Family Tree vs New Family Search

[techgy]

I would certainly hope that we are not wasting our time teaching members how to use NFS only to have it replaced. I would hope that Family Tree is going to be an adjunct to NFS and not a replacement.

Becoming familiar with NFS will not be a waste of time. Family Tree will ultimately replace NFS but when it does it will have all the functionality that NFS currently has and a few enhancements.

I would encourage everyone to learn all they can about NFS and also become familiar with the current capabilities of Family Tree.

[aebrown]

I would encourage everyone to learn all they can about NFS and also become familiar with the current capabilities of Family Tree.

Good advice for some people. Unfortunately, most members of the Church cannot yet access NFS. But we're being patient....

[russellhltn]

I would hope that Family Tree is going to be an adjunct to NFS and not a replacement.

Long-term, I can't see the Church maintaining two code sets that do essentially the same thing.

maybe the take-up of NFS has been that bad, that an easier to use, more simplified front-end is being released for the technically challenged?

It's a work in progress. I know of no one who claims to be anything else.

I know one change the church had to do was re-write the application in a different style. The old style (asp?) had the pages being created on the church servers. It worked, but the server load was too much. So they re-did it as a flash application to unburden the servers. I'm not sure if the current nFS is the burdensome app or not. I am fairly sure that's why Utah hasn't been put on yet. The Utah area is expected to be a least half if not more of the total server load. Since the temples are so close together, it would be difficult to have an extended roll by temple district. Too many from a non nFS temple district would be going to a nFS temple, etc. That's why it's been sent to the "Mission Field" to get refined.

[lajackson]

. . . the server load was too much. So they re-did it as a flash application to unburden the servers. I'm not sure if the current nFS is the burdensome app or not. I am fairly sure that's why Utah hasn't been put on yet. The Utah area is expected to be a least half if not more of the total server load. Since the temples are so close together, it would be difficult to have an extended roll by temple district. Too many from a non nFS temple district would be going to a nFS temple, etc. That's why it's been sent to the "Mission Field" to get refined.

About the time the 5th temple went onto the original nFS, the servers crashed. I am pretty sure that nFS has unburdened the servers, but perhaps not quite enough.

I have been told that Family Tree is just the next version of nFS, so learning nFS will not be a wasted effort.

Glad to be of help from the "mission field" although, from what we hear, the "valley" has quite the reputation for interesting gospel interpretation. [grin]

[garysturn]

From what I have heard newFamilySearch (nFS) was not able to grow as users were added, so a total rewrite was begun. The FamilyTree application at FamilySearch Labs is the attempt to rewrite the program so it would work with the larger user base that is expected when they add Utah, Idaho and eventually non Church members. I have used both newFamilySearch and FamilyTree and I do not see that FamilyTree is any faster. FamilyTree has a nicer pedigree interface but the folders applications need a lot of work to come up to the usability levels of nFS. The Flash applications work great in the pedigree views but are not working well in the folders and lists views, they run slower than the same functions in nFS. I don't see them taking down nFS until then can get FamilyTree to work at least as well as nFS. I would think both applications will be available for quite some time together before nFS is shut down. There has been very little development in the past year on newFamilySearch, all the effort seems to be devoted to FamilyTree. I don't think we will see any more improvements in nFS, FamilyTree will eventually replace it.

There are also several Certified Developers that interface with the newFamilySearch database and hopefully as more people start using those programs there will be less pressure on nFS and FamilyTree. RootsMagic now has the ability to print the Family Ordinance Requests for the Temple so people can now use RootsMagic to do almost everything they can do in nFS.

[lajackson]

I don't see them taking down nFS until then can get FamilyTree to work at least as well as nFS.

Well, we are actually using nFS to prepare names for the temple and cannot go back to Temple Ready, so they have to keep it running for now.

I hope they are able to make Family Tree work. There is a lot of data to parse, and there are a lot of "parsers." I do not envy the developers trying to work the problem. But, I do hope for their success.

[russellhltn]

There are also several Certified Developers that interface with the newFamilySearch database and hopefully as more people start using those programs there will be less pressure on nFS and FamilyTree.

A nit-pick on the names. The developers use the Family Tree API. So it may take the pressure off of the "Family Tree" interface found in labs.familysearch, but "FamilyTree" is here for the long haul.

[jdlessley]

Adding to the conjecture about the relationship of newFamilySearch to Family Tree is the announcement that Family Tree now includes temple submission functions.

FamilySearch product management is pleased to announce that the Family Tree at FamilySearch Labs was recently updated. The latest updates now include all of the functionality required to prepare names for temple ordinances and print Family Ordinance Request (FOR) forms—the full “temple experience!”

Individuals with access to new.familysearch.org can access the Family Tree through labs.familysearch.org. It requires the same login and password as new.familysearch.org.



To try out the new functionality in the Family Tree, go to Folders, then the Summary tab. Under the new Temple Ordinances section, you can:

• Check for and resolve duplicates with ordinances (Always check this before clicking SUBMIT).
• Enter Ordinances Manually. If no ordinances appear yet you know when the work has been performed, click this link to report the ordinances.
• Submit the ordinances to your Temple Tracking Page. This simply reserves the name and ordinances on the Temple tab. You will need to click on the Temple tab at the top of the page to continue the temple process and print FOR forms, etc.

In the Temple tab you can:

• Print temple cards (Family Ordinance Request - FOR) if you want to perform the ordinances yourself.
• Assign names to the temple if you want the temple to allow someone else to perform the ordinances.

Remember that the Family Tree is operating off of the same database as new.familysearch.org. Any work done through the Family Tree application is recorded in the new.familysearch.org database.

To view or print this e-mail in PDF format, please go to: https://help.familysearch.org/kb/Local_ ... tmemos.htm

[jbh001]

So they re-did it as a flash application to unburden the servers.

I hope that before all is said and done it will be independent from Flash. Hopefully HTML 5, CSS3, and other non-proprietary options will become viable alternatives to Flash.

[russellhltn]

I hope that before all is said and done it will be independent from Flash. Hopefully HTML 5, CSS3, and other non-proprietary options will become viable alternatives to Flash.

Only if they see a need to change it again. I suspect it's using the Family Tree API, so it can be coded to be anything that works. But I doubt if they'll undertake a re-write without a pressing need. I think it's flash since that's what it needs to run.