The Dove-Cote

O&A Website

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Web interface for viewing and searching the Society’s armorial database.

Connections

Imports: Receives the oanda.db and my.cat files from the Morsulus toolchain.

Exports: Other services collect the oanda.db and my.cat files from here.

Technology

Interface: Website at oanda.sca.org.

Hosting: Hosted on the main SCA.org server.

Code: Perl.

Databases: Flat files

Revision Control: All code is stored in Git. The repository is hosted at GitHub: github.com/herveus/Morsulus-tools

License: Open, Artistic License.

Team

College Staff: Morsulus Herald — currently Herveus d’Ormonde, transitioning to Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin.

History

The title of Morsulus Herald is given to the lead maintainer of the database.

  • Herveus d’Ormonde, 2000–
  • Iulstan Sigewealding, 1992–1999

Other contributors:

  • Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin, 2019—

Recent Enhancements

Complex Search Flexibility: During 2023–2024, Herveus added some more options to make it easier to write armory descriptions.

Docker Container: In 2024, Istvan built a Docker package that allows the O&A website to be run on a personal computer for offline use.

Note that the Docker container replaces an earlier effort to package the O&A site for remote use, known as “HeraldStick” (circa 2011). There was also a “Herald’s Hot Spot” effort (circa 2017) to package the HeraldStick software on inexpensive hardware, which stalled before shipping.

Future Work

Updated Visual Interface: As of early 2025, Mathghamhain intends to add a new set of pages that provide the existing capabilities in a more modern visual style and with additional interactivity. (The current web interface looks essentially the same as it did thirty years ago.) Because many heralds are accustomed to the existing interface, it will be maintained as a “classic mode” to avoid disrupting their workflow while simultaneously offering a new one for new heralds and those ready to make the switch.

See Also

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