The Family Archive application is designed to be a user-friendly solution for navigating the large archive of records (documents, photos, videos, ...) that have been accumulating for about a century. The previous repository for these records was a number of shelves of boxes containing, film, video tape, audio tape, dvds, and paper documents in my house. These records have now been digitized and uploaded to Microsoft's Azure Cloud Storage. The records are indexed in a database, also deployed to the Microsoft Cloud. FamilyArchive is the web application that allows you to search through the database and view them.
Family Archive is accessed through the login page ("Login to Archive" link located at top right of the navigation bar). You must provide a valid email address and password. After logging into the portal you will be directed to a page that defaults to the image tab of the application. The other types of records (videos, audios, and documents) are accessed by selecting the tabs in the top navigation bar.
Family Archive has a consistent, simple layout. On the right side of the page there is a scrollable list of available records. Each entry in the list shows the metadata for the record (date, location, description). The content is displayed in the center of the page. When hovering over a record in the list a thumbnail is displayed, as well as the tags of the people associated with the record. Clicking on the list displays the full-size record. On the left side of the page are tools to search for records, add and delete tags, add/modify/delete people, add/modify/delete records, and validate the archive. The image page has an additional feature: clicking on a displayed image produces a fullscreen display. The images can be paged by using the arrows on the edge of the fullscreen. Clicking again on the fullscreen returns to the image page. A more detailed description of the web version of the Family Archive can be found here.
There is also a downloadable version of Family Archive that runs on a pc or notebook computer as a Windows application. When this is downloaded the application will be placed in the 'HP Inc' folder of the Start Menu (the button located in the bottom left corner of the screen). The main difference betwee the web and Windows applications is that the latter allows you to backup the entire FamilyArchive database and content in a location of your choice. A tutorial for the Windows version of Family Archive can be found here.