how does facebook push their changes to the live site - facebook

From this video https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=778890205865 I understood that Facebook moves their changes to their live site on a daily basis.
Some changes are visible, whereas most of them are not visible to the end user. With a userbase of just over 700 million how do they manage to do it without any glitches.
Can someone throw light on this?
I have read about the Gatekeeper which allows Facebook to run different code to different set of users. Is there any other technology involved?
thanks.

From what I've read, they push code to their internal users first, so that staff are using the 'alpha' code.
It's then pushed to the beta teir (sunday I think) which lets developers test against the beta code and report any issues
The beta tier is then pushed live on Tuesday night to the main website

Related

Flutter app: simple way to remember a user to do something

I have a cool flutter app which is used to track staff attendance. A user can check-in and check out when they start/stop working and the app record that event, calculate the number of hours worked and send a weekly summary to the manager of the staff expected wages. The current problem is that some staff members forget to check out (everyone is ok with check-in) so we don’t have good numbers and we need to manually change the attendance. I would like to add something to remember them to check out, and I am looking for creative ideas to do so. My objective is to make something very affordable.
So far I thought about two options:
to use geolocation and track when staff get in/out of a certain location and log it as check-in and check out
to set a timer when they start the shift and send a local notification if after xx hours they have not done the checkout
Geolocation seems to be the best because I can even automate the checkin/check out and do it in the backend but it will consme lots of resources in the client because I would need to check their location every while even when their at at home or on holiday...
The timer has some limits and still, I would need to manage background tasks that are complex as well as imprecise checkout depengin on when the notification goes out.
Do you have any suggestions on anything simple to implement?
I would suggest the second option.
A simple scheduler which would look for all the employees who are checked in for more than x number of hours and then throw a clickable notification to checkout. It would be an easy and clean solution. However, it has several limitations as an employee might leave early but checkout later.
In my opinion, Your most clean solution would be to have an RFID/NFC check which automatically registers as a user checks out from the building.
Another thing that can be done if your employees are working mostly on their computers. There can be a browser extension or a web app which will clock in the time they are working on their laptops. Once they close it they will be automatically checked out.

google actions: continuous access like a heart beat

I have built a google actions project and published it. It has a web hook that is linked to a Google Functions with an actions sdk code behind it. Everything works fine.
However, I have noticed that there is a continuous user (with the same userId provided by the intent) that keeps access the function (guessing via the actions project). I am keeping a kind of sessions log and it keeps creating a session almost every 3-4 seconds.
Since the project is just some temporary demo of content and not really shared with the world at large, I am wondering what or who is causing this continuous access. It looks almost like some heart-beat type of check being done. Hence the question: is it something that Google does to know whether the action project is live or not? Thanks
Every 3-4 seconds seems high, but if you have published an Action that has gone through the review process Google does run a health check against it every few minutes.

How to change or inject date to Sharepoint application to test across months

Here is the situation:
I've got the application that requires different actions for different months. For example if I'll create a task that requires some actions for next 5 months I need some kind of method to keep jumping ti next months to confirm correct behaviour.
Usually I would just connect custom NTP for the server and than change date to whatever I want but this application works on Sharepoint online and as far as I know I can't do that (even if I'll it will affect all users not app under test only).
Another problem is that method should be easy and possible to explain or at least show to business during UAT.
Thanks in advance.

Password login for ios app

I am currently developing an app for a company that is in a very competitive field. I have finished all of the features of the app that they requested except for one, making it somehow protected from their competing companies to download and use. I thought that I could set up a UIViewController with a password field that would check against some kind of database, but I'm not sure how to do the checking against a database part nor the practicality of it, and was hoping I could get some ideas on how to do this so that other companies couldn't steal and use this app without a password or something that changes like every 30 days or something and is kind of like an activation code.
Review the WWDC 2012 video "Building and Distributing Custom B2B Apps for iOS". I'm unsure if your app is in this B2B classification, it seems that it might be from your description.
What I ended up doing (if everyone needs a reference) was setting up a server with an SQL table that has pass codes in it. Since apple does not allow for any sort of system that requires you to "buy the app from outside the app store" I made a dumby username field (shame on me) that takes any value you like and then requires to have a pass code that fits. Once the pass code gets authenticated with the web server in a json sql request (there are plenty of api's to do this with) it comes back and sends the user to the first screen and sets a value in a plist with how many days of use the user has left. Whenever the user opens up the app it checks to see if the date is different from the last date logged in (saved in the same plist file) and if it is different then it calculates the difference and deducts that many. When the count reaches 0 it sends the user to the pass code authentication screen again. A bit complicated but an effective method of getting around Apple's restriction on not having a sort of pass code system like this. Thanks for the answers, unfortunately enterprise did not work for this company since they needed to be able to distribute the app to as many 3rd party members as they wanted to without having to worry about them leaving the company for other suppliers and remote management of the app (I.e ability to remote uninstall) was also not an option. Hope this helps someone someday!

iPhone app launching tips?

I just finished my first iPhone app. It's a little game and I want to launch it for 99 cents.
So my concerns is, how long usually does an app stay on the new released list. ALso, is there any launching tips on timing etc?
Thank you
These days apps stay on the new app list for hours rather than days. It used to be that updates gave you better visibility but but my last update caused barely a blip in sales so I don't think it is true anymore. This will probably depend on the categories you are in though.
The goldrush is sadly over. It used to be that merely being in the app store generated hundreds or thousands of sales. That is definitely not true any more. Now you need either luck or marketing.
Things you can do:
Provide review copies to as many
sites as you can find. Most will
have limited visibility but if you
can get onto a bigger site you may
get some sales out of it.
Provide a free limited version.
Build a mailing list on your website
Pimp it everywhere. In your sig, on your website
Start writing the second game
ASAP - why wait, right? In reality, your true launch date is going to be determined by Apple anyways depending on how long it takes them to review and approve your app.
One tip I've heard is to update reasonably often.
When you update, your app may reappear on some of the category lists as being recently added/updated. This can give you some extra visibility which might just be what gets you ahead.