Northern Ireland Aviation Enthusiast's Forum

General Aviation Discussion => General Aviation Discussion => Topic started by: smudge on November 22, 2017, 10:52:33 AM

Title: New G-INFO site launching early 2018
Post by: smudge on November 22, 2017, 10:52:33 AM
Currently in beta:

https://siteapps.caa.co.uk/g-info/

Allegedly to provide a better mobile-interface but reading between the lines it seems more designed to block automated querying.

Some drawbacks

1. Query entry page depends on Javascript so actually less browser-agnostic than the old version
2. Frequent and prolonged Google Recaptcha quizzes during sessions.  Just now I had to do fourteen different Recaptchas in a row and then accidentally clicked on the background page and had to start again :(
3. Can no longer directly link to a particular registration*

Some advantages

1. Does require less zooming on mobile but a lot more scrolling, on my phone I can't even see the results without scrolling-down past the big CAA header and other guff.


* Though you can link to the pre-1986 PDFs e.g. for G-ATUL (https://siteapps.caa.co.uk/ginfodocs/HistoricalLedger/G-ATUL-2.pdf)


Progress is great but only when it makes progress.
Title: Re: New G-INFO site launching early 2018
Post by: gadwall58 on November 22, 2017, 11:00:32 AM
Airframes have also recently changed entry to their page by having a login feature.
Title: Re: New G-INFO site launching early 2018
Post by: smudge on November 22, 2017, 11:17:28 AM
Yes the airframes.org change is a bit of a nuisance but I didn't mind too much as at least he came out and said bluntly why he was doing it.

The CAA however push the usual corporate line about "improving the user experience" etc whilst the changes are actually to benefit them.

In contrast the FAA N-reg site just keeps working, nice and simple. They even provide daily full-database dumps to download, whereas the CAA sees that as a way to make £££!


Bah!  <insert ragey-spotter face>