Clooz Development Roadmap [14 April 2020]

It’s been nearly eight years since Clooz 3.0 was first publicly released in July 2012.   A steady stream of new features and capabilities in Clooz has continued since then.  Here are just a few of the highlights during the lifetime of Clooz 3:

  • Clooz 3.1 (2012) – Exchange people and sources with Legacy Family Tree databases
  • Clooz 3.2 (Feb 2013) – The Composite View (hierarchical display of documents & people)
  • Clooz 3.3 (Oct 2013) – Expanded Legacy Family Tree interface allowing Clooz documents to be exported to Legacy and create events for people in the Legacy database.   Media Location Tool for fixing broken media file links when moving to a new computer.
  • Clooz 3.3.5 (April 2014) – Imports from RootsMagic, The Master Genealogist and GEDCOM files were added.
  • Clooz 3.4 (Aug 2014) – Event exporting to RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, and other programs via GEDCOM files was added.
  • Clooz 3.5 (Oct 2015) – Import/Export capability with Family Historian. Improvements to the Composite view filtering and sorting capabilities.
  • Clooz 3.6 (July 2019) – Maintenance release fixing a number of minor issues.

Since 2014, we have been working on a total rewrite of the program to support more flexible development of document templates and use of document data.   Our original goal was to support both Windows and Mac OS X computers (without special virtual Windows environments).   Unfortunately, after years of effort we came to the conclusion that a Mac OS X version of Clooz was beyond our limited resources.   It remains possible that there may be a Mac OS X version further out in time, but for now, the initial implementation of version 4 is now focused entirely on Windows.   In the meantime, Clooz does operate fine on Mac computers under virtual Windows environments such as VMWare Fusion and Parallels.    Clooz 4 will require Windows 7, 8 or 10.

On December 1, 2019, the first developmental version of Clooz 4 was released for early testing to a small group of Clooz 3 users.   This developmental release was only a partial implementation of the full set of Clooz functionality required for official release.   It did however provide a glimpse of the new features we are very excited about, and it was well received by the testers.   We continue to invite current Clooz 3 users to join in this testing effort.  Send email requests to assistance@ancestralsystems.com if you are interested in receiving further information.  While these developmental versions are not yet ready for actual research use, it is a great way to have your feedback and ideas reflected in future releases.   Meanwhile, we will continue to add in the missing pieces and when the program is fully functional and tested, it will be officially released.

The list below describes our goals, and should not be considered a commitment.   It remains subject to change.

Test version 4.0.0.0 [released December 2019]

  • New document editor for both form-based and tabular formats, supporting all of the current document types as well as new templates such as for baptisms and additional census years
    • Spreadsheet type document templates for documents having tabular formats (e.g., censuses)
    • Form-based document templates for documents such as certificates
  • Embedded document viewer to assist in document transcriptions (zooming, panning)
  • Added ability to edit all of the summary data for a person while in the document editor
  • Data from previous Clooz versions (1.23, 2.1, 3) will upgrade to version 4

Test version 4.0.0.30 [May 2020]

  • Implement additional editing panels to extract event and family (parent-child) relationship information on a per-information record basis (similar to Clooz 3 document export process, however, now retained in the database along with each document record)
  • Finish the implementation of the Subject, Source, Repository tabs (supporting editors and composite view data content)
  • Add additional record templates  (e.g., obituary, will, estate settlement, military service)

Test Version 4.0.0.40 [July 2020]

  • Implement Research Planning screen and supporting editors
  • Implement Support panels
    • Database overview
    • Program Options
    • Help
  • Import/Export capabilities with Legacy Family Tree, RootsMagic, and Family Historian.   Data exchange with other programs such as Ancestral Quest and Family Tree Maker via GEDCOM.   These are already in version 3.

Test Version 4.0.0.50 [September 2020]

  • A new report generator providing more interactive settings and control by the user

Clooz 4 [Fall 2020]

  • Release of the production version having the full set of capabilities described above

Post Release [2021…]

Ideas under consideration for the future:

  • Tool for moving data from one template type to another (such as from a Generic Document to a new more specific document type)
  • Expansion of direct interfaces to other genealogical software
  • Import / Export capability to external spreadsheet files
  • Interfaces to online data repositories for finding and downloading document information
  • Integration with online services such as Dropbox for moving Clooz data between user systems
  • Additional new templates
  • Add ability to group document lists by geographic area
  • Improvements and new features to support interactive analysis of document content (assisting in the proper identification of people mentioned in a document, building of relationships between people)
  • Additional new reports and options for user customization
  • Versions of Clooz for mobile devices allowing retrieval of information and photographic capture of documents
  • Multi-language support
  • Ability for users to edit / create document templates
  • Ability for users to edit / create report formats

Have comments or suggestions?    Drop us an email at support@clooz.com