News and Comment on Orders of Battle.com

Oct

28

Site News 9

October 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Well, it’s been a quite few weeks on the research front as I have still not managed to get my new version of replication up and running yet so updates have been very slow.

I am very hopeful that I will be able to get replication up and running very soon. Please see my Tech-CRM blog for more info. 

However, I have updated the web site with a new version of the Corps Index page which allows users to query Corps by Nation, which should be more useful than the previous drop down box. Having listed the Corps records for a specific Commonwealth Nation, the user can then drill down on a specific Corps to see the unit records associated with that Corps.

Sep

11

Musings

September 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Well, it has been quite a while since I updated so it is high time I put some thoughts to paper.

I was at home for a month which was great but at the start of August I had to rush off to Germany at pretty short notice to start a new contract in Cologne. As a result of that, I did not have as much time to spend updating the website as I hoped, but as usual I have some source material with me.

It has been a difficult few weeks for updates both to this site and the Orders of Battle database for several reasons. Firstly I had to find a flat in Germany, get internet access sorted out and so on which obviously had a knock on affect on everything. I now have a flat sorted out and regular internet access which is great but obviously I am once again pretty busy at work.

On the Orders of Battle side of things, updates have been slow because once again I do not Replication working so updates via the internet to my database in Canada are very slow which is frustrating. Until recently, I also did not have FTP working either (I hate firewalls!) which meant that I could not upload the newest version of my web client software onto the my computers in Canada either.

Finally, as I explained on tech-crm.com, a storm in Canada and a badly-set BIOS setting caused my database server to go down and stay down for about a week and I could not fix it because it happened just at the time when I moved into the flat and had no internet access at all, which was a problem.

OK, enough of all this doom and gloom. FTP is now working so I can now upload new versions of the website and client software to the servers in Canada. I have also completed the new version of the windows client that I have mentioned before and I am now working on the web site and I have written a new version of the Corps Units Page so that one can select Corps by Nation and then click on the Corps to see a list of the Units associated with that Corps which I feel is an improvement. I am now working on adding the Unit Waves and Unit Districts pages to the Unit Data page. There is not much data on these new pages yet but I hope to do something about that soon.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get Replication working so I still have no convenient communication between my local database here and the master databases in Canada. In fact I have spent every evening for the last 5 days trying to get it working but I have totally failed so I am going to go ahead with my plans to write my own database “replication” architecture as I have mentioned before. Until that is complete, database updates will continue to be slow I am afraid. However, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the technical problems involved and I know how I will proceed so stay tuned.Â

Jul

16

Site News 8

July 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Well, its been a busy few days since I returned to Canada on the infrastructure front.

I have built a new PC which will serve as the web server once I can configure it which I have not yet done.

A few days ago, after making some changes to the master database, I noticed that the web database was completely empty! Somehow, the replication process has cleared out all the tables trying to make the changes to the web database. Oops!

Well, it took me a couple of hours but everything should be back to normal now.

I hope to start implementing some minor changes to the website soon, principally a slight resizing of the adverts on the right, adding new data pages for Unit Wave and Unit District tables and a few other minor things.

I have been quite busy over the last few months implementing a new version of my data input client, this is now complete with the exception of the odd bug (one of which I found this morning). I have also revamped and redesigned all my table sequences to resolve a few issues that I had been having with primary key generation but I won’t go into detail on that here.

The next step is to build a better replication/database integration system and to restart data input which has been on somewhat of a hiatus in the last few weeks.

On the plus side, I am now back in my library so I have access to a lot more source material.

Jul

1

Site News 7

July 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Regular visitors to the site might have noticed that there has been a lack of updates recently.

This is due to technical issues with Merge Replication whereby the machines have to be on the same domain to handle the permissions needed and as I am in Belgium at the moment and as I have had to rebuild my PCs here, that means that currently the machines here are not on the same domain as the db server so replication is not working right now.

I am returning home tomorrow so replication should be up and running by the end of this week.

In the meantime, I have been concentrating on completing the redevelopment of the windows client application that I use to input data into the database. I am happy to say that development is just about complete and the rewritten forms seem to be working well. I will deploy the new version of the application this week.

As a result of the server crash in May, the db server and the web server are currently running on the same machine. As I mentioned on tech-crm.com recently, I have ordered the components to build a new web server and I hope to build it later this week.

The next piece of the jigsaw to be revised will be the web site itself to incorporate the new tables and change the google adsense code. I hope also to modify the design of this blog to match the look and feel of the ordersofbattle.com website more closely. ¼/p>

Jun

9

Work continues on the new data input user iterface, but the last form which will handle the data input and update of Unit sub-tables, ie Unit History, Appointments, Subordinates etc is still not complete, but is getting there. The new form follows a new design paradigm that I have not tried before, but it should be completed in a week or two.

Progress had been delayed owing to personal commitments and the server crash which meant that I had to spend quite a bit of time restoring all the websites etc.

In addition, I have had to move flats and will be returning back to Canada soon so I am also back in the job market as well.

The next step once the windows user interface is completed will be to modify the web site to display the various new tables such as Unit Wave and Unit Wehrkreis which will allow much more flexible handling of the relationships between German units and the Wave(s) and Wehrkreis associated with them.

Once that is done, I am hoping to turn my attention to two things:

In the longer term, I also hope to write a version of the user interface that will work on a PDA so that I can fix data issues when I see them!

I am intend to modify the web site to have appropriate pictures and graphics in order to make the web site more attractive and interesting.

I also want to write more background pages on the history of the various Armies to provide a suitable overview and to replace some of the Notes in the State Notes pages.

On the data front, the current emphasis is as follows:

One of the problems I face with data input right now is that I do not have access to my library so I am limited in what I can input. Once I have returned home, I will have more scope.

With regard to the German Army in World War II, there is a lot of useful information around and being published, but many useful series of books are still incomplete or just getting started, so a lot of information is available for some units but not others.

There is a very useful book on the horizon - The German Army Order of Battle for World War II, 1939-1945 - by William T McCroden to be published by Savas Beattie, which promises a weekly order of battle for the Wehrmacht for the whole war, but according to the publisher, its publication date has been put back. Therefore I am holding off inputting Superior Units for German divisions until I have it.

Therefore, right now I am concentrating on just inputting German commanders and staff officers into the database.

In the fullness of time, I hope to start inputting information on French and Russian units for World War II, as well as Hungarian, Italian and Romanian units.

I am also gathering sources for the British, US and German Armies for World War I as well. I will probably start with the British Commonwealth Army to start with.

So, my path is laid out, and it is probably far too ambitious, but one should have a goal!!  Â

May

24

Well, it’s been a hectic few weeks and during that time, this web log has been off air owing to a server crash.

First off, many apologies for the down time, it has been very frustrating in that I wanted to spend the time getting the site back up, but lots of things seemed to get in the way.

My main objective was obviously to get my ordersofbattle.com website back up and then worry about the other websites.

For those of you who may be interested in what happened, please check out my Tech-CRM blog for more details.

Mar

24

Site News 6

March 24, 2008 | 2 Comments

Well, it’s been a while since I commented here and not much has changed as far as the website goes as I have been concentrating on reworking the Windows Forms application that I use to input data into the database. Needless to say, this has had an inpact on my data input activities.

I started off by just modifying some forms to add some additional fields and as is usual with me, it has turned into a complete rewrite of my data input application.

The application I use to input data was ported to VB.NET from VB 6 about 6-7 years ago and quite a lot of the forms have not been heavily changed since that time. I have basically rewritten all the forms and added several new ones to take advantage of some of the new controls in .NET Framework 2.0 . I have almost finished, I only have the Unit Details form left to do that inputs data for Unit records such as Appointments, History etc.

Once the forms are done, I will then be able to input new data such as Corps, Roles, Directorates etc much more easily without having to use SQL. The new forms will allow me to input Wehrkreis and Wave information for German divisions for example.

The next task will be to modify the web site to publish the new data.

On the data input side, I am concentrating on German Divisional commanders and I am now up to 20 or so. I am also continuing to work away at Pre-1881 British Line Infantry Battalions. I have also made a start on Australian Light Horse Regiment assignments.

I am also continuing to input Rifle Volunteer Corps records for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and I am not far off from finishing every battalion of the Regiment including ones for 1914-1918.

On the book front, I hope to order the first two books of Veit Scherzer’s new series on German divisions in World War II. I have seen some sample pages and they look like a great complement to Tessin.

I also remain on the lookout for additional World War II Army Lists.

Jan

17

Site News 5

January 17, 2008 | 4 Comments

Well, things have been a bit quiet on the website front over the last few weeks, but there has been some activity in the background.

Currently, I am somewhat busy making changes to the Windows client user interface to fix bugs that have accumulated and make the application easier to use. I use Visual Studio 2005 as my main development tool and I am currently upgrading the application to use some of the new controls that came in with VS 2005.

I also hope to migrate the application to Visual Studio 2008 in the not so distant future.

I am also porting my development environment and the local copy of my database to a new PC with better performance than my laptop so that is taking some time.

Once the local database is fully operational on the new PC and I have a working copy of my client application again, then I will resume data updates of the site.

Upcoming changes for the application are forms to create and update Corps records which will make it a lot easier for me to maintain Corps records. Once that is done, I will add new matching pages to the website.

I also hope to make some minor changes to the adsense layout formats as well. 

A little further down the queue are forms and pages to maintain/view Unit Districts and Unit Waves for German units.

Dec

10

Research Update 7

December 10, 2007 | 2 Comments

Have now finally completed German Mountain Corps staffs and commanders and have also recently completed the same activity for German Korpsabteilungen (Corps Detachments) which are listed on the database under Infantry Corps although they were of divisional size. I hope to complete Border HQs next before moving on to Division sized units.

That still leaves a number of Corps-sized HQs to input such as Befehlshaber and Militarbefehlshaber but I am going to check those in Tessin before I start inputting them.

On the Commonwealth front, I am working my way through British Regiments of Foot as a way of providing a brief overviews of the history of British Regular Battalions before 1881. I am creating entries for 2nd Battalions of these regiments where they existed for completeness sake, but I am going to try not to get bogged down on the various foreign and ephemeral regiments that existed during this period. I am currently on E.

Coming up for the Commonwealth are Regimental assignments for Australian militia cavalry and armoured regiments courtesy of David Ryan who kindly sent me the information.

I am also currently in the process of assigning all Commonwealth officer appointments to a Directorate. This assignment is not yet visible in the website but should be in the not too distant future.

All British staff officers at every level of Headquarters were members of a specific staff branch. Some of these officer appointments were further organised by Directorate.

I have created Branch and Directorate records which will be associated with every Commonwealth officer appointment. This is to allow officers to be listed in the Appointments Tab in a coherent and understandable fashion and to give an idea of what the officer actually did.

Commanders of various units were not actually part of a branch per se as they were responsible for all staff branches that reported to them, but I have created a “branch” for commanders so that they are grouped at the start of the list as is proper.

Where I don’t know the actual Directorate, the officer is assigned to a dummy directorate for the branch as a whole, i.e. “General Staff”.

All in all, this should make it easier when viewing appointments at the War Office or GHQ level.

On the US side, I have input commanders and basic information for 6th and 7th Infantry Divisions and hope to start the 8th Infantry Division soon. Unfortunately, units which served in the Mediterranean and Pacific Theatres of Operations do not have the same amount of information available for them as do officers in the European Theatre of Operations.ÂÂ

Nov

20

Research Update 6

November 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Have now completed entering details of the Battalions of the ten Gurkha Regiments and have made some progress cataloguing the war-formed Indian Regiments and Indian State Forces battalions.

As part of my ongoing effort to provide at least a brief overview of the evolution of the British Regiments, I have returned to listing the Pre-1881 Regiments of the Line whose battalions are listed with the Unit Type of “Foot”. This will allow users to trace the regular battalions of the line back to thir origins between 1688 and 1815.

At some point, I will also add the Irish Regiments that were disbanded in 1922.

On the German front, I am still stuck on German Mountain Corps staff officers.