Message dated 27/Feb/2008 from Ian Hartas.

Dear all,
   a long, long time ago I promised some updates to
the software used in the various UKBMD web sites.
Finally it's complete and the first two web sites
have been updated with it. Cheshire BMD and Yorkshire BMD
are the first two. The others will follow over the course
of the next week or two.

Here's a description of the changes and other updates that have been made.

Updates.
========
Various cosmetic changes have been made based on feedback
that I've had from the users of the multi-region search
results pages, e.g. the search results table background now
uses the same alternating coloured stripes as used in the
multi-region system.

The text on the various pages has been updated to account
for the additions mentioned below, adding extra instructions
and changing other wording as appropriate.

The text font used on the site was set to Arial. This is
a nice clean looking font, easy on the eye etc, but it
fails to distinguish well between capital "I" (eye) and 
lower case "l" (el) This is especially a problem in the 
North Wales region where many place names begin with "I" 
and "L".
So, the default font has been changed to Tahoma, which is of
similar size to Arial but has serifs on capital "I" (at least 
it does on Windows.)
Don't forget that font size is under your control -- look 
for the "Text Size" menu item, usually under your browser's 
"View" menu.

If you searched for John SMITH, the search results page 
would previously say "If you have not found the SMITH that
you are looking for..."
It has been enhanced to say "If you have not found the 
John SMITH that you are looking for..."


Additions.
==========
Church name changes :
In the original system the database could only
contain one name for each church. Over the years many 
churches have changed their names. The database has now 
been enhanced to account for this and list the correct 
name dependent on the year.
Note that not all the changes of the names have been
recorded yet, so some churches will not show their later 
names.

Forename instead of Initial:
Originally the instructions on the search forms said that
you could enter an initial if you knew it, however it 
actually allowed you to enter all or part of the first 
name. The search software has now been updated to search 
any of the forenames to match your choice. So for example 
if you now entered "rich" in the forename field, it would 
return both "Richard" and "John Richard".
As before, it does not matter if you use uppercase or 
lowercase.


New Summary page:
This is the major part of the set of updates.
In the old system the reference number in the search 
results pages was a link to a printable application form. 
This has now changed and the link now adds your choice 
to a summary page. As you continue searching the BMD site,
selecting more reference numbers, they too will be added 
to the summary page. On this summary page you will now be
able to see more clearly all your entries of interest, 
hopefully building up a family group. The reference 
numbers on this summary page are now the links to the
printable forms.
The "Return to Searches" links should take you back to the 
previous page within the BMD site, even if you have used 
the option to remove items from your summary list.

These changes may seem like an overhead to start with, but 
they are done with a dual purpose in mind:
1) to add the new summary page
2) as a prelude to the next development which will allow 
on-line ordering of certificates.

I.e. the summary page will be the page through which you 
will be able to select items to add to your certificate
shopping basket. Note: only a limited number of offices 
will offer on-line ordering to start with.

Please note though that this will temporarily lead to an
inconsistency in the Multi-region output in that some of 
the reference numbers will link to the application form,
whilst others will add the entry to the summary page. 
As all the web sites are converted to the new software 
then this inconsistency will go.


Bug fixes.
==========
"Order By Reference" bug fix.
The search results output order was not truely "by 
reference" as it would incorrectly group items by region. 
This has been corrected so that the reference numbers 
are in a true alpha-numeric sort order.

"Output to file" name fix for Welsh version.
When using the Welsh language version of the North Wales 
site and selecting "Output to file" the file name that 
it created was a mix of English and Welsh. The file 
name should now be appropriate to the language -- note
that this will not be seen until the NWBMD site is updated.


Better handling of "&" in church and district names, 
especially in the output to file.
The ampersand character, "&", needs special handling 
in HTML and several inconsistencies have been corrected 
and the ampersand should now display correctly on screen 
and in the output to file options.


Extra Info.
===========
More detail on Forename.
Above it mentions that you can enter all or part of a 
forename during a search. In actual fact the system 
uses what is known as "regular expression" matching, 
so if you are familiar with "regex" construct
you can fine tune your search even further. For 
example entering
            [ea]lic
into the forename field will match all forenames that 
start with both Elic and Alic, such as Alice, Alicia 
or Elicia etc.


========================================

We have tested these changes as much as we
can on a variety of browsers and operating systems
to do our best that there are no faults in the updates
and it all works as specified. However, if you do spot
any glitches or have any other comments to make, please
make use of the Contact Us page on the main UKBMD site.

As always, all the sites such as Cheshire BMD and
Yorkshire BMD can be accessed from the "Local BMD"
menu on the main UKBMD site at http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/