UK Apple Store being updated

[Shaduu]

The store is down so often, the people they employ must be really crap at there jobs.

Erm, the last it went down was for the new iPods methinks. And anyway, it's only the store that goes down, not the whole site. If you think you can code an almost full AJAX site like the Apple sites then please show me so I can award you a cookie.

The Apple Chat Staff said it was just "background maintenance".

Where is the chat button nowadays? I haven't been able to find it since the redesign.

 

[Malcster]

Where is the chat button nowadays? I haven't been able to find it since the redesign.

Thats exactly what i was just looking for too... hmm

 

[G4DP]

When you make changes to a website you work on an off-line version and save them, then when your finished you replace the files on the server. Taking a website down purely for background maintanance is poor business.

I know the able store is greater in size than anything I have worked on, but the principles are the same.

No cookie thanks, trying to cut down.

 

[Shaduu]

When you make changes to a website you work on an off-line version and save them, then when your finished you replace the files on the server. Taking a website down purely for background maintanance is poor business.

I know the able store is greater in size than anything I have worked on, but the principles are the same.

No cookie thanks, trying to cut down.

I do know how to manage and update a site but we can see that this wasn't just "background maintenance". All pages referring to the MacBook (either speed or graphics-wise) have had to be updated, along with the MacBook order forms themselves. Sure, I'd expect Apple to do all this offline and update the site overnight but maybe the maintenance guys figured they could use the opportunity for extra work.

I'm just saying don't critisise the designers for their work as they've done a decent job - it's the site techs that need a slap for timing the update so late and increasing downtime.

 

[MarlboroLite]

Looks like iphone is now on the page....saw the ads...great free publicity for The Guardian! heh...

 

[Matteh117]

When you make changes to a website you work on an off-line version and save them, then when your finished you replace the files on the server. Taking a website down purely for background maintanance is poor business.

I know the able store is greater in size than anything I have worked on, but the principles are the same.

No cookie thanks, trying to cut down.

Make the changes to the website locally, upload to version control, have team check through and proof, make appropriate changes, rinse and repeat, upload to main server, propagate to server cluster and weee, we're back online.

Don't really think Apple are going to consider it poor business. When their site is taken offline, they probably get MORE visitors waiting to see what the update is.

 

[Knox]

I suspect the reason the store is taken down completely during updates is to ensure that orders that are in the middle of being completed are not affected by the changes. For example, in this update it looks like they changed some of the software built-to-order options from being one option (where you could only pick one of iWork, Final Cut, Aperture etc) to being multiple options. If someone had added the software before the update and then checked out after the update there might have been issues.

I'm sure they could write the site so that some functionality is disabled while they do the update but from a user experience point of view that could get confusing - taking the whole store down could be the best option, and as Matteh117 said, it adds suspense to the 'release event' as well.

Doing it during the day is strange mind you, they have done updates at night in the past so you'd have thought they could do all non-keynote updates outside daylight hours.