The Dove-Cote

IT Tag: Status: Maintained

  • SCA.org Server

    Most of the IT systems directly operated by the College of Arms run on the same SCA-operated server as the www.sca.org website.

    Team

    This server is the responsibility of the SCA’s IT Manager, but a number of members of the College have login accounts used to operate their individual applications and contribute to server maintenance.

    Technology

    Software: Linux, Apache, MariaDB, PHP, et al.

    Hosting: Microsoft Azure Cloud; data center in Virginia.

    Web Proxy / Caching: Cloudflare.

    History

    Previously hosted elsewhere. Server migrated in 2018.

  • Individual Heraldic Websites

    Numerous Society heralds maintain personal websites, blogs, or equivalent online publishing channels for SCA heraldry-related articles, posts, or other resources.

    Some of these are widely cited resources, while others are less well known. A few are considered authoritative, but most just represent one herald’s opinion.

    Examples

    There are too many to list.

    Here are some examples of popular armory resources:

    The no-photocopy list in the Admin Handbook provides more examples:

    Technology

    Many disparate platforms, including hand-edited HTML, WordPress blogs, and online document services.

    Future Possibilities

    Better Indexing: There are lots of useful online resources that aren’t yet listed in the various article pages on the College of Arms website. Because those resources haven’t each been reviewed in detail and are subject to change over time, they can’t be considered authoritative, and we don’t want to publish a directory that might mislead submitters or new heralds into thinking that they can just open some random herald’s blog and treat it as gospel — but we should be able to help interested heralds find more of this material.

    Collaborative Publishing: There are some resources that could benefit from allowing several people to contribute to them. For example, a couple of experienced heralds have assembled lists of IAP submissions, but it’s a struggle for one person to keep those perpetually up to date — perhaps if that content was available on a collaborative platform where a few other experienced heralds could contribute additional items to it, it would be easier to fill in gaps and keep such a reference up to date.

  • Traceable Heraldic Art

    A collection of armorial clip art for SCA heraldic submissions and scribal uses.

    Contains over 6,500 entries illustrated by around a hundred different SCA heralds and scribes, or sourced from period and post-period sources. Most illustrations are suitable for SCA submissions, with flags for poor style or unregistrable items. However, is known to be incomplete and imperfect so should not be considered authoritative.

    License: All images are public domain or are licensed for free use in the SCA.

    Website: Available at heraldicart.org.

    Usage: Visited by 100–200 people per day.

    Technology

    Code: Perl.

    Database: Source material is in flat files. Exports and publishes database in JSON format.

    Source: All code and data files available for download.

    Team

    Developer: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin.

    History

    Started in 2016 as a small collection of ordinaries and field divisions, then imported the imported the Pennsic Traceable Art in 2017.

    Called for a volunteer to build a successor system in 2021.

    Pace of publishing new entries has declined from an earlier high of over a thousand year to a lower rate of around four hundred per year in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

    Future

    Web-First Rewrite: The existing data could be imported into a new web-based system that would become the system of record. I’ve posted about how the existing system works, about the database model, and the JSON export format.

    Get Involved: Contact Mathghamhain via email, Discord, or other channels.

  • Heraldic Online Communities

    The College of Arms and the wider heraldic community connect online through a variety of official and unofficial discussion groups, mailing lists, chat servers, and so on.

    The SCA-HRLDS mailing list is an official resource of the College of Arms, but the various other social media platforms are unofficial, including the Knowne World Heraults Discord, various Facebook groups, and so on.

    These platforms can foster and facilitate heraldic education, however they require ongoing support and moderation, and their transitory nature limits their utility as a long-term reference.

  • Golden Stag O&A Viewer

    A Windows application to search and view the O&A data.

    Imports the data files into a dBASE relational database and then allows searching by name or armory description codes.

    Available from www.goldenstag.net/OandA

    Connections

    Imports: Retrieves the oanda.db and my.cat files from the O&A Website.

    Technology

    Interface: Windows 7–11.

    Code: dBASE.

    Databases: dBASE.

    Team

    Developer: Hirsch von Henford.

    History

    Developed circa 2000. Actively maintained, with updates continuing through 2024.

  • O&A Website

    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