Family Tree Markup Language (FTML)
FTML is an XML grammar for defining Family Trees. It consists of a set of
HTML-like tags and attributes which define people, marriages etc. Like all XML
grammars, it is a simple, but powerful description language. FTML is a much
more modern data format than Gedcom and in FamilyTree utilises the Xerces XML
parser to read it.
Header
The header for an FTML document always reads:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE ftml SYSTEM "ftml.dtd">
The header is always followed by an <ftml> tag.
<ftml> tag
The <ftml> tag encompasses the entire document and is
simply:
<ftml>
people
[ marriages ]
</ftml>
Inside the <ftml> tag goes the <people>
tag and optionally the <marriages> tag.
<people> tag
The <people> tag groups a collection of people and is
simply:
<people>
person +
</people>
Inside the <people> tag goes one or more
<person> tags.
<marriages> tag
The <marriages> tag groups a collection of marriages and
is simply:
<marriages>
marriage +
</marriages>
Inside the <marriages> tag goes one or more
<marriage> tags.
<person> tag
The <person> tag represents an individual person and is
either:
<person attributes />
or
<person attributes>
[ born ]
[ christened ]
[ died ]
[ mother ]
[ father ]
[ page ]
[ census ]
</person>
The attributes of the <person> tag are:
id="id"
sex="male|female"
[ root="true|false" ]
surname="surname"
forenames="forenames"
Where id is a unique identifier for this person. root is
used in the browser to add this person as a "normal" root of the tree - if no
roots are given, a list will be built automatically.
Inside the <person> tag goes any of the
<born>, <christened>,
<died>, <mother>,
<father>, <page> and
<census> tags.
<born>, <christened> and <died> tags
These tags represent the significant points in a person's life. They all
have the same format:
<born date="date"
[place="place"]
[href="page"]
/>
<christened date="date"
[place="place"]
[href="page"]
/>
<died date="date"
[place="place"]
[href="page"]
/>
The href attribute is new in version 1.1 of FamilyTree. It allows
pages to be specified that appear on the pull-right menu of the tree-view. It
is useful for referencing documents like Birth Certificates.
<mother> and <father> tags
These tags represent the parents of a person. They both have the same
format:
<mother id="id" />
<father id="id" />
Where id is the unique identifier of another person.
<page> tag
The <page> tag represents the HTML page associated with
this person. It is simply:
<page href="page" />
Where page is the name of the HTML page to associate.
<census> tag
The <census> tag represents the inclusion of the person in
a particular census. It is has the following format:
<census year="year"
[place="place"]
[condition="condition"]
[age="age"]
[placeofbirth="birthplace"]
/>
<marriage> tag
The <marriage> tag represents the marriage between two
people. It is has the following format:
<marriage husband="id"
wife="id"
[date="date"]
[place="place"]
[href="page"]
/>
Where the id's are the unique identifiers of two people.
The href attribute is new in version 1.1 of FamilyTree. It allows
a page to be specified that will appear on the pull-right menu of the tree-view.
It is useful for referencing documents Marriage Certificates.
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