Trouble exporting sdf

[Cardinalflyer 0]

Hi All

 

I'm trying to export a long family file for my cousin in sdf format. After exporting instead of a sdf file I get a bunch of text files.

 

Any advice?

[Terry Reigel 0]

An SDF is just a text file - it contains only the options you have selected in Second Site, not any actual data. The data continues to reside in the the TMG Project, and in the HTML files produced by Second Site, which are in the "-o" folder. Is it the site itself you are trying to share, or the settings in Second Site?

 

Of you want to share the site you created, copy the entire contents of the "-o" folder to a CD or other portable media.

[Cardinalflyer 0]

An SDF is just a text file - it contains only the options you have selected in Second Site, not any actual data. The data continues to reside in the the TMG Project, and in the HTML files produced by Second Site, which are in the "-o" folder. Is it the site itself you are trying to share, or the settings in Second Site?

 

Of you want to share the site you created, copy the entire contents of the "-o" folder to a CD or other portable media.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm trying to create a copy of the project file so I can email it to her so she can add her family data. She says she cannot open a ged project file.

Edited October 7, 2011 by Cardinalflyer

[Terry Reigel 0]

You want her to add data to your Project? What genealogy program does she use? Most programs can open a GEDCOM.

 

In order to add data to your Project she must be using TMG. Does she? Doing that would require that you create a backup, send it to her, not make any changes until she returns it to you and you restore it.

 

I don't think that's really a workable idea. Please say more about what you are trying to do, and your correspondent's capabilities, and I think we can suggest better alternatives.

[John Cardinal 0]

Terry,

 

I don't think she's referring to a Second Site project file (SDF). I think she's referring to the extension for a Standard Data File. I assume that's one of the choices available in the Export feature in TMG. I think it's a variant of the ".dbf" format, perhaps a precursor to it.

 

I am pretty sure you know this already, but I thought some clarification might be useful to lurkers...

[Terry Reigel 0]

Thanks, John,

 

No, I've never heard of Standard Data Files - and a search offers nothing other than they are in fact text files. What would one use them for?

 

It looks like they are a rendering of TMG's database files into a pure text format. But what use might they then be? I wouldn't expect anyone but a database expert to be able to interpret them.

[John Cardinal 0]

Terry,

 

The part I thought you knew was that the OP wasn't referring to an SS file. I didn't express that clearly.

 

Anyway, I looked at the TMG export. It supports a Standard Data Format, which I suspect is an alias for System Data File. I never used that particular format. From what I can tell, it's a fixed-field, ASCII-only data file format. Although it contains ASCII text only, it's not intended to be edited directly by a user. In the bad old days, the simpler the format, the better, and you can't get much simpler than fixed-field ASCII. You can probably import an SDF file into MS Access or MS Excel. I suspect it's rarely used, if it's used at all.