230 replies to this topic

[geoff501]

I've now added some proper page linking. You should be able to move between pages quicker since the data is cached on the server, after the initial search.

The page limit is set at 1000 records, there is no real technical reason for this, so it could be increased if there is a demand.

I hope to be able to add sorting later, at least on name, possibly by date.

The microsoft IE page refresh problem is still there - I've not looked in detail but it may not be so easy to fix :-(

Any suggestions, please don't be shy, you can ask ( so long as you are not Dick Cheney).

India was added yesterday; the index now covers around 675,000 (and is likely to increase!)

geoff

[geoff501]

Excellent addition to the ranks of search tools, unfortunately today I am getting this message when I try to return to the hits summary, is it just me or has a small problem occured, on refreshing the list does reappear but very slowly,thanks.

John

Warning: Page has Expired The page you requested was created using information you submitted in a form. This page is no longer available. As a security precaution, Internet Explorer does not automatically resubmit your information for you.

To resubmit your information and view this Web page, click the Refresh button.

I have added PREVIOUS and NEXT links to navigate between the results summary pages. If you use these (or the numbered  page links) rather than the browser back button you won't get page expired messages when returning to the first page

But there is still one outstanding problem. If you select a link to a CWGC record from the first page, you get the refresh message after using the browser back button to return to the search result page. However if you have previously pressed the PREVIOUS page link, you will not get the refresh request. Opera seems OK. IE and Firefox have this problem. Not sure how to fix it.

Reports of any problems would be most welcome.


geoff

[cmf]

There am I showing a Rgtl Museum Curator how great the site is, and pick out of the air 28294, Pte Charles King, 11th Border, KIA 10th July 1917, to search for using various terms - and guess what, not a sausage, egg on my face , and bizare considering with similar search terms, 28296, Pte Stanley Gordon King, 11th Border, KIA 10th July 1917, appears!

Chris

[hywyn]

Geoff

Re this Refresh Page problem that you say is outstanding.

I've had a 'look around' the Canadians etc this afternoon and I found that:

Where the results come on only one page, if you hit the PREVIOUSNEXT before
selecting a record then the browser back button will then bring you staright back to the result page rather than that refresh business.

I'm using Windows IE.


Clear as mud eh!

Hywyn

PS
Like everyone else I am still mightily impressed and have found loads that I would not have otherwise. Thanks.

[geoff501]

There am I showing a Rgtl Museum Curator how great the site is, and pick out of the air 28294, Pte Charles King, 11th Border, KIA 10th July 1917, to search for using various terms - and guess what, not a sausage, egg on my face , and bizare considering with similar search terms, 28296, Pte Stanley Gordon King, 11th Border, KIA 10th July 1917, appears!

cmf,

Alway happens to me when I demo software, especially mine   If you look in my help file, wherein it is written, on whatever it is they write on:

Please note, the index currently only holds units that have an additional info field (around 657,000 in total)

(should have written records rather than units)


Name: KING, CHARLES
Initials: C
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Border Regiment
Unit Text: 11th Bn.
Date of Death: 10/07/1917
Service No: 28294
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Memorial: NIEUPORT MEMORIAL


Name: KING, STANLEY GORDON
Initials: S G
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Border Regiment
Unit Text: "D" Coy. 11th Bn.
Age: 20
Date of Death: 10/07/1917
Service No: 28296
Additional information: Son of Selina King, of The Bakery, Marks Tey, Colchester, and the late Albert King.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: I. K. 57.
Cemetery: COXYDE MILITARY CEMETERY

[geoff501]

I'm using Windows IE.
Clear as mud eh!

Hywyn,

Certainly is.
That is the quick fix I applied, which is also given in my helpfile. I think the problem is the previous page contains data posted in from a form. Microsoft think that everyone is running a shopping cart, so the refresh is to stop items being placed in you basket twice, or you paying megabucks to paypal twice.  Does not apply in my case (my results are free!), but I've not yet found an automatic fix. Must be one.

geoff

[MelPack]

Geoff

I am still enjoying the wonders of your cheeky little device!  

One way that I have found of getting around the IE refresh problem (it occurs on AOL as well) is when there is more than one page of results then go to the final page and work backwards. By the time the first page is hit then the problem disappears.

Is there anyway that the results could be delivered in alphabetical order?

Regards

Mel

[geoff501]

I am still enjoying the wonders of your cheeky little device!

Wot not norty?

One way that I have found of getting around the IE refresh problem (it occurs on AOL as well) is when there is more than one page of results then go to the final page and work backwards. By the time the first page is hit then the problem disappears.

What I've been trying to say all along; if you press PREVIOUS when you are on the first page, or select page 1 from the
page links before following a CWGC link then you're OK.

Is there anyway that the results could be delivered in alphabetical order?

Mel, it's planned.

geoff

[Ken MacLean]

Well Done Geoff!

Just found your engine early this morning and look forward to using it regularly.

May I suggest that the search block currently labelled 'Regiment number' be renamed 'Regimental number' ? The current lable could result in people searching there with Battalion, Regiment etc. numbers.

Cheers, Ken
Orleans, Ontario

[geoff501]

May I suggest that the search block currently labelled 'Regiment number' be renamed 'Regimental number' ? The current lable could result in people searching there with Battalion, Regiment etc. numbers.

Ken, Thanks for the comments. There's room for improvement yet. I think you are right there is a possibility of misunderstanding, but Service number might be a better choice. Whatever, its impossible to get users to do what it says on the help page.
OK own up, who just searched for 19Th London

[museumtom]

I am still your No 1 Fan Right!! geoff? Any chance of the navy and the Mercantile Marine being added and especially the casualties of the Lusitania?
Kind regards.
Tom Burnell... official No 1 fan!!

[geoff501]

Tom, You are No 1 fan - its official!
Some of these records will already be in my index but you cannot find them since the unit text (ship/Bn/Bty/ etc) field has not yet been indexed. Might take some effort since the data in this field, unlike the Regiment which is highly regimented (no pun intended), seems to be entered manually and has some variations (would you believe around 47,000 for UK alone). However I'm working on it

[geoff501]

Just updated with some unit text search options (battalion, ship etc)
It's not perfect and if you've been following Steve's Master Class, you will know all search engines are stupid. This one is no different.
When entering text in the Unit Text field don't use double quotes or full stops. And entering less text is usually better than too much.

Some typical inputs are:

2nd bn
2nd/4th bn
lusitania
queen mary
129th bty

It helps if you know what text is likely to be in the record field, but there are many varations. For this reason it is not (yet) possible to get exact matches. A search on 4th bn will also find 14th bn and 1st/4th bn  etc.

Tom -  you can now search on Lusitania - but the index still only holds around 60% of the records, so you will not find them all. There is also a data entry error, if you search on LUSITAMA you will find it. (there may be more)

Just remember Keep it simple, all search engines are stupid (K-I-S-A-S-S), bet that does not get past the censors

Note: only available on UK regiments at the moment. Ill add others as soon as possible.

geoff

[museumtom]

hello again Geoff.
I entered HMS into the unit box and the place I was looking for and I got 6 hits all in the Navy. Have you any suggestions on other prefixes I should put into the unit box to get Navy hits?
I just thought I would add that I did have a problem that when I got the results page, clicked on the name and got that result that I could not return to the results page. I sorted this by doing a search and when the Results page came up I saved it to my desktop and used the saved page to click on names. Problem sorted. I am still having great fun with your search engine.
Regards.
Tom

[geoff501]

hello again Geoff.
I entered HMS into the unit box and the place I was looking for and I got 6 hits all in the Navy. Have you any suggestions on other prefixes I should put into the unit box to get Navy hits?
I just thought I would add that I did have a problem that when I got the results page, clicked on the name and got that result that I could not return to the results page. I sorted this by doing a search and when the Results page came up I saved it to my desktop and used the saved page to click on names. Problem sorted. I am still having great fun with your search engine.

Tom,

If you want to find possible variations on Navy hits in a particular place, as you have already attempted,  try variations of :

HMS
H MS
HM S
H M S
HM
H M
SS
S S


In general void entering things like HMS or SS when searching a particular vessel. The actual data uses these several different forms which causes problems. Just enter the ships name, without quotes. If there are two vessels  of the same actual name, you'll have to sort manually.
Entering the ship name only will find all that are in the current index, except those with data entry errors (I've already mentioned LUSITAMA, there is also a HMS LUSI (unless this is another vessel, someone got fed up typing the data entry!)


Dots and quotes are not required, I stripped them out of the index.

It is probably going to be very difficult to build a correct index for this data. The original data entry varies so much for the same unit. There are about 10 variations of Lusitania, for example.


When you get the first result page, select the PREVIOUS link at the top of the page before you do anything else. It will fix some problems for you.


geoff

[liverpool annie]

Hi Geoff !

You're being recommended on quite a few Genealogy sites also ....... you're starting to get famous !

Congratulations !!    It's easy to use - even for dufusses like me .... I'm thrilled !

Annie  

[geoff501]

You're being recommended on quite a few Genealogy sites also ....... you're starting to get famous !

Impossible. Andy Warhol only promised me 15 minutes of fame, I've already appeared once in The Sunday Times.

[museumtom]

Geoff the beauty of your engine is that I can enter a placename and get hits or I can just enter a number and a name and get a direct hit. So much easier than the main site.
Official No 1 fan.
Tom.

[eyes]

Really first rate! One search, a hockey sock of results! (In Canadian, thats a lot!) Many thanks.

Colin

[Malcolm]

Geoff,
You Sir, are a genius. I now have five more names from my locality who are not on any Memorial here.
Keep up the good work, it is appreciated.
Aye
Malcolm

[SPotter]

One more fan!

Take a bow.

Steve

[geoff501]

You Sir, are a genius.

Malcolm, I don't know about that  

I now have five more names from my locality who are not on any Memorial here.

I'm pleased you have some results!

Keep up the good work, it is appreciated.

I will. Thanks.

geoff

[geoff501]

One more fan!

Take a bow.

Steve,

welcome aboard the stupid search engine.

I've just added sorting on surname (UK only). But no sub-sorting on forename or initials - I'm far too lazy for that.


geoff

[geoff501]

Another update. If you enter a regiment name, it is now checked against an official list. If there is no match or no partial match found in the list, the search will not proceed. There is a link from the main search page to the list. Thanks are due to Terry Denham for invaluable help in compiling this list. There are still a few updates to go into the list, which will be done as soon as possible.  There is no way yet to automatically select from the list and enter into the regiment field (you can use copy and paste). I ruled out using a drop down selector since the list would be rather cumbersome, at over 2000 items! I'll work on it
Unit database compilers might also be interested in this list for their work.

[geoff501]

This is a spin-off from my search engine activity; a breakdown of UK casualty by regiment/date on the Helles Memorial.
Might be of interest to some. It may not be 100% correct, but is, I believe, substantially correct.
http://www.hut-six.co.uk/GreatWar/regchart-helles.html