, making sure the user sees any relevant alerts, etc. It all feels like quantity is the aim rather than quality. Maybe there is a more detailed doc that only approved developers can see, but the one I've linked to does not give me a nice warm feeling.
And re automated navigation/screen scraping, a publicly available application dependent on that is asking for support nightmares (and, worst case, accidental incorrect updates) because screens and their navigation will change without the developer being aware of it. I have used it for a couple of read-only personal use FS data analysis tasks, each accessing only a single screen, and even there I have to tweak it fairly often.
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