Thursday, May 28, 2015

How Family Tree Maker Reporting Slows Your System.

First, my disclaimer. I don't know for a fact that what I say here is absolutely true.  However, my years in data processing and database management lead me to these conclusions. 

When you run a report in Family Tree Maker that software clogs your database with links and generated data and it remains there until you purge all that "crap". 

Because my database has grown large and unwieldy, I am in the process of separating my family tree into multiple lineages. I copied my existing tree into a separate tree and began deleting branches. After deleting several thousand individuals I attempted to run the Extended Family Chart and it did not successfully complete. So I compacted that new tree and received this message.


Wonderful, I thought, problem solved. So I again clicked Publish and selected the Extended Family Report. Immediately FTM began running the report. It  does that every time and does not allow you, the user, the opportunity to tailor that report for this specific run. No you don't need to do a thing because FTM knows better than its users and it just takes off running. Eventually it came to a stop and I clicked on the little box on the right that says Include All Individuals.


That is all you need to do because again FTM does what it wants, regardless of your needs.  FTM again immediately began processing. So I again allowed FTM to do what it wants and waited. Coffee, a tv show and many games of solitary later I got this message.  


How disappointing! Yes, good old FTM failed me - again! This is getting to be a habit with this software. So I thought that the only thing that has happened is that the database is corrupted. So I will compact it, once more.


 And the result is that I am now in a wild loop. Compact, run a report, have the software blow up, and do it all over again. Because as one can see the running of the report reloads the database with debris when the report fails. 

  

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