ThinkGenealogy

Family Tree Maker 2008 was released this week as completely redesigned software built with Microsoft technologies.  The redesign starts at the user interface but doesn’t stop there.  This version of Family Tree Maker is built on Microsoft’s .NET Framework and uses the Composite UI Application Block(CAB) and the Smart Client Software Factory(SCSF) .  I am familiar with these technologies as I use them daily as part of my responsibilites as a Senior Software Architect building a client framework for application teams within my company.

A few weeks ago when I installed Family Tree Maker 2008 RC1, imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was built with the same frameworks that I use at work.  I can run the software and understand how it is composed at the same time.  I find myself thinking, this is the Shell, and these are Workspaces and the SmartParts. 

The following CAB terms are useful for this discussion:

• Shell - the main window of the application that contains menus, toolbars, and Workspaces
• Workspace - a user interface container that holds SmartParts
• SmartPart - a section of the user interface devoted to a specific task
• Module - a deployable unit of code that can contain SmartParts or business logic; the Shell loads one or more Modules

Some of the benefits of building an application with CAB/SCSF are:
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Included in the list of innovations found in the Family.Show genealogy sample application is the surname cloud.  Similar to the tag cloud that you find in many web application today (Flickr, LibraryThing, Technorati, etc.), the surname cloud lists the last names of all people in your database.  This surname cloud lists names alphabetically with those surnames appearing more frequently appearing in a larger font size.

When you click on a name in the surname cloud, then the person list is filtered to only show those that have that last name.

I have yet to see a surname cloud in any other genealogy software.

What started out as a sample application to showcase the latest UI technology from Microsoft called Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) resulted in a sample to the genealogy community of innovation.

At the beginning of this year, the company I work for hired Vertigo Software to do a prototype application using WPF.  Part of the portfolio that Vertigo shared with us during the pre-hiring phase was an end-to-end reference sample that they did for Microsoft. The exciting thing about this sample is that it is a genealogy application. Family.Show version 1 was released in April in preparation for the MIX 07 conference and version 2 was released in July.

This is not a full-fledged application and it wasn’t designed by experts in the genealogy community. But don’t dismiss it too quickly. This sample shows the imagination and innovation that can come when user interaction experts, software developers, and graphics designers work together. I especially like the different visualizations used in the application and will talk about them specifically in a future post.

Here is the feature list published by Vertigo:

• Quickly build your family tree
• Add photos easily via drag-and-drop
• Create advanced family tree visualizations with pan and zoom support
• See what your family tree looked like years ago using the Time Explorer
• Tell your family members’ story using rich editing and formatting controls
• Mine your family data with statistical filtering and sorting
• Import and export family trees to GEDCOM 5.5, a standard genealogy format
• Change the look of the entire application by choosing a different skin

Some limitations of the application are:

• Supports single birth, marriage, and death events
• No other events supported
• Doesn’t support approximate dates (Abt. 1815, Bet. Jan 1707/08 - Jan 1708/09, Bef. 1931)

Links:

• For those who want to see screen shots/videos or who want to install it, go to the Vertigo Family.Show site.
• For software developers who want access to the source code, go to the CodePlex site.