Custom Index

Overview

Custom Indexes are pages that contain a list of people who meet criteria you supply. Each name that appears in the list is a link to the person page entry for the given person.

You can use a Custom Index to display a list of people

who pass a flag filter,
or whose records have been edited recently,
or you can designate a person whose events are used to construct the contents of the list.

Custom Indexes are User Items and are added to the site via the User Items Section.

Edit Custom Index

The Edit Custom Index window controls the properties associated with a Custom Index.

Title

The Title property sets the title of the Custom Index. The Title will also appear in the menu or on the Custom Page where the link to the Custom Page appears.

Filename

The Filename property sets the filename for the Custom Index. Enter the filename only; Second Site determines the filetype based on other program settings. Second Site proposes a filename for new pages; accept that name or provide a more descriptive one.

See Menu on the User Items page.

Button Image

See Button Image on the User Items page.

Enabled

If Enabled is checked, Second Site will build the Custom Index the next time you make the site. If Enabled is unchecked, the index will not be created. For more information, see Enabled on the User Items page.

Description

See Description on the User Items page.

Index Type

The Index Type determines the general contents of the index. You can choose "List based on flag value(s)", "List based on Last Edited date", or "List based on person's events". Some properties vary based on which Index Type you choose. Those properties are described in the sections below.

Index on Flag Values

For lists based on flag values, you choose a flag field from the Flag pull-down menu. You can include or exclude people with multiple flag values. Choose either Include or Exclude, and then key the values to include or exclude in the Values textbox. Second Site will build a list of people who are members of the site and pass the flag filter.

Lists based on flag values are sorted by name.

Include Non-Primary Names

For lists based on flag values, if Include Non-Primary Names is checked, the index will include non-primary names for the selected people. Non-primary names will not appear if the site is limited to primary tags only and non-primary names are also subject to the name filtering rules for the main name index as described in the Names Section. Non-primary names are not included for people whose details are limited.

Group

For lists based on flag values, you may choose to include membership on a list as part of the person page entry. If you enter a value in the Group textbox, Second Site will include a link in the person page entry for every member of the custom index. The custom index links are grouped by the value of the Group property. This is an easy way to divide people into groups.

By default, the links will open the associated custom index. The optional Link HRef property works with the Group property and may be used to specify the HRef value for the link that is added to person page entries.

For framed sites, if you use the Group feature and you do not supply a URL, the link will open in the index (left-hand) frame. If you supply a URL, the link will open in the main (right-hand) frame.

By default, the link text will be the name of the Custom Index. You can specify different text using the Link Text property.

If the Add Target=Top is checked, Second Site will add a target="_top" parameter to the link. This parameter overrides the default target processing for framed sites.

Group Example

Some researchers divide their projects by their grandparents. If your grandparents had the surnames Doe, Jones, Smith, and Wilson, you could define 4 custom indexes, one for the members of each family. For each index, set the Group value to "Family". A member of the Doe family would have the value "Family: Doe" in his person page entry, a member of the Jones family would have the value "Family: Jones" in his person page entry, etc. Note that a person may be included in more than one index, and in this case, a member of the Doe and Wilson families would have the value "Family: Doe, Wilson" in his person page entry.

Groups and Framed Sites

If you use the Group feature and you supply a URL, the link will open in the right-hand frame of Side by Side sites. If you use the Group feature and you do not supply a URL, the link will open in the left-hand frame of Side by Side sites.

Indexes on Last Edited Date

For lists based on the Last Edited date, you may set a starting date using one of these methods:

Set Since to "Fixed Date" and choose a starting date using the day, month, and year pull-down menus.
Set Since to "Numbers of Days" and choose a starting date by specifying a number of days to count back from the date when the site is built
Set Since to "Numbers of Weeks" and choose a starting date by specifying a number of weeks to count back from the date when the site is built; each week is seven days
Set Since to "Numbers of Months" and choose a starting date by specifying a number of months to count back from the date when the site is built; each month is 30.4375 days

Set the maximum number of entries using the Max Entries textbox. Second Site will build a list of people whose TMG records have been edited on or after the starting date.

Lists based on the Last Edited date are sorted in reverse order by Last Edited date, and within that, by the name.

Indexes on a Person's Events

For lists based on a person's events, you supply the TMG ID of a person whose events will be used to construct the index. The person is typically not an actual person, but rather, a non-person who shares events with real people in your dataset. Every real person that you want in the index should share an event with the non-person, AKA the "index person".

Lists based on a person's events provide the most control over the content and formatting of the custom index, but they require more effort to construct than the other methods.

Second Site ignores the exclusion status of the index person when it builds the custom index. The index person should be excluded from the site to avoid having the same events in both the custom index and in a person page entry. If the index person is part of the Excluded Deceased group, Second Site will treat the index person as Included Deceased. Similarly, if the index person is part of the Excluded Living group, Second Site will treat the index person as Included Living.

See the People Section for more information about filter groups.

I recommend using a custom tag as the basis for a custom index. Here's one suggestion for how to define the tag. This approach uses roles in such a way that you make both the index person and the real person principals in the event. You can choose whether or not the event is rendered in the narrative of the real person based on which role you choose.

Add a new tag named "IndexEntry". Put it in the "Other" group.
Add a role "NonPerson" with the sentence:
<[R:PersonShow]><[R:PersonHide]> <[M]>[:CR:][:CR:]
Add a role "PersonShow" with the sentence:
[P] <[M]>
Add a role "PersonHide" with the sentence:
--

When you add IndexEntry events, make the index person one of the principals and assign the index person the role "NonPerson". Make the actual person a principal and assign either the role "PersonShow" (if you want the event to appear in the actual person's narrative) or "PersonHide" (if you don't want the event to appear in the actual person's narrative).

This is only one example; there are may other ways to define the IndexEntry events, and other ways to use the "List based on person's events" feature.