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Warning Messages

As a result of generating web pages, warning messages may appear in the GED-GEN log file. The log file appears when you click the View button. Warning messages alert you to conditions that may require your attention. They are arranged in groups of related messages:

General

This section may include various messages:

  1. A total of <number> family records contained no alternate reference tag. Used cross-reference identifier instead.
  2. Alternate marriage facts have been excluded because marriage facts have been excluded.
  3. Family <ID> (<link>) has a circular reference. Web page generation is incomplete.
  4. Family record identifier <number> is not unique. Web page generation is incomplete.
  5. GEDCOM line <number> <tag> exceeds maximum length. Important information may have been ignored.
  6. Insufficient disk space on drive <letter>. One or more web pages may be incomplete.
  7. Marriage facts have been excluded and are therefore not displayed.
  8. One or more frame target fields were specified. All frame targets were ignored.
  9. Primary marriage facts are displayed at the end of page while alternate marriage facts are displayed within the group sheet. This could confuse your website visitors.
  10. The input GEDCOM file is not a GEDCOM version 5.5 file.
  11. The option to include source citations in a frame window is not allowed. Citations were included at the bottom of the page instead.
  12. The option to use a non-proportional font requires HTML Strict conformance. Your pages may not display properly in all browsers.
  13. Web page generation FAILED. The input file is not a GEDCOM file.
  14. Web page generation FAILED. Your GEDCOM file does not use abbreviated tags.
  15. Web page generation was CANCELED.


A total of <number> family records contained no alternate reference tag. Used cross-reference identifier instead.

You specified an alternate Family Page Reference under GEDCOM on the Program tab. However one or more family records in your GEDCOM file did not contain a REFN or RIN tag. GED-GEN used the family record cross-reference identifier instead.

Solution: If a large number of family records are affected, your GEDCOM file does not contain the required alternate reference tags. You should choose another Family Page Reference scheme. If only a few family records are affected, you may find it acceptable to use the cross-reference identifier in those cases.

For a large number, you should reconsider why you chose an alternate reference naming scheme. The cross-reference identifier may change when you re-export your GEDCOM file using your genealogy program. The best solution is to determine why your genealogy program did not include a REFN (or RIN) tag for every family record. Then re-export your GEDCOM file and re-generate your family pages.

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Alternate marriage facts have been excluded because marriage facts have been excluded.

On the Facts tab, you enabled the "Include other facts" option and cleared the checkbox for the "Married" fact. However you enabled the "Include alternate Birth, Marriage & Death" option. Since you do not want to display marriage dates, alternate marriage dates have been automatically excluded.

Solution: If you want to display marriage facts, enable them by placing a check mark next to "Married" on the Facts tab.

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Family <ID> (<link>) has a circular reference. Web page generation is incomplete.

The indicated family has a circular reference, meaning one of the spouses is also listed as a child in the same family. GED-GEN has ignored the erroneous links and therefore one or more web pages is incomplete. You should correct this condition and re-generate your web pages.

Solution: Circular references are usually caused by improperly merging individuals when you import data into your genealogy program. First determine the family in question by clicking the link in the warning message. Then locate this family in your genealogy program. You will see that either the husband or the wife also appears as a child in the same family. Detach or remove the appropriate individual, either the parent or the child.

Note that a child may have the same name as a parent, but in this case the child and the parent are one in the same. If you intended a child to have the same name, create a new individual and specify the same name.

Now export another GEDCOM file from your genealogy program and use GED-GEN to re-generate your web pages. Check the warnings again to be sure there are no other instances of a circular reference.

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Family record identifier <number> is not unique. Web page generation is incomplete.

GED-GEN relies on family record identifiers to name the web page files it creates. If more than one family record has the same identifier, one family page will be overwritten by another. On the index pages, links to the first family will appear to point to the second family.

Solution: You should correct this problem and re-generate your family pages. Using your genealogy program, search for all families that have the reference number mentioned in the warning message. Change one family's reference number to another value. Reference numbers must be unique among all families in your GEDCOM file. Re-export a GEDCOM file, and then re-generate your family pages. (See Family Page Reference to set up a different reference identifier numbering scheme.)

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GEDCOM line <number> <tag> exceeds maximum length. Important information may have been ignored.

A line in your GEDCOM file exceeds the maximum length allowed. To recover from this situation GED-GEN may ignore subsequent lines until it can resynchronize properly. This may result in missing information and incorrect links between family pages.

Solution: You must correct this condition using your genealogy software program. Then re-export a GEDCOM file and re-generate your web pages.

If several lines exceed the maximum length, try setting the option for "TempleReady" when you export a GEDCOM file in your genealogy program. This may force your program to adhere to the GEDCOM standard.

If only a couple lines exceed the maximum length, determine the type of information involved. You may have to open your GEDCOM file using a text editor like the Windows Notepad program. However, do not save your GEDCOM file using a text editor because doing so may alter its format. Then in your genealogy program, edit that specific information and try to insert carriage-return characters (i.e., the ENTER key or CTRL+ENTER key combination). This may cause your program to export several lines instead of one large line when you re-export a GEDCOM file.

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Insufficient disk space on drive <letter>. One or more web pages may be incomplete.

While creating web page files, almost all available space on your hard disk was used. Not all web pages were created and some that were may be incomplete.

Solution: You should make more space available by deleting unnecessary files and programs on this disk drive. Be sure first to make backup copies of important files and programs. You could also use a different disk volume if you have one with more space. You should allow web page generation to complete without seeing this warning message before you transfer web pages to your website.

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Marriage facts have been excluded and are therefore not displayed.

On the Facts tab, you enabled the "Include other facts" option, but cleared the checkbox for the "Married" fact. Consequently, marriage dates are not displayed on your family pages.

Solution: If you want to exclude marriage dates, you may ignore this warning. Otherwise you should enable marriage facts by placing a check mark next to "Married" on the Facts tab.

Up


One or more frame target fields were specified. All frame targets were ignored.

There are a number of options in GED-GEN, for which you can specify a frame target. A frame target indicates where an Internet browser should display a web page when you click on a link. If your personal website uses HTML frames, this allows you to seamlessly integrate GED-GEN pages with those frame pages. However, the HTML 4.01 Strict standard does not permit frame targets and GED-GEN did not include any target= attributes in the links it generated.

Solution: If your personal web pages use HTML frames, you must change the Document Type Definition for nonframes-based pages to HTML 4.01 Transitional. Do this under Document Type Definitions (DTD), under HTML on the Program tab. There are other ramifications when using Transitional conformance. See Transitional Conformance.

Otherwise, to avoid this warning you should clear all frame target fields for the various options within GED-GEN. A list of such fields is provided under Strict Conformance.

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Primary marriage facts are displayed at the end of page while alternate marriage facts are displayed within the group sheet. This could confuse your website visitors.

On the Facts tab, you set the "Married" fact to display at the end of the family page under the "Additional Information" section. However "Include alternate Birth, Marriage & Death" facts are set to be displayed within the family page. Visitors to your website may interpret marriage dates displayed within the page as primary dates and those displayed at the end of the page as alternate dates.

Solution: Change the "Married" fact to display within the family page.

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The input GEDCOM file is not a GEDCOM version 5.5 file.

GED-GEN reads and interprets files according to version 5.5 of the GEDCOM standard. Your GEDCOM file appears to use an earlier version of the standard. It was processed, but there may be differences in format that cause GED-GEN to misinterpret some data.

Solution: You should review the generated web pages and look for anything unexpected. When you export your GEDCOM file, be sure to specify GEDCOM version 5.5 and not an earlier version of the standard. If you use an older genealogy program, consider upgrading to a newer version that supports GEDCOM version 5.5.

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The option to include source citations in a frame window is not allowed. Citations were included at the bottom of the page instead.

You enabled the option to include source citations in frame window at bottom of browser under Source Citations on the Features tab. This results in web pages that use frames, and frames are not allowed under HTML 4.01 Strict conformance. Therefore source citations were placed at the bottom of each generated family page.

Solution: If you want your source citations to appear in a separate frame window, you must change the Document Type Definition for nonframes-based pages to HTML 4.01 Transitional. Do this under Document Type Definitions (DTD), under HTML on the Program tab. There are other ramifications when using Transitional conformance. See Transitional Conformance.

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The option to use a non-proportional font requires HTML Strict conformance. Your pages may not display properly in all browsers.

You enabled the option to Use non-proportional font in group sheet and index, under Font on the Attributes tab. However, your pages do not conform to the HTML 4.01 Strict standard. Therefore the layout of labels, dates and places may not display properly in all browsers, especially Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Solution: When using a non-proportional font, you should change the Document Type Definition for nonframes-based pages to HTML 4.01 Strict. Do this under Document Type Definitions (DTD), under HTML on the Program tab. There are other ramifications when using Strict conformance. See Strict Conformance.

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Web page generation FAILED. The input file is not a GEDCOM file.

The GEDCOM input file name you specified does not appear to be a GEDCOM file.

Solution: When you export a GEDCOM file from your genealogy program, be sure to select the GEDCOM file type. Even though you might specify a file name extension of .ged, if the file type is not GEDCOM, it will not be saved in GEDCOM format.

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Web page generation FAILED. Your GEDCOM file does not use abbreviated tags.

The GEDCOM input file does not appear to use abbreviated record tags, which GED-GEN requires. The GEDCOM standard uses abbreviations to identify information in a record. For instance a baptism is indicated by the tag BAPM.

Solution: You should export a GEDCOM file again from your genealogy program. This time specify the option there for abbreviated tags.

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Web page generation was CANCELED.

You clicked the Stop button during web page generation. One or more pages were not generated and some that were generated may be incomplete.

Solution: You should allow web page generation to complete normally before you transfer web pages to your website.

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Individual Images

This section lists image files that are missing for one or more individuals. Ensure they exist prior to publishing your website.

You used the Individual Images tab under Individuals on the Custom tab to define images for one or more individuals. However you have not yet placed the corresponding image files in the expected folder. Without these files, images will not appear next to these individuals.

Solution: Ensure you have spelled the file names correctly, and that you placed the files in the relative folder you specified for individual images on the Custom tab. Although you can create your image files after generating your web pages, it is better to create them before doing so. GED-GEN uses the size of each image as it generates web pages, but only if the image already exists.

Each warning message in this section appears as:

<file> for <name> (<link>)

where:

<file> is the file name of the missing image.
<name> is the name of the individual for whom the image is missing.
<link> is a link to the family group sheet on which the individual appears.

Group Images

This section lists image files that are missing for one or more family groups. Ensure they exist prior to publishing your website.

You used the Group Images tab under Families on the Custom tab to define images for one or more family groups. However you have not yet placed the corresponding image files in the expected folder. Without these files, images will not appear on these family pages.

Solution: Ensure you have spelled the file names correctly, and that you placed the files in the relative folder you specified for group images on the Custom tab. Although you can create your image files after generating your web pages, it is better to create them before doing so. GED-GEN uses the size of each image as it generates web pages, but only if the image already exists.

Each warning message in this section appears as:

<file> (<link>)

where:

<file> is the file name of the missing image.
<link> is a link to the family group sheet in question.

Imported Text

This section lists the external files that could not be imported, either because they do not exist, or they are in use by another application. The corresponding family pages will not display the expected text.

Solution: Ensure you have spelled the file names correctly, and that you placed the files in the folder you specified for external files on the Imported Text tab under Families on the Custom tab. Then re-generate your family pages.

Each warning message in this section appears as:

<file> (<link>)

where:

<file> is the name of the missing external file.
<link> is a link to the family group sheet on which the imported text is missing.

Biography Links

This section lists your missing biography web page files. Without them, your visitors will see a "Page Not Found" error when they click on the biography link next to an individual's name.

Solution: Ensure you have spelled the file names correctly, and that you placed the files in the relative folder you specified for biography files on the Biography Links tab under Individuals on the Custom tab.

Each warning message in this section appears as:

<file> for <name> (<link>)

where:

<file> is the file name of the missing web page.
<name> is the name of the individual for whom the biography file is missing.
<link> is a link to the family group sheet on which the individual appears.

Narrative Links

This section lists your missing narrative web page files. Without them, visitors will see a "Page Not Found" error when they click the link to a family's narrative web page.

Solution: Ensure you have spelled the file names correctly, and that you placed the files in the relative folder you specified for narrative files on the Narrative Links tab under Families on the Custom tab.

Each warning message in this section appears as:

<file> (<link>)

where:

<file> is the file name of the missing web page.
<link> is a link to the family group sheet in question.

Multimedia

This section lists any files that were missing or inaccessible while generating multimedia galleries, or family page portraits. Since GED-GEN could not process the file, your visitors will see an empty placeholder where the image would normally appear.

Solution: Ensure that your original multimedia file resides in the indicated folder. The reference to each file is specified in your GEDCOM file. If a file name is misspelled, or the folder path is incorrect, you must correct the reference within your genealogy program and re-export a GEDCOM file.

Each warning message in this section appears as:

Cannot access '<file>' (<link>)

where:

<file> is the full path and file name of the multimedia file.
<link> is a link to the family group sheet associated with the multimedia item.

User-defined Facts

This section lists user-defined facts that have been excluded from your family pages. These are the user-defined facts on the Facts tab that you chose not to include. They are listed here so you can verify the correct information is being excluded.

Each warning message in this section appears as:

<fact> for <name> (<link>)

where:

<fact> is the user-defined fact being excluded.
<name> is the name of the individual with whom the fact is associated.
<link> is a link to the family group sheet on which the individual appears.

GEDCOM Tags

This section lists nonstandard tags encountered in your GEDCOM file. GED-GEN could not parse them and therefore they were ignored. If you enabled the Process nonstandard tags option under GEDCOM on the Program tab, some nonstandard tags can be re-mapped to standard tags.