Import/Export people

[hluxem]

Hello all,

There is an import/export feature for people. I was hoping to use that feature to load the file in Excel and add missing data to existing people in the database. This uses an json file and after a little bit of searching and some playing I was able to load the file in Excel. I have not been able to save back the changes to the json file. As I'm not familiar with the json format, I was hoping someone with more knowledge has some advise on how to work with these kind of files.
Is there a way to open and edit a json file in a more readable way than with Notepad and edit fields like DOB, group, sort field ect. and save it back to JSON? I think if I could edit the json file similar to editing a spreadsheet I could easily fill all the missing values for my imported 600 persons. 

Thanks,

Heiner

[Mario]

JSON is one of the major data exchange formats for object-oriented data.
Excel does spreadhsheets and lists. This is not the best possible tool for working with JSON, although Excel understands JSON. See the help.

Why don't you use the Person Editor in IMatch?
Would that not be faster than learning about JSON, getting the data into Excel, learning how to produce the JSON object structure expected by IMatch from your Excel spreadsheet using a custom program and then re- importing? Seems to me you are making your life to hard. Editing data of 600 people should not take long in the Person Editor.

Note that the import/export features in the People View are for very specific purposes and rely on a specific JSON format.
Trying to import a JSON file that was not exported by IMatch may break your database. Or introduce issues which show up several months from now. I don't endorse or support this.

[Jingo]

Is there a way to open and edit a json file in a more readable way than with Notepad and edit fields like DOB, group, sort field ect. and save it back to JSON? I think if I could edit the json file similar to editing a spreadsheet I could easily fill all the missing values for my imported 600 persons. 

Thanks,

Heiner

There are lots of tools to edit JSON files... I personally use a few including: jsoneditoronline.org or www.appdevtools.com/json-editor

[Mees Dekker]

Is there any news on this?

I have data on several 100's of people, but entering all the data manually 1 by 1 into IMatch is very time consuming. How to batch-import these data from an Excel list?

[Mario]

There is no demand for importing People data from arbitrary Excel lists.

[ERBRO]

HEllo Mario,

I have the same kind of requirement to update the people characteristics in mass.   

Are there in between new options then doing in iMatch and edit the people one by one to add the missing characteristics ?

Best regards
Eric

[Mario]

No. Why do you maintain person properties in Excel and not in IMatch firsthand?
How many persons do you manage? 500? 1,000? 5,000?
You can always write a script that produces the format IMatch can import (JSON, use the People export command to see a sample JSON to learn of what's expected). Export, update with your script that knows what your Excel sheet contains, re-import.

Implementing a batch import feature would just be too much work for the 3 (?) people who have asked for this since 2020! You can write a script that knows your input and does exactly what you want.
When I do it, I have to make it very flexible, with a GUI and stuff, documentation, commitment for many years to keep it compatible and working - massive maintenance debt. Not really something I want to commit to for a handful of users who may need this once.

[ERBRO]

HEllo Mario,

Thank you for your feedback. The  reason I asked is exacly the same as Mees  in the thread.

I did not want by my question  any development or express a feature request. It is just that

1) as The question was 5 years old
2) as Imatch is full of jewels(The more I use it the more I like it),
3) as you are continuously improving imatch,

 I preferred to ask just in case I would have miss something.



Best regards
Eric

[Mario]

If I would have added this, it would be documented in the People feature. But there is just no/insufficient demand for a rather substantial feature like this.

[mlavicka]

As far as demand for this goes, I would just point out that this is similar to the request I had to be able to maintain my people data in another program (a genealogy database in my case) and then create a file from that program which could be imported into iMatch.

[Mario]

The format IMatch uses for exporting/importing persons is JSON, which can be read and written by many applications.
Somebody would have to write a script than imports the JSON export into Excel and then the Excel export into the JSON format IMatch expects. Somebody would have to write a script that exports from whatever Genealogy system you use and bring it into the JSON format IMatch expects.

All doable, but will require some hours or even days of development time from somebody.
Which makes this costly if you have to pay for it.
And I'm sure your Genealogy database is using a different format than another database. Or somebody would have to write a full converter for GEDKOM (or at least what parts of it are useful for IMatch).

I really don't want to do this for a handful of users who manage person data in Excel or some other database.

[Jingo]

Just fyi... as someone who with with Genealogists and Genealogy software developers - I am forced to use Gedcom export files all the time... I wouldn't recommend trying to use or work with these files... they are truly a mess and a technology from a much older time... that has never been updated to modern JSON.

[ERBRO]

Hello,

I'm still fighting to update the people details.  Is there away to quickly find the people without a Keywords ?

Best regards
Eric

[Mario]

away to quickly find the people without a Keywords ?

Why not just use the People View, which lists the keywords you have assigned to a person?

You cannot view this attachment.

The persons which don't show keywords have none.
If this is new to you, I recommend browsing the People View help topic again as a refresher.

[ERBRO]

Thank you. that exactly what I was searching for.