Have a look at the source for http://www.apple.com/feedback/airportextreme.html where you see the code is almost identical bar the product name. All these feedback pages will be generated dynamically from a standard template page with URL redirectionto make it look like they are separate HTML pages to make them search engine friendly. All feedback pages will use the same script to send the input data back to the right place, so they need the hidden variable to identify whether the feedback came from the iPhone feedback form or the form for airport, .mac, macbook etc.
In fact then this will be a typo in the script that inserts the product name into the HTML code which they probably copied and pasted from the line that inserted "Airport Extreme" into the HTML if you had "airportextreme" in the URL and a negligent coder accidently missed deleting the Exteme and because it is in a hidden variable rather than visible on the page, the mistake did not get picked up prior to publication.
I am sorry to dash all your hopes, but the other feedback pages all have the same product name in the hidden variable as shows on the page. They would not have a feedback form for all iPhones and then put a specific model in the hidden variable, let alone one for an unannounced product.
I have done a lot of database heavy websites, and I cannot agree with you.
While everything else you said is correct, the feedback form is certainly not hard coded.
Most likely, each product feedback page covers a product family. There is a table with list of products under each product family. If there is only one product in the product family (for example, Airport Extreme), it creates a hidden field with the value of the product name. If there are multiple products, it creates a drop-down box and let the user select.
So, my guess is that there is a product family called "iPhone", and there is only one entry called "iPhone Extreme" right now in their table.
What I am saying is that the product value "iPhone Extreme" is no way a typo of the webmaster, because it is retrieved from a database.
It only confirms that "iPhone" is a product family and there will be more models coming. When a new iPhone (for example, iPhone nano) is introduced, the existing iPhone could be rebranded as "iPhone Extreme", or something else. Since it is in a database, they just need to change one field in the table, and it could be iPhone Classic, iPhone Superduper, or whatever.
whe ni looked @ the source html code it sounded strange that someone might have had the time to change airport for iphone but forgot to erase the the extreme??? doesn't make sense...
While everything else you said is correct, the feedback form is certainly not hard coded.
When you say hard coded, I presume you mean is not hard coded in PHP (or whatever) as we both agree that these are not really separate HTML pages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnqh
Most likely, each product feedback page covers a product family. There is a table with list of products under each product family. If there is only one product in the product family (for example, Airport Extreme), it creates a hidden field with the value of the product name. If there are multiple products, it creates a drop-down box and let the user select.
None of the product feedback pages work like this. There is a separate page for each product, even within a product family. For example, each iPod product (touch, nano, shuffle etc) has a separate feedback page based on the same template. No feedback page has a drop-down menu for products within a product family.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnqh
So, my guess is that there is a product family called "iPhone", and there is only one entry called "iPhone Extreme" right now in their table.
Even if they intended to bring out an iPhone Extreme in the future, it is nigh-on impossible to see how the database administrator could have put in iPhone Exteme (an unreleased and unannouced product) but not put the existing iPhone into the database.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnqh
What I am saying is that the product value "iPhone Extreme" is no way a typo of the webmaster, because it is retrieved from a database.
It is a slightly academic distinction as to whether it was a PHP coder or a database administrator who made the error. I think it is more than likely that wherever the error was made is was as a result of a line of code or a database entry being duplicated from Airport Extreme and then changed to iPhone, except for one instance where the change was not completed properly.
The reason I think it is unlikely that it is a database error is because on every feedback page the hidden form variable "product" is the same as the product name that appears in the title tag, the header and the breadcrumbs. If the product name was being pulled from a database, not inserted by the PHP code, then if all of these say just "iPhone" then the hidden variable should have the value "iPhone" not "iPhone Extreme", in the same way that on the iPod nano feedback page the header, title, breadcrumbs and product variable are all "iPod nano".
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnqh
It only confirms that "iPhone" is a product family and there will be more models coming. When a new iPhone (for example, iPhone nano) is introduced, the existing iPhone could be rebranded as "iPhone Extreme", or something else. Since it is in a database, they just need to change one field in the table, and it could be iPhone Classic, iPhone Superduper, or whatever.
Exactly. If they had set it up the way you suggest, so that they could update all the product names on the page by just changing one database entry, then all the references on the page would be to "iPhone Extreme". The fact that the product variable and the header, title and breadcrumbs are different proves that they are not all being pulled from a single database entry - which is exactly the reason someone has messed up and left in the "Extreme" by mistake.
If they had adopted your suggestion, then we would not be discussing this now, or else the whole page would have "iPhone Extreme" plastered everywhere and it would be a much bigger rumour than this deserves to be.
Some of the feedback pages have extra questions at the bottom depending upon which product you are in. For example on the iPod nano pages there are some questions that are common to all iPods and some that are specific to iPod nanos. As a result, unless all these extra questions are also in the database, they will have had to hard code all the options for each product into the feedback template. Another reason why I suspect it is not just a simple template with database variables inserted in a few places.
whe ni looked @ the source html code it sounded strange that someone might have had the time to change airport for iphone but forgot to erase the the extreme??? doesn't make sense...
Does it make any more sense that anyone would incur SJ's wrath by deliberately choosing to add Extreme to the database/code where everywhere else he has written just iPhone?
Comments
Have a look at the source for http://www.apple.com/feedback/airportextreme.html where you see the code is almost identical bar the product name. All these feedback pages will be generated dynamically from a standard template page with URL redirectionto make it look like they are separate HTML pages to make them search engine friendly. All feedback pages will use the same script to send the input data back to the right place, so they need the hidden variable to identify whether the feedback came from the iPhone feedback form or the form for airport, .mac, macbook etc.
In fact then this will be a typo in the script that inserts the product name into the HTML code which they probably copied and pasted from the line that inserted "Airport Extreme" into the HTML if you had "airportextreme" in the URL and a negligent coder accidently missed deleting the Exteme and because it is in a hidden variable rather than visible on the page, the mistake did not get picked up prior to publication.
I am sorry to dash all your hopes, but the other feedback pages all have the same product name in the hidden variable as shows on the page. They would not have a feedback form for all iPhones and then put a specific model in the hidden variable, let alone one for an unannounced product.
I have done a lot of database heavy websites, and I cannot agree with you.
While everything else you said is correct, the feedback form is certainly not hard coded.
Most likely, each product feedback page covers a product family. There is a table with list of products under each product family. If there is only one product in the product family (for example, Airport Extreme), it creates a hidden field with the value of the product name. If there are multiple products, it creates a drop-down box and let the user select.
So, my guess is that there is a product family called "iPhone", and there is only one entry called "iPhone Extreme" right now in their table.
What I am saying is that the product value "iPhone Extreme" is no way a typo of the webmaster, because it is retrieved from a database.
It only confirms that "iPhone" is a product family and there will be more models coming. When a new iPhone (for example, iPhone nano) is introduced, the existing iPhone could be rebranded as "iPhone Extreme", or something else. Since it is in a database, they just need to change one field in the table, and it could be iPhone Classic, iPhone Superduper, or whatever.
whe ni looked @ the source html code it sounded strange that someone might have had the time to change airport for iphone but forgot to erase the the extreme??? doesn't make sense...
ecking: i love ur signature:-) LOL
Thanks!
While everything else you said is correct, the feedback form is certainly not hard coded.
When you say hard coded, I presume you mean is not hard coded in PHP (or whatever) as we both agree that these are not really separate HTML pages.
Most likely, each product feedback page covers a product family. There is a table with list of products under each product family. If there is only one product in the product family (for example, Airport Extreme), it creates a hidden field with the value of the product name. If there are multiple products, it creates a drop-down box and let the user select.
None of the product feedback pages work like this. There is a separate page for each product, even within a product family. For example, each iPod product (touch, nano, shuffle etc) has a separate feedback page based on the same template. No feedback page has a drop-down menu for products within a product family.
So, my guess is that there is a product family called "iPhone", and there is only one entry called "iPhone Extreme" right now in their table.
Even if they intended to bring out an iPhone Extreme in the future, it is nigh-on impossible to see how the database administrator could have put in iPhone Exteme (an unreleased and unannouced product) but not put the existing iPhone into the database.
What I am saying is that the product value "iPhone Extreme" is no way a typo of the webmaster, because it is retrieved from a database.
It is a slightly academic distinction as to whether it was a PHP coder or a database administrator who made the error. I think it is more than likely that wherever the error was made is was as a result of a line of code or a database entry being duplicated from Airport Extreme and then changed to iPhone, except for one instance where the change was not completed properly.
The reason I think it is unlikely that it is a database error is because on every feedback page the hidden form variable "product" is the same as the product name that appears in the title tag, the header and the breadcrumbs. If the product name was being pulled from a database, not inserted by the PHP code, then if all of these say just "iPhone" then the hidden variable should have the value "iPhone" not "iPhone Extreme", in the same way that on the iPod nano feedback page the header, title, breadcrumbs and product variable are all "iPod nano".
It only confirms that "iPhone" is a product family and there will be more models coming. When a new iPhone (for example, iPhone nano) is introduced, the existing iPhone could be rebranded as "iPhone Extreme", or something else. Since it is in a database, they just need to change one field in the table, and it could be iPhone Classic, iPhone Superduper, or whatever.
Exactly. If they had set it up the way you suggest, so that they could update all the product names on the page by just changing one database entry, then all the references on the page would be to "iPhone Extreme". The fact that the product variable and the header, title and breadcrumbs are different proves that they are not all being pulled from a single database entry - which is exactly the reason someone has messed up and left in the "Extreme" by mistake.
If they had adopted your suggestion, then we would not be discussing this now, or else the whole page would have "iPhone Extreme" plastered everywhere and it would be a much bigger rumour than this deserves to be.
Some of the feedback pages have extra questions at the bottom depending upon which product you are in. For example on the iPod nano pages there are some questions that are common to all iPods and some that are specific to iPod nanos. As a result, unless all these extra questions are also in the database, they will have had to hard code all the options for each product into the feedback template. Another reason why I suspect it is not just a simple template with database variables inserted in a few places.
i thought so too...
whe ni looked @ the source html code it sounded strange that someone might have had the time to change airport for iphone but forgot to erase the the extreme??? doesn't make sense...
Does it make any more sense that anyone would incur SJ's wrath by deliberately choosing to add Extreme to the database/code where everywhere else he has written just iPhone?