Introduction
The Gramps opensource genealogy software allows you to export your family tree as a static html website, this tutorial will demostrate how to use the Gramps CLI, Github, Github Pages and Github Action Workflow to automate part
What are the benefits of doing this?
Free website hosting on Github Pages
Benefits of using Githubs source control system
Version history you can restore from if needed
You can check in a GEDCOM file and it will build and publish the website for you
Creating a Github Repository
Log into your github account and create a new repository
Give your repository a name, give it a description if you want, click Public, tick Add a README.md file, click Create Repository
For reference you can view this repository here
https://github.com/alexlaverty/gramps
Enable Github Pages
Now we’ll enable the ability for this repository to host a simple static html website by enabling Github Pages, In your repository click Settings
In Settings, click Pages, for Branch select Main, click Save
Take note of the URL for your Gramps website
Git Clone Your Gramps Repo
Click the Code tab, click the green Code button, copy the repository URL
Open a terminal on your workstation and clone the repo, you will need to have a git client installed :
git clone <https://github.com/alexlaverty/gramps.git>
Cloning into 'gramps'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 3, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Export Your Gramps Family Tree as a GEDCOM File
Open up Gramps application and export your family tree as a GEDCOM file into your cloned gramps repository
In the Gramps application click Family Trees -> Export
Click Next
Select GEDCOM, click next
Click Next
For name enter gramps.ged, for the folder destination select the gramps github repo we cloned in the previous steps, click next
Click Apply
Verify the destination of the gramps export and click
close
Create A Github Actions Workflow Config
Now we will create a Github Workflow, the purpose of which, is it will trigger a build on checkin and compile the Gramps Narrated Website, the build will run on a ubuntu linux server inside a docker container that has gramps installed in it, the website will be generated via the Gramps CLI.
Inside your gramps repo folder, create the following folders and a yml config file.
.github/workflows/gramps.yml
Save the following Github Action Workflow config into the gramps.yml file