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DerekR
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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Location: Hawick, Scotland
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 Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject: The CWGC - what have they done? |
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The CWGC - what have they done?
Checking for a casualty on the CWGC website tonight and I was confronted with an error.
The link to their SEARCH facility has moved and more importantly, the links to a particular soldiers entry in their database have been wholly changed. In fact, as I look at it, the links to an individual entry are just undecipherable.
Not good, in fact it's a bit of a disaster.
An example:
Walter Sutherland was:
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=513192
He is now:
http://www.cwgc.org/Search-Result.aspx?t=ca&q=R%2fghOaIowKtl0TxbHoopnDpjYjtk%2bx%2fq7xLmnN6oY%
2bGdXFZyKmqavhhx8eImXCitvMqaHZAp0VFmYqN3PX%2fyXrQ
d0gy0powzQt72ldh4lVDwi70j6b26qHVGJ9duqxpg8vqwD%2bV%2fs
YdIurV8jjUxWJ4GNN%2f2euRZRJBvOlT8sSA%3d#a2
The new URL appears to rely on a session variable, which expires when you leave the site so basically any previous link you've save to an individual record is now rendered void.And I'd suspect that this now makes Geoff's search engine null & void as well.
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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.
Last edited by DerekR on Mon Sep 07, 2009 6:44 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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David McNay
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
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Location: Lanarkshire, Scotland
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| Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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Nice to see them not add any additional search options.
Looks terrible. |
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DerekR
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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Location: Hawick, Scotland
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| Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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Why did they change then?
At a stroke I've lost over 1100 individual links for NO benefit I can see.
Why?
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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear. |
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spoons
Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 4991
Location: St John's Town of Dalry
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| Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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| send them a mail and ask? |
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kinnethmont
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1649
Location: Aberdeenshire
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dhubthaigh
Our first ever 1000-poster
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 5071
Location: Blairgowrie, Perthshire
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:57 am Post subject: |
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| Oh boy - that's not good. Geoff, as others, must be gutted - a lot of work down the tubes. |
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DerekR
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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Location: Hawick, Scotland
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:30 am Post subject: |
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The unique casualty identifiers still appear to be there - but buried from prying eyes.
Thankfully there is a quick one button way to change hyperlinks in the MS Access program so all is not lost.
However the sysytem is more cumbersome than previous. 
I've identified that there is a bug on the "Wellogate" entry if I search in the "Cemetery" list. It only allows me to see the first 30 entries.
Has anyone else identified a bug?
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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear. |
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David McNay
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
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Location: Lanarkshire, Scotland
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:21 am Post subject: |
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| The CWGC posted on their Twitter feed that the site had technical problems today - although I don't think that means they'll be fixing the search engine. |
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Adam Brown
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 7312
Location: Edinburgh (From Sutherland)
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:25 am Post subject: |
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I'm not impressed with the changes. OK it was looking dated and needed a revamp but as David points out why no extra search facilities, if Geoff's SE can do it why can't they? A search by exact date or by month like the SNWM would have been a great help.
Adam |
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kinnethmont
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1649
Location: Aberdeenshire
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:48 am Post subject: |
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I am aware from CWGC that their staff are also suffering as we are with their systems down this morning. They are also watching and waiting.
Geoff's search did not work with the latest CWGC data. The data used was very much dated and a check on CWGC still had to be made to verify if someone was missing.
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Jim
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
www.kinnethmont.co.uk |
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David McNay
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Location: Lanarkshire, Scotland
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:13 am Post subject: |
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| kinnethmont wrote: | They are also watching and waiting.
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What are they waiting for, do they want to see how many people they can annoy with this?
Their attitude frustrates me. They must know that their search facility is flawed, and they must know it can be improved upon, and yet they do nothing about it. |
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kinnethmont
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1649
Location: Aberdeenshire
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:33 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I am aware from CWGC that their staff are also suffering as we are with their systems down this morning. |
That related to the links problems related by Derek.
The search facility is another issue. The search results can be sorted now which is an improvement.
The database is not there purely to aid our research as far as the searching of it goes.
It appears the geeks who created the changes have a major site / database problem to sort out.
_________________
Jim
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
www.kinnethmont.co.uk |
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Adam Brown
Curator
Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 7312
Location: Edinburgh (From Sutherland)
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:15 am Post subject: |
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| kinnethmont wrote: | | The search facility is another issue. The search results can be sorted now which is an improvement. |
This was a function on the old database but it wasn't as obvious as it is now.
| kinnethmont wrote: | | The database is not there purely to aid our research as far as the searching of it goes. |
That's the key to this really. We're very lucky we've got the database at all so as much as we'd like improvements there is no onus on the CWGC to provide them.
Adam |
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kinnethmont
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1649
Location: Aberdeenshire
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:27 pm Post subject: CWGC database search " Normal service is resumed " |
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It is now a case of " as you were " with the CWGC database.
I hope not many have panicked and changed links, etc to the pdf files. No doubt the changed set up will return at some future date in some form or other, hopefully working properly from the outset.
_________________
Jim
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
www.kinnethmont.co.uk
Last edited by kinnethmont on Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:23 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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David McNay
Administrator
Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 11425
Location: Lanarkshire, Scotland
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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I suspect they have simply "rolled back" to the previous version while they fix some of the glitches, and that their "new, improved" version will return in due course.
And of course, no sign of any kind of comment, either on the issues raised or the lack of any additional search facility.
Poor show, CWGC. |
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