529andYou

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Tracks 23andMe Matches using a local database529andYou version 2.1.0.8 is a transitional version, providing legacy support for users still on the 23andMe "Old Experience" and providing limited support for "The New Experience". Many features in "The New Experience" are broken--these will be modified or removed once all users have been transitioned.

Substantial "New Experience" changes pose severe challenges for maintaining 529andYou functionality. It is no longer generically possible to glean all the information needed for storing a matching segment in 529andYou from the new DNARelatives DNA view chromosome browser nor from the downloadable aggregation file. At present, the only ways to store new matching segments into the 529andYou database are to 1) select a comparison in DNARelatives and rather than pressing the "Compare" button, click the "Compare into 529andYou" button that should appear below it or 2) Click the "Triangulate into 529andYou" button that appears below "Relatives in Common" on an "Open Share" matches' "Compare" page. Buttons on those pages with the 529andYou icon will open the 529andYou page. The small menubar icon that still opens the 529andYou page for "The Old Experience" users now instead refreshes the embedded 529andYou buttons when they go missing upon returning from the chromosome browser on the DNARelatives page. Please note that you do not need to visit the chromosome browser after clicking "Compare into 529andYou"--simply continue with your next comparison. Likewise, you do not need to page through "Relatives in Common". A single button press should triangulate all relatives for whom "Shared DNA" is marked as "yes" on all pages. Keep in mind that if you have just completed a comparison involving a new person, you will need to reload a fresh 529andYou page for that person's name to be selectable. Before performing a comparison, 529andYou now checks the local database and will not re-request the comparison if it has already been stored. For the "Compare into 529andYou" button on the DNARelatives page, this can be overridden by simultaneously pressing the Shift key.

Currently broken 529andYou features in "the new experience":
1. The ability to click on a person's name to visit their profile page
2. The ability to initiate comparisons from the 529andYou page (e.g., comparing two matches on a segment to one another)
3. The ability to import "the new experience" aggregation files
4. The "To-do" list

The following is from the 529andYou description for "the old experience":

This extension for 23andMe's Family Inheritance: Advanced tool (found under Ancestry Labs or, in the new beta website design, under My Results, Ancestry Tools) collects information about DNA matches that you view in a table (information is not collected when you view as a plot). This information is stored in a local SQLite database on your computer. The extension also places a small icon in the menubar of the table display page, and when you click this icon , a new page is generated where you can select the name of any person whose information is stored in the local database and produce a list of matching segments for that person, sorted by chromosome and position. All data currently stored in the local database can also be deleted from this page if desired.

Version 1.1 adds optional hyperlinks to the 23andMe profiles of matches, the ability to find segments that overlap with a particular matching segment and links to explore potentially informative overlapping matches by making new comparisons in Family Inheritance: Advanced. It also allows the local database size to grow beyond 5 Mb if needed.

Version 1.1.0.2 fixes a bug that sometimes allowed duplicate entries.

Version 1.1.0.4 fixes a sorting error bug for overlapping segments that matched only one of the two people on the segment.

Version 1.1.0.5 makes sorting in the "Show Matches of" list insensitive to upper versus lower case

Version 1.2.0.0 adds support for the new 23andMe navigation layout (while continuing to support the older version)

Version 1.3.0.0 supports legacy Build 36 data as well as new Build 37 data

Version 1.3.0.2 fixes a bug introduced in Version 1.3.0.0 where attempts to display all matches at once produced an error. It also now asks for confirmation before trying to create a match table with more than 5000 entries.

Version 1.3.0.3 fixes a bug where creating a new query table before the table from the preceding query had fully rendered would create an alert dialog referencing "Programming error 1"

Version 1.3.0.4 right justifies chromosome start and end positions, centimorgan measures and SNP counts in tables

Version 1.3.1.0 adds an option to choose "small text" (default) or "normal text". The small text option may fail to display button labels correctly on some platform, in which case "normal text" should be selected.

Version 1.3.2.0 adds an "Omit Aliases" checkbox. When checked, for matches who have changed their names, entries will appear only for the most recently added distinct name. Note that if a match has reverted to a name that they used previously, 529andYou will not recognize this as a new distinct name and will continue using the name that was most recent prior to the reversion.

Version 1.3.3.0 adds a "Download CSV" button for downloading a CSV file that can be loaded into spreadsheet programs like Excel and a "Download GEFX" button for downloading a file that can be imported into Gephi ( https://gephi.org/ ).

Version 1.3.4.0 adds a "Create 'To Do' Table" button for efficiently comparing owned profiles to any shares for whom the build 37 comparisons have not yet been stored in the local SQLite database.

Version 1.3.5.0 adds a checkbox "Don't display close relatives with more than 21 such segments" to prevent close relatives of the selected person from overwhelming the display of their other matches, especially when all chromosomes are displayed. It also fixes a bug in CSV exports of names containing commas, single quotes or double quotes.

Version 1.3.6.0 causes comparisons performed using the 'To Do' list buttons to always be opened in background tabs such that focus remains on the 529andYou tab. Note that hyperlinks elsewhere in 529andYou can be similarly opened in the background by middle mouse clicks on Windows platforms and by holding down the Command button while clicking on Macintosh systems.

Version 1.3.9.0 adapts to a slight format change introduced by 23andMe when Family Inheritance: Advanced was improved to allow comparison to five individuals simultaneously.

Version 1.4.0.0 adds the following new features:

Basic 1.4.0.0 Features:

1. Links are no longer offered for making new comparisons that cannot be successfully performed as a result of no longer sharing with one of the profiles. If you use a bookmark to access a 529andYou page directly without entering through the table view page of Family Inheritance: Advanced, this feature will be inactive until you visit the table view page of Family Inheritance: Advanced.

2. Clicking the "Download CSV" button while holding down the shift key will include 23andMe ID's in the downloaded CSV file.

Advanced 1.4.0.0 Features:

3. When showing overlapping segments, if the 529andYou page contains links to perform additional comparisons, a button labeled "Turbo Compare" will appear at the bottom of the list. Each time this button is pressed, up to five more of the displayed comparisons are simultaneously loaded in a new background page. The button self-disables when all comparisons have been initiated in this manner. If you have pressed the "Turbo Compare" button enough times to disable it, this is the same as having clicked on all the individual one-by-one comparisons.

4. When displaying the 'To Do' table, a button labeled "Turbo Compare" will appear at the bottom of the list. Each time this button is pressed, up to five more of the displayed 'To Do' comparisons are loaded in a new background page. The button self-disables when all displayed comparisons have been initiated in this manner. The buttons for initiating individual comparisons will remain enabled until the 'To Do' page is reloaded but buttons corresponding to comparisons already peformed using "Turbo Compare" do not need to be pressed again.

5. If the shift key is pressed while clicking the "Create Match Table" button, the text of the "show overlapping segments" buttons of the resulting table will be colorized to either red, which indicates that clicking on the button will reveal comparisons that have not been tested since the table was created, or blue, which indicates that no new un-run comparisons will be displayed. This colorization process is time intensive, particularly when the list is long, and clicking any of the buttons will not load a new page until all the buttons have turned from black to either red or blue. If you use a bookmark to access a 529andYou page directly without entering through the table view page of Family Inheritance: Advanced, comparisons that cannot be performed due to no longer sharing with someone will nonetheless result in red button text until you visit the table view page of Family Inheritance: Advanced.


Version 1.5 adds an "Import CSV" button, which will import either of two types of CSV files:

1. An "aggregation" file downloaded from Family Inheritance: Advanced from the same account (aggregations from a different account cannot be imported, and a profile name in the account must exactly match the profile name in the aggregation file).

Note that the imported segment start and end points in the aggregation file will be truncated to match what would be reported through normal use of Family Inheritance: Advanced table view to identify the segment.

Note also that 529andYou must be entered from Family Inheritance: Advanced to import an aggregation file (i.e., it cannot be entered directly using a bookmark or URL)

2. A 529andYou CSV file downloaded either by Shift-Clicking or Alt-Clicking the "Download CSV" button

Alt-Clicking the "Download CSV" button is a newly implemented option that includes "chromosome 100" matches that are used internally by 529andYou to track whether two people have been compared to one another. Whenever two people are compared in Family Inheritance: Advanced table view, a "chromosome 100" match is automatically generated. While it is recommended to simply copy the 529andYou database itself for backup purposes or for moving 529andYou to a different computer, creating a CSV file by Alt-Clicking the "Download CSV" button and then importing it using the "Import CSV" button is an alternative. Note that it can take several minutes both to download and to re-import a large database and that old aliases will be lost in the process.

If you already have 529andYou data, it is STRONGLY recommended that you back up your 529andYou database immediately before using either of the import options.

Version 1.6 adds the ability to store and display phase information and common ancestor information. A new display mode "Edit Phasing Information and Ancestors", adds modifiable widgets and fields for entering this information. The five new fields are meant to function as follows:

Phase: This field is intended to show the parent through whom the first listed person is related to the second listed person. The options and some examples for setting your own phase (assuming that your own name appears first) are:

? (unknown) anyone you don't have enough information to classify further

M (maternal) your mother or anyone to whom you are related through her but not through your father

P (paternal) your father or anyone to whom you are related through him but not through your mother

B (both) your descendants, your full siblings and their descendants, any double cousins to whom you are related through both parents

N (neither) false matches (usually less than 7 cM) who cannot be reconciled as coming from either parent

While you may ultimately conclude that a particular segment shared with someone to whom you are known to be related through both of your parents derives entirely from only one of your parents, it is recommended that you start with the B label for such people if your parents haven't been tested, even if Family Inheritance shows only a single strand match on the segment.

Label: Description truncated due to length restrictions

Match phase: This field is intended to show the parent through whome the second listed person is related to the first listed person. Please see the Phase field above for details.

Match label: This field allows you to enter a label that indicates something useful about how the second iisted person relates to the first listed person. Please see the Label field above for details.

Common ancestors: This field allows you to enter information about the most recent common ancestors for the two people who match. This field cannot include commas.

I initially found it easy to accidentally apply phase and match labels to the wrong member of the match, so you may need to be especially attentive to this until you become accustomed to the interface. Again, for your own matches, you want to set the phase and labels immediately following your own name to reflect which of your parents is (or, if untested, should be) related to your match. Triangulation with other matches may allow you to set your phase field even for matches with whom you haven't yet identified common ancestors. For any matches with whom you have not identified common ancestors, you will probably lack the information needed to set their phase field unless you also match one of their parents or unless the connection can be inferred through triangulation.

By default, these new fields are not displayed when the display mode is anything other than "Edit Phasing Information and Ancestors". This maintains backwards compatibility and minimizes clutter for those choosing not to use these new fields. To override this default, you the radio buttons on the line that starts with "Always display:" to select the category or categories of new fields that you want displayed (these will take effect the next time you display new information).

To avoid breaking compatibility with the current version of GenomeMate, the CSV file produced by clicking the "Download CSV" button with the shift key down does not save the new fields into the CSV file. The author of GenomeMate has kindly indicated that she will make changes to assure its ability to import matching segment data from an extended CSV format that includes the five new fields. Once an updated version of GenomeMate is available, an update for 529andYou will be released that saves the additional fields. The current version is already able to import both versions when using the "Import CSV" button.

The objective of the new 529andYou features is to provide a lightweight, in-browser capability for tracking phase and common ancestors for 23andMe data. Those looking for richer features in a standalone application that also works with FTDNA and GedMatch segment data may find GenomeMate (https://www.genomemate.org/) helpful.

Version 1.6.1.0 saves the new fields into the CSV file that is downloaded with the shift key down. The latest version of GenomeMate, released 15 Sep, 2014, supports this new format as well as the older one.

Version 1.6.1.2 fixes bugs where maternal phase was not correctly displayed when display mode was not set to "Edit Phasing and Ancestors" and "always display" phase was checked. It also fixes a bug in saving phase to CSV files.

All components of 529ndYou version 1.6.1.2 except the associated PNG image files and the javascript file FileSaver.js are hereby placed into the public domain. The FileSaver.js file is freely available through the X11/MIT license (see https://github.com/eligrey/FileSaver.js/ )

For more information, 23andMe users please see this thread: https://www.23andme.com/you/community/thread/16076/