Tuell.Net

Kathy and I have attempted to make available as much data as possible about our ancestors. Those records include more than 6,000 individuals and 1,200 photos, and as yet uncounted documents, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous notes. I have combined this effort with an opportunity to learn more about content management systems, Web design and the various utilities for managing and posting media.

Drupal is the primary CMS application powering this site. It provides the framework for forums, blogs and other content. A previous incarnation was built using Wordpress, which works well and has an easier learning curve, but is not quite as flexible. These and a dozen or so other CMS apps are open source, and thus cost nothing.

I use Artisteer to create design templates. The Standard Edition costs about $130, and creates templates for seven different CMS apps. If you use WordPress, there is a more limited, Home Edition of Artisteer that costs only about $30.

Nested in the Drupal installation are two other apps — "Gallery2" for the photo gallery and "The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding" for all the genealogy data in The Catacombs area. Gallery2, also a free open source app, is integrated with Drupal by means of a module. TNG Genealogy costs $30, and also integrates via Drupal module.

TNG is really amazing, and a bargain for $30. It can import GEDCOM files from whatever genealogy client you use — we use Family Tree Maker. It builds on-the-fly charts and incorporates Google Maps to show the locations of births, burials, etc. It also allows users to build and download GEDCOM files. We still haven't fully utilized all its features.

TNG comes with eight design templates, but none are really conducive to integration with a CMS app. This means learning to do some editing of php and css files. You don't get much help from WYSIWYG Web editors, so you really have to figure out the source code. I've been tweaking TNG pages for months, but I haven't gotten the seamless look I'm hoping for. Yet.

FileZilla is my FTP application of choice. It's free, highly configurable, and it seems just as versatile as apps you pay for. Another free utility that comes in handy for editing source code is Notepad ++.

If you have questions or comments about our site or the applications that power it, don't hesitate to contact me either through the Contact Us link or directly at tom@tuell.net.

Tom Tuell