feat: Preserve separate GEDCOM NOTE records through roundtrip

[isaacschepp]

What and why

Multiple GEDCOM NOTE records on a person/family were concatenated into a single Notes string during import. On export, they became one NOTE with CONT lines. Content was preserved but record boundaries were lost (queen: -7 notes, habsburg: -76 notes).

The fix

New NoteList type ([]string) replaces Notes string on all 10 entity types. Import appends separate notes instead of concatenating. Export emits each note as a separate GEDCOM NOTE record.

NoteList type

Custom YAML marshal/unmarshal ensures backwards compatibility:

• notes: "single string" unmarshals to NoteList{"single string"} (existing archives work)
• notes: ["first", "second"] unmarshals to NoteList{"first", "second"} (new multi-note)
• Single-element lists serialize as scalar strings (no visual change in YAML)
• Multi-element lists serialize as YAML sequences

Scope

28 files changed, 295 insertions, 124 deletions. The NoteList type is 70 lines (including 10 tests). The rest is mechanical: string concatenation replaced with append, string comparisons replaced with .IsEmpty(), string reads replaced with .String().

Related issues

Fixes #487

Testing

• 10 new NoteList tests (marshal, unmarshal, roundtrip, string, isEmpty)
• All existing tests pass with mechanical updates
• Full test suite: go-glx + glx both pass

Breaking changes

None for existing archives. notes: "string" continues to work. The Go API changes from string to NoteList but the YAML representation is backwards compatible.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR aims to preserve distinct GEDCOM NOTE record boundaries through an import → YAML → export roundtrip by replacing the single Notes string field with a multi-value NoteList across the GLX data model, while keeping YAML backwards compatibility.

Changes:

• Replace Notes string with Notes NoteList on core entity types and update call sites (append, emptiness checks, string rendering).
• Add NoteList YAML marshal/unmarshal logic plus unit tests for backwards-compatible scalar-vs-sequence YAML representations.
• Update GEDCOM import/export and related tests to use the new NoteList type.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 28 out of 28 changed files in this pull request and generated 10 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
go-glx/types.go	Switch entity Notes fields from string to NoteList and update content checks.
go-glx/note_list.go	Introduce NoteList with custom YAML marshal/unmarshal and helper methods.
go-glx/note_list_test.go	Add unit tests for NoteList YAML behavior and helpers.
go-glx/gedcom_source.go	Update source import to store notes as NoteList instead of concatenated strings.
go-glx/gedcom_shared.go	Update event detail extraction to append note entries.
go-glx/gedcom_repository.go	Update repository import to store notes as NoteList.
go-glx/gedcom_media.go	Update media import to store notes as NoteList.
go-glx/gedcom_integration_test.go	Adapt integration tests to consume NoteList via .String().
go-glx/gedcom_individual.go	Update individual import and census note attachment to append note entries.
go-glx/gedcom_import_test.go	Update import tests to expect NoteList rather than strings.
go-glx/gedcom_family.go	Update family import to store relationship notes as NoteList.
go-glx/gedcom_export.go	Update HEAD export to use NoteList for metadata notes.
go-glx/gedcom_export_test.go	Update export tests for NoteList-typed notes.
go-glx/gedcom_export_source.go	Update source export to use NoteList for NOTE emission.
go-glx/gedcom_export_roundtrip_test.go	Update roundtrip tests to expect NoteList in metadata.
go-glx/gedcom_export_repository.go	Update repository export to use NoteList for NOTE emission.
go-glx/gedcom_export_person.go	Update person/event/citation export note handling to use NoteList.
go-glx/gedcom_export_media.go	Update media export note handling to use NoteList.
go-glx/gedcom_export_family.go	Update family/relationship export note handling to use NoteList.
go-glx/gedcom_export_family_test.go	Update family export tests for NoteList notes.
go-glx/gedcom_evidence.go	Update citation/source note handling to append note entries.
go-glx/gedcom_converter.go	Update header conversion to append multiple notes into NoteList.
go-glx/gedcom_comprehensive_test.go	Update “has notes” checks to use IsEmpty().
go-glx/diff_test.go	Update diff tests to use NoteList for notes comparisons.
go-glx/census.go	Wrap census-template string notes into NoteList for created entities/assertions.
go-glx/census_test.go	Update census tests to read notes via .String().
glx/analyze_runner_test.go	Update analysis tests to use glxlib.NoteList.
glx/analyze_evidence.go	Update analysis logic to treat notes as NoteList (IsEmpty/String).

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (4)

go-glx/gedcom_export_person.go:167

• person.Notes.String() collapses a multi-note NoteList into a single GEDCOM NOTE record, which defeats preserving separate NOTE records. Consider iterating person.Notes and emitting one NOTE subrecord per entry (and only fall back to Properties["notes"] when the list is empty).

	// NOTE - check both struct field and Properties map
	noteText := person.Notes.String()
	if noteText == "" {
		if propNotes, ok := person.Properties[PropertyNotes].(string); ok {
			noteText = propNotes
		}
	}
	if noteText != "" {
		record.SubRecords = append(record.SubRecords, &GEDCOMRecord{
			Tag:   GedcomTagNote,
			Value: noteText,
		})
	}

go-glx/gedcom_export_person.go:461

• event.Notes.String() collapses multiple notes into a single GEDCOM NOTE record. If NOTE record boundaries must be preserved on export, emit one NOTE subrecord per note in event.Notes (and only use the Properties fallback when the list is empty).

	// NOTE - check both struct field and Properties map
	eventNoteText := event.Notes.String()
	if eventNoteText == "" {
		if propNotes, ok := event.Properties[PropertyNotes].(string); ok {
			eventNoteText = propNotes
		}
	}
	if eventNoteText != "" {
		record.SubRecords = append(record.SubRecords, &GEDCOMRecord{
			Tag:   GedcomTagNote,
			Value: eventNoteText,
		})
	}

go-glx/gedcom_export_family.go:404

• event.Notes.String() collapses multi-note events into one GEDCOM NOTE record. If roundtrip fidelity requires preserving multiple NOTE records, emit one NOTE subrecord per entry in event.Notes (and only fall back to Properties["notes"] when the list is empty).

	// NOTE - check both struct field and Properties map
	famEventNoteText := event.Notes.String()
	if famEventNoteText == "" {
		if propNotes, ok := event.Properties[PropertyNotes].(string); ok {
			famEventNoteText = propNotes
		}
	}
	if famEventNoteText != "" {
		record.SubRecords = append(record.SubRecords, &GEDCOMRecord{
			Tag:   GedcomTagNote,
			Value: famEventNoteText,
		})
	}

go-glx/gedcom_export_test.go:469

• Export tests updated here still only cover the single-note case. Since the PR’s goal is preserving separate GEDCOM NOTE records, add a test where Notes has 2+ entries and assert that the exported record contains multiple NOTE subrecords (one per note), rather than one NOTE with CONT lines.

	repo := &Repository{
		Name:       "National Archives",
		Address:    "700 Pennsylvania Ave NW",
		City:       "Washington",
		State:      "DC",
		PostalCode: "20408",
		Country:    "USA",
		Website:    "https://www.archives.gov",
		Notes:      NoteList{"Main facility"},
		Properties: make(map[string]any),
	}

	record := exportRepository("repo-1", repo, expCtx)

	assert.Equal(t, "@R1@", record.XRef)
	assert.Equal(t, GedcomTagRepo, record.Tag)

	// Check subrecords
	var foundName, foundAddr, foundWWW, foundNote bool
	for _, sub := range record.SubRecords {
		switch sub.Tag {
		case GedcomTagName:
			foundName = true
			assert.Equal(t, "National Archives", sub.Value)
		case GedcomTagAddr:
			foundAddr = true
			// Check address subrecords
			var hasCity, hasState, hasPost, hasCountry, hasAdr1 bool
			for _, addrSub := range sub.SubRecords {
				switch addrSub.Tag {
				case GedcomTagAdr1:
					hasAdr1 = true
					assert.Equal(t, "700 Pennsylvania Ave NW", addrSub.Value)
				case GedcomTagCity:
					hasCity = true
					assert.Equal(t, "Washington", addrSub.Value)
				case GedcomTagStae:
					hasState = true
					assert.Equal(t, "DC", addrSub.Value)
				case GedcomTagPost:
					hasPost = true
					assert.Equal(t, "20408", addrSub.Value)
				case GedcomTagCtry:
					hasCountry = true
					assert.Equal(t, "USA", addrSub.Value)
				}
			}
			assert.True(t, hasAdr1, "missing ADR1")
			assert.True(t, hasCity, "missing CITY")
			assert.True(t, hasState, "missing STAE")
			assert.True(t, hasPost, "missing POST")
			assert.True(t, hasCountry, "missing CTRY")
		case GedcomTagWww:
			foundWWW = true
			assert.Equal(t, "https://www.archives.gov", sub.Value)
		case GedcomTagNote:
			foundNote = true
			assert.Equal(t, "Main facility", sub.Value)
		}

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[isaacschepp]

All 10 Copilot items addressed in 7280f2c:

Export fixes (6 threads) — All 8 export files now loop over NoteList and emit one GEDCOM NOTE subrecord per note instead of collapsing with .String(). Affected: gedcom_export.go (metadata), gedcom_export_person.go (person, event, citation), gedcom_export_source.go, gedcom_export_repository.go, gedcom_export_media.go, gedcom_export_family.go.

Stale comments (3 threads) — "Combine notes" changed to "Collect notes" in gedcom_source.go, gedcom_repository.go, gedcom_media.go.

UnmarshalYAML empty handling (1 thread) — Explicit *n = nil for empty scalar nodes.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 28 out of 28 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 28 out of 28 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

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