Website rebuild: first look

I built the first version of this website over the winter of 2018 to 2019 and although I had a lot of experience I had never written a line of code, other than SQL before so I had to learn for UNITAF to work. It has carried us through seven years more than two thousand deploymentst. It is also showing its age. While I'm proud of that it looks and works like a site from 2019, and every improvement has had to go through one person.

So rather than keep adding to the old site, you may be aware we commenced a replatforming in early August and for that every feature is being rethought and built again, with all of the data and the structures underneath come across with it. Part of that reason is to bring our systems onto the very latest technologies, for both security and it's wider benefits, not least never having to refresh an ORBAT page ever again.

It has to be enjoyable to use: somewhere you want to open, it has to support the gameplay, and extend it beyond the game, because the ORBAT, the OPORD, your Dossier, the manual and the people around them are as much a part of a UNITAF operation as the time in the server. And it has to take all of that to the next level, which is what this community has always done with its tools, and what we have been known for.

Underneath all of it is one idea: permissions everywhere, every knob on the site can be turned by anyone who has been given the permission for that knob. Every change is logged and audited. There is a directory where you can find every permission and every setting, see what it does and who holds it, and it is all integrated with Discord.

The new one is built so that adding features is far easier and changing how they behave needs no developer at all. I am trying to strike a balance between the familiar and the new. It should feel like UNITAF the moment you open it but faster, sharper, and for the first time at home on your phone.

On timing, I am not going to set a date here. The reset date of 1 January is what we are working towards, and if things keep going as they have been, something towards the end of October looks realistic. I would rather give you that than a day I then miss. In the meantime it is already running at future.unitedtaskforce.net, syncing live data from the main site every hour, so what you see there is your dossier, operations etc. It is a work in progress.

The new homepage.

What is different so far

Multi-platform

Arma 3, Arma Reforger and Arma 4 are all first-class citizens. Each can have its own roles, mods, factions and operations, side by side on one site.

Vehicles on the ORBAT

Vehicles are part of the ORBAT itself, with their crew as slots and callsigns that follow the tree, and they are built with a proper drag-and-drop editor rather than a form.

Multi-faction deployments

Deployments can have more than one faction on the same ORBAT.

Settings and permissions for every team

Every threshold, rule and toggle is a setting on the site, and every setting and permission can be handed to any member of any team. If you own an area, you can change it yourself without waiting for a developer.

Everything comes with it

Every feature is being brought forward, and so is all of the data: history, every deployment, every award, the whole Force Manual and the campaign archive. The structures underneath are being rebuilt at the same time, and every change is recorded, so you can always see what changed, who changed it and why.

The J10 roadmap

Almost every item on it, some of them years old, is either done on the new site or is now something a team can switch on for themselves.

The site menu. Comms, structure, operations, practice and contribution, all in one place, from any page.

Operations

This is the part of the site you use most, so it has had the most attention.

The schedule. The next deployment sits at the top with its fill and its countdown, then everything upcoming, by type and platform.

The ORBAT

Hover over any name, anywhere on the site, and you get their card: rank, standing, service number, time served, post, ribbons and a link to their dossier.

Reserves: The reserves list sits at the foot of the ORBAT with how many are waiting and what each of them could fill.

Joining the reserves asks you for one thing: that you will be there on the night and will take the place you are given.

The OPORD is written inline on the operation itself, section by section, with callsigns you can drop in as you type, a preview of exactly what members will read, and one switch to release it. Members then read it in the same place, with the timings and the comms plan beside it.

An event's settings: what kind of event it is, which platform it runs on, how members get a place, who may see it, and when sign-up opens and locks.

Building an ORBAT

The editor is the ORBAT itself. You change things where they are, and the ORBAT updates as you go.

Editing in place. Click a callsign, radio or role to change it, drag a unit to where it belongs, add a unit or a vehicle, or start from a template. Every change is recorded and can be undone.

The menu on a unit. Add a slot, a unit or a vehicle beneath it, clone it, duplicate it, transfer or swap it, move it up or down, apply or save a template, or remove it.

The menu on a slot. Set its buddy team, transfer or swap it, hold it for someone, make it a learner place, set the lowest rank that can take it, or give it a suffix.

The callsign picker. The phonetic alphabet, over a hundred named callsigns from the sets the owners keep, or type a new one. Everything beneath the unit takes the callsign, numbered from the tree.

The role picker: Every role on the platform, grouped by combat area, with search.

Adding a unit is two quick choices: what it is, then where it goes and the types come from a catalogue the owners can edit.

Templates. Start from one, copy the ORBAT from a previous event, save this one as a template, or clear it and start again.

The mod centre, per platform, showing how often each mod runs and when it last did. Factions have the same treatment, each with its own page, its required mods and a preset.

A campaign, with its order, deployments, team, statistics, media and map.

UNISTATS. Every deployment since June 2019 on one page: deployments, member hours, members deployed, places filled, turnout, reports and joiners for the last twelve months, three years or all time, then the whole history month by month, and member hours for every month of every year.

Your dossier

The service record

Deployments. Every deployment you have ever been on, the shape of your service over the years, and your most experienced roles.

Awards and citations, with the citation behind each one.

Your media. Every screenshot you took, and every one you appear in.

The Force Manual and the roles centre

The manual, the role cards and the roles themselves are joined up now.

The Force Manual home, with chapters on the left, a platform lens, search that works, and a view of how much the manual holds and how often it is read.

A document, with its FM codes and versions kept, reading time, who owns it, and a contents rail down the side.

The roles centre. A combat area, its roles, its people, its doctrine, and how often each role deploys.

A role. Which platforms it is fielded on, how often, who plays it, and when it is next on an ORBAT.

A verified role card, with exactly which passages the role needs you to know and how long they take to read.

Get Involved

Get Involved. What is open now, which teams are recruiting.

Your involvement. The positions you hold and have held, with Step down on each. Stepping down opens the position for the team to fill again and stays on your record. It is not a demotion.

Member support

Personnel staff asked for better tools here more than anywhere else. Observations, cases and the record itself are now in one place. The details in these screenshots are blurred.

Observations on a member's record. On the record, awaiting review, archived, and the ones they raised themselves, by type. Until a reviewer accepts an observation it is on nobody's record.

Cases. Praise, concerns and requests about a member, and how each was handled. The member sees every case about them unless it is marked confidential, and every line of it except those marked private.

Updates, search and settings

Updates, by category and year, with what you have not read yet and R&A on the row. Each update shows its reach: how many of the active force have read and acknowledged it, and who.

Search from anywhere. Press Ctrl+K and find a member, a deployment, a role or a Force Manual passage by name or FM code.

All settings. Every setting on the site in one list, with its current value and who can change each group.

Community and organisation

UNISOCIAL. Follow the titles you play, rally people to a temporary voice channel, and get a Discord ping when someone else does.

The organisation. Every team, who is in post, and what is open.

And all of it on your phone

What happens next

Nothing changes on the current site in the meantime. When we do switch over, you will sign in with Discord as you do now, your service record and history come with you, and old links will redirect, so there will be nothing you need to do. Some of you will find things you preferred on the old site. That is normal with a change this size and some of it will be fair. Say so. If something you relied on has gone missing or got worse, that is exactly what we need to hear now.

So please do have a look at future.unitedtaskforce.net, sign in, try the things you do every week, and use the J10 channels on Discord to say what you think, what you would change and what you miss.