I've always been curious- does anyone know what software apple uses for their website, apple.com? My guess is dreamweaver but I really don't know. How do they get their titles (the Myriad product titles) with such a perfect typface and gradient? And what about their menu bar, is it possible to do something like that in software like dreamweaver? I've always been curious about apple.com, because it's definitely one of the nicest company websites out there.
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What does Apple use?
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I can only make guesses as to how they work their sites specifically, but I am confident DreamWeaver is nowhere to be seen. This topic has actually been brought up before here, but can't find the thread. Apple very likely has their own CMS (content management system) for most of the site. You'll notice some of their pages end with a woa extension, which is a WebObject Application and is Java powered and created by Apple (for Apple 
). They use a bit of custom JavaScript as well as making use of some common frameworks like Prototype and Scriptaculous.
As far as the graphical stuff I'm sure they use various apps like Photoshop and very skilled designers who know what they're doing. These skilled people can kick most people's butt even if they're using inferior products. Apple's menu bar is a simple thing really and plenty of sites have copied the design.
So in short, it's a lot of custom stuff. You can't buy this stuff in stores
). They use a bit of custom JavaScript as well as making use of some common frameworks like Prototype and Scriptaculous.As far as the graphical stuff I'm sure they use various apps like Photoshop and very skilled designers who know what they're doing. These skilled people can kick most people's butt even if they're using inferior products. Apple's menu bar is a simple thing really and plenty of sites have copied the design.
So in short, it's a lot of custom stuff. You can't buy this stuff in stores
I doubt Apple uses Dreamweaver for the actual work, but I'm sure they do use something that enables them to track all the work - SVN or whatever. Dreamweaver supports templating and whatever and can handle multiple users but there's other, more powerful ways of accomplishing the goal.
What they use to code the site is irrelevant, the look of the graphics would be defined long before the code is started. Heck they could be using notepad to code the site and still have it look the same.
You seem to have confused a production tool (dreamweaver) with a design tool (eg: photoshop, illustrator, fireworks, etc).
Basically what your asking is along the lines of "Apple has really nice computers with clean lines and shiny surfaces, do you think they use screwdrivers to do this?"
Now I few things that we know they are using are:
HTML
CSS
scriptaculous
You seem to have confused a production tool (dreamweaver) with a design tool (eg: photoshop, illustrator, fireworks, etc).
Basically what your asking is along the lines of "Apple has really nice computers with clean lines and shiny surfaces, do you think they use screwdrivers to do this?"
Now I few things that we know they are using are:
HTML
CSS
scriptaculous
I believe Apples website is a collaboration between Apple and Web Firm. As for the software used, I have no idea. Sorry.
^^ That actually put a smile on my face.
I remember those ol' days when I thought FP was the way to build a website.
I know few people that still think FP is the absolute best, and only, way to build a website.
You jest?! Still? I mean Dreamweaver can be respectable (be it known I code all by hand), but FP in this day and age...
Surely, I do not! It has even been recommended that I drop DW and use FP by some of my less knowledgeable colleagues.
Alright well your commenting on how the apple site looks so nice, which it does and want to know what they use to make it look so nice?
A company like apple has groups of people who work on their site, they have coders which handle the HTML/CSS/PHP along with designers who photoshop all the images along with photographers which take pictures in studios of all their products. And yes they hire professional photogahers to take pictures of each of their products and then they photoshop the products to make them look even cleaner for the site.
A company like apple would never even think about using Dreamweaver to make their site, not to say that the coders don't use to to code the site as Dreamweaver is a nice application to use when writing code rather then a text editor, but they use tons of different adobe applications, and have tons of people working on the site. The store alone probably has an entire team working on have the store run smoothly and making it secure.
A company like apple has groups of people who work on their site, they have coders which handle the HTML/CSS/PHP along with designers who photoshop all the images along with photographers which take pictures in studios of all their products. And yes they hire professional photogahers to take pictures of each of their products and then they photoshop the products to make them look even cleaner for the site.
A company like apple would never even think about using Dreamweaver to make their site, not to say that the coders don't use to to code the site as Dreamweaver is a nice application to use when writing code rather then a text editor, but they use tons of different adobe applications, and have tons of people working on the site. The store alone probably has an entire team working on have the store run smoothly and making it secure.
Very true indeed, are you sure they use PHP?
Yup, anything credit card related will require major security team. I wonder though, since we are not Apple or anything, if we want to create a website which require credit card transaction, how do we do it? Or asking them to pay through PayPal is the best option (any other service beside PayPal that people is using now)?
Apple's Web Tools
I do happen to know they use PHP, PERL, WebObjects, a bunch of JS frameworks (including their own SproutCore, of course). As for the CMS, etc, I know that it's a versioned system, and that there is definitely some kind of collaboration with consultation companies. Other than that, cant say. Personally, when coding for major sites, WYSIWYG editors never come into play, except to create imagery. And all of it follows a robust design document. Most of their slickness comes from consistent treatment and strict adherence to their graphic/visual style book and programming design patterns, and not a particular editor, such as DreamWeaver, etc. Personally, my favorite tools are on the commandline, BBEdit and XCode for programming and a host of bitmap/vector design tools.
I do happen to know they use PHP, PERL, WebObjects, a bunch of JS frameworks (including their own SproutCore, of course). As for the CMS, etc, I know that it's a versioned system, and that there is definitely some kind of collaboration with consultation companies. Other than that, cant say. Personally, when coding for major sites, WYSIWYG editors never come into play, except to create imagery. And all of it follows a robust design document. Most of their slickness comes from consistent treatment and strict adherence to their graphic/visual style book and programming design patterns, and not a particular editor, such as DreamWeaver, etc. Personally, my favorite tools are on the commandline, BBEdit and XCode for programming and a host of bitmap/vector design tools.
Since when has Dreamweaver become a WYSIWYG-only editor? I use it because of the power of its Code View, and I think the Design View sucks big time.
Would you kindly repeat this part? I haven't understood anything, except for the fact that Apple uses a lot of Adobe software, therefore they don't use Dreamweaver (so Dreamweaver is not made by Adobe). Anybody, correct me if I got this wrong.
No, I bet they use ASP, and Xcode is written in C#
Trust me Apple uses many different design shops. Most of them work under NDA and I notice that the work they do for apple does not usually show up in the studio's portfolio -- Apple gets credit and the studios get paid. You don't get to brag about having Apple as a client.
One of those agencies is up here in Boston. Quite a few of my former design students have worked / interned there and done interface / web design work for the Apple site.
One of those agencies is up here in Boston. Quite a few of my former design students have worked / interned there and done interface / web design work for the Apple site.
I know for a fact Apple uses CSS Sprites on their navigation.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/27/the-mystery-of-css-sprites-techniques-tools-and-tutorials/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/27/the-mystery-of-css-sprites-techniques-tools-and-tutorials/
Holy crap. Thanks for the laugh man, that made my afternoon at work a lot better.
I write transaction ( ecommerce ) sites professionally. There are many options, my favorite right now is Stripe.com. You can build the payment flow right into the website, keep the customer's credit card information safely out of your database, too much to type about.
PayPal is the bane of all developers.
PS. To the OP, Apple does NOT use dreamweaver to create their sites. They hand code everything, just as you can, using something like Atom text editor (free) from GitHub. Apple sites are amazing because they use two tons of javascript. Check http://threejs.org/ to see what you can do with javascript in a browser.
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Far as the libraries used Apple's all over the place and it really depends on what part of the site or subdomain you're on. Some parts are heaving on jQuery others older JS libraries (partially due to legacy phasing out old code), and iTunes is powered off Ember.js which is a branch of SproutCore. IIRC Facebook bought one of the core teams that were one of the big supporters of SproutCore, which is interesting since Facebook is pushing React.js as well. Far as prototype and script.aculo.us, those projects have been alienated. Thomas Fuchs hasn't updated script.aculo.us 1.x in probably 5 years so I wouldn't call that common in todays framework standards.
A lot of the Apple product pages use CSS3 for their subtle animations/transitions and it's pretty interesting that they take different approaches for similar effects on different product pages. Like others have said, Apple is probably working with smaller high end shops that are specialist but that doesn't mean every shop will code exactly the same as the other shops, even if Apple is providing Style Guide. It's no surprise the 3rd party boutiques keep it on the down low if they're creating new product sections (like when the Mac Pro was first released) but I bit it's a real tight lip involved process far as deploying to Apples stage environment.
Coming back to the OP's question, considering there is probably hundreds upon hundreds (if not thousands) of designers, front end, back end and fullstack developers working in their entire web ecosystem. I'm sure the code editors have a large range from text editors to the IDE's. If Apple is heavy on the backend with Java, I'd bet JetBrains IntelliJ very popular and WebStorm for the front end developers. Then you have developers who prefer lightweight text editors like SublimeText or the new kid on the block Atom. I wouldn't be surprised if some people coding are using Dreamweaver or some going full hipster and running Vim (MacVim), no disrespect to the seasoned Vim users.
Text editors and/or IDE's tends to be a very subjective topic and the people that use them tend to stick to what they feel the most comfortable with. I'm sure if you did a poll you'd see a ton of products, though I'm betting JetBrains IntelliJ is their top IDE and far as text editors that's really hard to say. Sublime has been the goto choice since TextMate "Allan Odgaard" seemed to take a sabbatical to decompress. That's the sense I get with the SublimeText dude (Jon something) and Atom has really taken off and has skyrocketed within the community and that's generally what dictates what text editors rule on top.
The IDE or text editor doesn't define the developer but think of it as a toolbox. Some are the swift army knife with full on IntelliSense (that's one of the perks of using an IDE), refactoring, real time robust debugging tools (outside of linting), VCS, extensibility and everything else in between. My day to day editor is Atom (historically went from SublimeText -> TextMate -> BBEdit) and I use WebStorm quite a bit for when I'm doing heaving debugging sessions, refactoring or just true IntelliSense (think MS coined that term).
End of the day use what you fell the most comfortable with and most importantly what you're the most productive with. Heck you could get away with just using Text Edit in plain text mode.
A lot of the Apple product pages use CSS3 for their subtle animations/transitions and it's pretty interesting that they take different approaches for similar effects on different product pages. Like others have said, Apple is probably working with smaller high end shops that are specialist but that doesn't mean every shop will code exactly the same as the other shops, even if Apple is providing Style Guide. It's no surprise the 3rd party boutiques keep it on the down low if they're creating new product sections (like when the Mac Pro was first released) but I bit it's a real tight lip involved process far as deploying to Apples stage environment.
Coming back to the OP's question, considering there is probably hundreds upon hundreds (if not thousands) of designers, front end, back end and fullstack developers working in their entire web ecosystem. I'm sure the code editors have a large range from text editors to the IDE's. If Apple is heavy on the backend with Java, I'd bet JetBrains IntelliJ very popular and WebStorm for the front end developers. Then you have developers who prefer lightweight text editors like SublimeText or the new kid on the block Atom. I wouldn't be surprised if some people coding are using Dreamweaver or some going full hipster and running Vim (MacVim), no disrespect to the seasoned Vim users.
Text editors and/or IDE's tends to be a very subjective topic and the people that use them tend to stick to what they feel the most comfortable with. I'm sure if you did a poll you'd see a ton of products, though I'm betting JetBrains IntelliJ is their top IDE and far as text editors that's really hard to say. Sublime has been the goto choice since TextMate "Allan Odgaard" seemed to take a sabbatical to decompress. That's the sense I get with the SublimeText dude (Jon something) and Atom has really taken off and has skyrocketed within the community and that's generally what dictates what text editors rule on top.
The IDE or text editor doesn't define the developer but think of it as a toolbox. Some are the swift army knife with full on IntelliSense (that's one of the perks of using an IDE), refactoring, real time robust debugging tools (outside of linting), VCS, extensibility and everything else in between. My day to day editor is Atom (historically went from SublimeText -> TextMate -> BBEdit) and I use WebStorm quite a bit for when I'm doing heaving debugging sessions, refactoring or just true IntelliSense (think MS coined that term).
End of the day use what you fell the most comfortable with and most importantly what you're the most productive with. Heck you could get away with just using Text Edit in plain text mode.
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In this case "ignorance" (mine) really is bliss
This is like riding the subway in NewYork or the Tube in London for that matter. Doing so isolates me entirely as both scenarios surround me with total incomprehension. Amazing when you consider both Cities speak roughly the same language as I do
.In this case I understand most of the words but their combination is meaningless
.Regards
Sharkey