NSW BDM online UPGRADE June 2014

[franh1946]

Phew, thanks JM who should be declared a National Living Treasure! Fran

[cando]

Phew, thanks JM who should be declared a National Living Treasure! Fran

I second that 

Cando

[Neil Todd]

Do I need to get a BIGGER SCREEN?

If I put in incorrect data (date) on a marriage search from - to.... The indignaton of the puter is such that after it warns me......the search button disappears off the bottom of my screen and cannot be scrolled down to.... where'd it go

Seems that it doesn't like me

  :'(neil

[franh1946]

No, Neil, there's definitely a problem with the configuration of the screen. In order to see the search button I have to reduce my screen so that I can hardly read the text, (elderly eyes) only then does the search button appear right over in the right hand corner. Why not closer to the enquiry box thingy's? Fran

[Dundee]

The new(ish) Qld BDM site has undergone lots of improvements since it was originally launched and hopefully this will be the same.  I can never comprehend why 'they' do these things without consulting with the people who are going to use the facility.

I am also wondering how anyone, including the Registry, is going to look for pre 1856 events on microfilm without being provided with the full reference number.  They are giving the volume number but not the line/event number - so you have to go through the whole film to find one event?  Wow, that seems just a little insane!  Perhaps that info is available in their system but 'hidden' to us, like the exact dates.  Doesn't help with ordering transcriptions though.

Debra 

[rondaf76]

I find it kind of amazing that someone, somewhere, has obviously been paid a decent sum of money to overhaul this site. You would think that there would have been extensive beta testing on various systems and getting authentic user groups to provide feedback.

[John99]

Today 22 July I received the following reply from the BDM
Registry to a 2 July 2014 complaint with reference to a
particular case where the June "upgrade" of the Marriage
Index made it no longer searchable without a spouse's given
or family name etc. (I was unaware of use of a wild card).

>Our technical team is currently investigating all the issues that have
arisen since the launch of our new system, no functionality  or searching
capabilities should of been lost. Issues regarding scrolling and missing
search buttons have been rectified.

Please note we have reintroduced the wild card * which can be used to
replace a person's name.  We will also be introducing soundex to our
records, therefore all records even ones that have slightly different
spellings will come up in results.

We are currently in the process of restoring the missing districts and
volume numbers on the results page. In regards to the date range we are
looking at changing the default to 'yes'. PDF's are being made available.
These are being updated regularly.

We have recently updated again so if you have our website as a  favourite
please up date your bookmark.

We could not keep the old site as it was no longer feasible to maintain.

On behalf of the Registry I apologise for the inconvenience caused,

Yours faithfully
Nicole
Client Service Officer

[majm]

Many thanks for that update....  I see it took less than three weeks for them to provide you with that info. 

I see their left hand still does not know what their right hand gets up to     Phew .... I wonder for how long     oh well, make hay while the sun shines 

We could not keep the old site as it was no longer feasible to maintain.

Old search engine still working (22 July 2014, about 11 a.m. NSW time)

Marriages http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/Index/IndexingOrder.cgi/search?event=marriages

Births and Deaths
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/Index/IndexingOrder.cgi/search?SessionID=46444574&event=births

Cheers,  JM

[mwg1]

I am disappointed this morning to find that the links to the old style searches have been redirected to the new web page. More disappointed that the performance/response does not appear to improved since the "upgrade" in June.

Mark