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Sharing TMG among multiple users

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I am in my fourth year of a "one-name" study limited to the Ball surname families with origins in New England. I am to the point that it would be useful to have a TMG setup that would let two or more people simultaneously (in theory) access and add data to the main TMG Project file. We are talking people in different locations (actually in different countries :D ), so computer connection would have to be through the internet. I have a copy of Warren Culpepper's case history of his sharing scheme for his one-name study, but he used a computer server in his own company over which he had full control and only two people had access to the TMG Project file. My situation is a little more complicated and I do not have access to a private server, so would need to use some sort of public service provider. I have lots of questions (let's say I am at the very start of a steep learning curve :blink: ), but here are a few starters:

 

1. As I understand, to do this both TMG and the Project files would have to be on the service provider server. Does WhollyGenes have a special licensing requirement for this structure? While I am likely only to make this system available to a small number (I would think now less than 10) of other researchers (to each work on their favorite Ball clan), it seems to me that I would likely push my TMG licensing more than a little having several others using my copy of TMG.

 

2. About the same time as setting up a shared data entry arrangement, I plan to launch a website (using Second Site, of course :wub: ). It would make sense to me to have both the website and the TMG and Project files hosted by the same service provider. I have a domain name (which is available) in mind for the website. Does it make sense technically to have both the website and the TMG Project files accessed through through the same domain name through different subdirectories? Or should I have a second domain name for some reason for the TMG and Project files?

 

3. At this point I know next to nothing about domains and servers and website development, but do understand the difference between having a public website that can be found and accessed by anyone and what I need for security to limit access to the server-based TMG and the Project files. Is sign-in security something that I need to get from my service provider or is this another piece of software that I need to acquire? Clearly I will need local "Geek Squad" assistance when I implement this wild scheme, but I want to have a basic understanding of how all of this will work.

 

This will be enough for now, but I would be pleased to hear from anyone else that is doing this sort of thing that can lead me up the learning curve.

 

Best of the Season,

David G. Ball

ballproject@shaw.ca

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Simultaneous database access to an application introduces all kinds of record locking issues, multiple access update/insert/delete clashes to the same record, rollbacks, server/client operating systems, etc. etc.

 

So far, I think that TMG is set up for only a single member access. I can have two projects open in two TMG tabs, but do not run optimize or validate simultaneously on two different projects. It causes freezeups because some of the data is global across all projects.

 

If the other users want to restore their project from your .sqz file and only READ the data, that would be easy enough. If they updated ANYTHING, that means that YOU would have to restore their .sqz backup, and it also assumes that YOU have not updated anything in the meantime (back-and-forth-scenario) or your updates would be lost.

 

Does it make sense technically to have both the website and the TMG Project files accessed through through the same domain name through different subdirectories?
Sure, why not? My own lends itself easily to transfers to subdirectories of a single domain name.

 

Or should I have a second domain name for some reason for the TMG and Project files?
It wouldn't make any difference, as long as you make it easy to get from one to the other. It could be overkill. I have a couple of domain family names used merely as pointers to the primary one. I can do it with more than one, but it's more work in the FTP (File Transfer Program) to point to the correct domain, rather than just flipping subdirectories.

 

My web hoster also allows setup of several subdomains from your account, if that would help any.

 

subdomain1/domainname.___

subdomain2/domainname.___

 

The cheapie webhosts only let you do things like domainname.___/~membername because they retain their own domain rights.

 

I recommend a few things about domains, from my own experience.

 

(1) If in the US, they are super cheap from http://godaddy.com One only has to transfer the nameservers to the nameservers of the web hoster.

 

(2) My web hoster (http://ipowerweb.com) allows setup for dual usage of domainname.___ and www.domainname.___ Having both available is a help for those that insist on putting www before anything and then wonder why they can't find it. I have seen many websites out there that force you to enter either one or the other. (http://usps.com or http://www.usps.com or http://www.usps.gov) are allowed. http://usps.gov is illegal.

 

(3) As your website becomes more popular, access traffic from all users will become an issue. My old host "extra traffic" charges were reaching more than the basic access cost. Moving the data to a web hoster instead of a local ISP allowed traffic at least 30 times more than the other one and solved the problem. They recently upgraded to 6 terabytes/month of traffic/transfer. My old one charged extra for anything more than a few gigabytes/month. If you went over, they took down access to your site until you paid up. Muy bad.

 

(4) Make sure you have 10 times or even 100 times as much webspace for your family, including all exhibits as you think you might need now. Pictures, etc. chew up a lot of space. Second Site is economical enough. Pages generated from Microsoft webpage makers introduce a lot of extra code that make the pages larger than you might think.

http://ipowerweb.com now has 600 gigabytes in their standard package, a crazy amount compared to the old days. After I used my full allocation of 5 gigabytes without breathing hard at my first webhoster, they asked why anyone would ever need more than that. (!). They went out of business shortly afterward, even though they said that they were a "premier" webhoster. Maybe not. Another one went bankrupt shortly after. My current website has over 3000 pages of other things without any family information at all there yet.

 

(5) If you put any info about named living members in your website, the family details should probably reside in a password protected subdirectory.

Edited by retsof

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Simultaneous database access to an application introduces all kinds of record locking issues, multiple access update/insert/delete clashes to the same record, rollbacks, server/client operating systems, etc. etc.

 

So far, I think that TMG is set up for only a single member access. I can have two projects open in two TMG tabs, but do not run optimize or validate simultaneously on two different projects. It causes freezeups because some of the data is global across all projects.

TMG works very well with multiple users accessing the same Project at the same time. It automatically blocks simultaneous access to the same record, such as a specific Tag or Source (but does allow a second user to open a read-only copy of that record.

 

It is simple to do this for multiple users on the same local network. Doing so remotely is more difficult - the case study by Warren Culpepper is the only case I know about where this has been done.

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Retsof, thanks for the pointers on the web hosting and Terry for confirming that multiple users are feasible. I think the points about not doing backups and VFI and Optimize while multiple users are connected could be important. By myself I have managed to lock-up TMG or have TMG shut down suddenly, so I would have to have protocols for maintenance and recovery in a multiple user environment.

 

It is a bit surprising to me that another "one-name" study hasn't been running TMG on a public service provider hosting server. The article written by Warren Culpeppers was over 3 years ago and, when I chatted with him then, I expected that his article would encourage others to set up a central project with multiple people working directly on the central project. I was just starting my Project then and now have some 42,000 people entered and several other researchers wanting to know what they can do to help in an ongoing and meaningful way. It would be a lot more fun for them to be able to work on their particular branch of the Ball clans and see that part grow, than to just gather data for me to enter when I get around to their line (and more fun for me as well ;) ).

 

WhollyGenes will have to answer the multiple user licensing issue and I guess the rest will depend upon whether I can find a "Geek Squad" type of local site developer to lead me through the issues of site structure and access security and all of the technical issues of setting TMG up in this manner with a public output website and a secure (invitation only) TMG workplace.

 

Happy New Year,

Dave Ball

ballproject@shaw.ca

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Aric,

 

I went to Wikipedia and read through the info on Hamachi and then a bit about "virtual private networks" (VPN). My eyes glaze over at some of the technical jargon, but if I get the picture it is a software package that operates between my computer and, say, several other computers at different towns to make a connection that is secure. Only one computer is the host and has all of the TMG and project files. For others to access TMG, the computer with TMG must be on-line all the time. This is similar to how Warren Culpepper set up a WAN configuration. His TMG performance was very poor, but that was because internet transfer speeds were much lower than the 54 mbs of most of today's wireless connections and 100 mbs for high speed cable connections.

 

The real barrier was that the VPN gives all members full access to the host computer, not just to TMG and that is more trust than I care to give to other genealogy contributors, unless I dedicate a computer to only being the TMG host, which is a significant cost. This would have to be the case for me, since I travel with my laptop and would not want to cut off other project workers during that time.

 

The rationale for finding a way to put both TMG and the project files on a public service provider machine seems to me to be more cost effective than buying another computer to be the center of a VPN, as well as having a more effective limitation of access to just TMG and the project files.

 

David G. Ball

North Vancouver, BC, Canada

ballproject@shaw.ca

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Aric,

 

The real barrier was that the VPN gives all members full access to the host computer, not just to TMG and that is more trust than I care to give to other genealogy contributors, unless I dedicate a computer to only being the TMG host, which is a significant cost. This would have to be the case for me, since I travel with my laptop and would not want to cut off other project workers during that time.

 

The rationale for finding a way to put both TMG and the project files on a public service provider machine seems to me to be more cost effective than buying another computer to be the center of a VPN, as well as having a more effective limitation of access to just TMG and the project files.

 

David G. Ball

North Vancouver, BC, Canada

ballproject@shaw.ca

 

David,

 

I think I know a bit more about networks and VPNs, but not enough to want to try setting one up, especially if you are relying on the quality of your data base on such a setup. I think you will have to recruit a "geek" who is familiar with the technology to set you up, and to configure your other users' computers, and define the rules for using the system, and to handle the inevitable technical problems.

 

You will also have to define and try to enforce some basic data entry standards, as each person is likely to have a different idea how some data should be entered.

 

I'm not sure to what extent you could "partition" your database so that each person can only update certain sections of it. If you can define a filter that effectively limits the part of the database that an individual contributer is responsible for and can modify, then you might be able to do a bulk update. A contributer would start with a specific version of the data base, update information on his section and then do a subsetting of the data base to select his updates. When you receive the updated segment, you would filter out the old version of that segment and merge the updated segment.

 

Obviously there would be problems at the edges of each contributor's segment where they link with other segments, and you would have to have a method of identifying those areas and possibly updating them manually, as you do now.

 

One advantage is limiting where a contributor can damage the data base, either due to human error or to a system error.

 

I'm not sure if TMG filtering has the capability of being used this way, but I have a strong impression that it is a powerful capability.

 

Pierce

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David is right about the security aspect. Essentially with Hamachi you create a secure connection to you computer just like you would if you used Ethernet to network your computers together. You would then share a folder on your computer the other user could map that share to their computer and attach the TMG database to their copy of TMG. Yes a person could hack into your computer if you left it open and unsecure.

 

So if I understand what you are looking for I would be more likely to use

 

http://www.phpgedview.net/ to do your exchange with multiple people.

Yes you would have to copy the data into your TMG database but it would be more secure, easier to use with multiple users.

 

I have used phpGedView before and I liked it. It was many generations ago and I am thinking about trying it again. Mainly because I could incorporate it into my current website. Secondsite is good if you only want to share your data and not let them make any changes to it.

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You will also have to define and try to enforce some basic data entry standards, as each person is likely to have a different idea how some data should be entered.

[snip]

One advantage is limiting where a contributor can damage the data base, either due to human error or to a system error.

 

Pierce

 

Pierce,

 

I already have a 40+ page document called "Design Criteria" that outlines all of the data entry formats, tag customization, source templates, instructions for report generation setup, etc., etc. I had to do this to keep me :lol: from re-inventing the wheel every few months for uncommon events. As with TMG in general, a new user will have to struggle through the maze to get things consistent with my standards, but data entry tends to be highly repetitive, so shouldn't be a big hurdle.

 

Damage control is a serious issue. Daily back-ups (and maybe more frequent, if indicated by experience) of the Project files will mean that we can always step back a day at a time to undo any disaster, using a list of events report based on date last changed to identify good data that would otherwise be lost, if possible. I don't think that there is any real need to partition users in the Project, because often I find that I get on a data entry binge (e.g., the 1850 census) that crosses all of the major trees, so would not be effective if limited to only some of the people in the Project. I have creatively screwed over the Project file a couple of times during GEDCOM merges and just sighed heavily and retrieved the last backup and moved on.

 

Cheers,

Dave

 

 

David is right about the security aspect. Essentially with Hamachi you create a secure connection to you computer just like you would if you used Ethernet to network your computers together. You would then share a folder on your computer the other user could map that share to their computer and attach the TMG database to their copy of TMG. Yes a person could hack into your computer if you left it open and unsecure.

 

An interesting thought. I suspect that some whiz kid could set up my computer to have enough security to keep access by my remote "Project Helpers" limited to TMG and the Project, but that still doesn't get around the problem that I only have a laptop, I travel, and I take the laptop with me, so my schedule would limit helpers. I would prefer to not buy a separate desktop server (even given how prices have come down), because I don't know how to maintain it, should any problems with outside access occur. That is why I prefer a solution that has someone else whose business it is to provide the hardware, security interface, and responsibility of keeping the system up 24/7.

 

Thanks for the creative thoughts, though,

 

Dave

Edited by dball

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