Gramps Web App
⚠ Note: this project has been superseded by the Gramps Web API in combination with the Gramps.js frontend.
This package provides a web frontend to the genealogical database of the Gramps software. It allows to share your genalogical research with family members or provides an alternative way of browsing your records on your local computer.
Demo
There is a demo instance using Gramps's example family tree database. Use test for username and password.
(NB: initial startup of the demo can take up to a minute since it is hosted on a free Heroku dyno that sleeps after 30 mins of inactivity.)
Disclaimers
:warning: This is experimental software. Back up your data before using this on your own database! :warning:
The project is still in an early stage. Please use the issue system to report problems or suggest enhancements.
This package is not an official part of the Gramps project.
Technologies used
- REST API to the Gramps database based on Flask and Flask-RESTful and directly using the Gramps Python package
- Authentication system using JSON web tokens (using Flask-JWT-Extended)
- Progressive web app frontend based on PWA Starter Kit and Open WC
Features
- Sortable and filtrable people, family, event, source, and place list views
- Map view (based on Leaflet)
- Ancestor tree view
- Galleries with full-size previews and linked person tags, embedded preview for PDFs in Chrome and Firefox
- Most of the family tree data are cached in the browser, making the app fast after the initial loading
- Fully internationalized UI (directly using Gramps's translation strings)
- Optionally host media objects on Amazon S3 cloud storage (docs)
- Optionally manage users in a separate SQL database (docs)
Installation
At present, the simplest method to install the latest version of the package directly from the repository is
python3 -m pip install --user git+https://github.com/DavidMStraub/gramps-webapp.git --upgradeRunning locally
You can try out the web app locally with an existing Gramps database.
:warning: This is experimental software. Back up your data before trying this! :warning:
It will only work with SQLite databases (not with BSDDB). After installation, run
python3 -m gramps_webapp app -O 'My family tree' --no-auth runThe --no-auth option disables the user system (the login form will still be shown but can be left empty). You can find the names of the existing databases and their backends with gramps -L.
Deploying to the web
See the Wiki.
Configuration
This is a list of environment variables that affect the web app.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
TREE |
Family tree to open (can also be set by the -O tag on the command line, see above |
JWT_SECRET_KEY |
Secret key for the tokens. If not set, a secure key will be generated, stored in the app's root directory, and reused for the next startup. Note that changing the token will require users to log in again. |
GRAMPS_EXCLUDE_PRIVATE |
Exclude private records from being shown. Defaults to false. |
GRAMPS_EXCLUDE_LIVING |
Do only show names, but no details, of living people. Note that the media objects and events will still be accessible (but not linked to the person). Defaults to false. |
GRAMPS_AUTH_PROVIDER |
Authentication method to use. Possible values: password or sql (default). |
PASSWORD |
User password in case of using password authentication. Empty by default (!) |
GRAMPS_USER_DB_URI |
SQLAlchemy compatible URI for the user database when using SQL authentication. |
GRAMPS_S3_BUCKET_NAME |
S3 bucket name when using AWS cloud storage for media files. See the documentation for details. |
Current limitations
No user managementTokens have infinite lifetime (refresh tokens would be more secure)No display of sources, repositories, and notesPrivate records not respected- Read-only (no family tree editing)
- ...
Please use the issue system to report bugs or make feature requests.