loganbek wrote:
Has the Apple Support Community (specifically the Developer Forums) ever discussed or brainstormed a native application for iOS, iPadOS, and Mac OS available to all users for free on the app store?
Until we were blue in the face.
I'm enjoying the community experience so far but I keep going back and looking for a native application.
Never gonna happen.
I've searched the web and found a few posts asking the same question but never getting very far.
You don't have access to the areas where most of this discussion has taken place. You need to be a Level 6 user to have access to these areas. See Build your reputation and get rewarded in the community - Apple Support. I can tell you that this has been a longstanding request for years.
I searched GitHub and managed to find some seemingly abandoned Apple Support Community Browser Extensions.
Seemingly? Oh, no. It's is most definitely abandoned.
It was based on the previous iteration of the discussion forum software. It used to be based on the Jive platform. Jive had a very powerful API that one could hook into to get additional information or reference other site features.
But recently Apple re-wrote the system entirely on their own. This is what the current forum software is running. Last year, Apple switched its official Developer forums over to the new Apple-designed system. Apparently, they tried change the behaviour and make it a tag-based system. It was a miserable failure. This discussion site is working OK, so it's not really a problem with the underlying engine, just the user experience on the Developer site.
But when Jive went away, all of that internal API went with it. I have thought about doing something to better integrate support articles, but that's not really feasible. I only want that tool because the support articles are so unreliable. Apple regularly deletes them, changes them, or splits them up. But that also means there is no publicly accessible index. As far as I can tell, all of Apple's documentation is a manual effort. At best, the index is some Excel spreadsheet.
The hosts will post links to new and updated articles (in that secret area). We appreciate that, but there is still no central index. And when that last "Recently updated technical support articles" thread moves off the first page, good luck ever finding it again. No pinned threads either.
I'm currently attempting to get the most promising looking ones up and running and see if they are worth modifying or adding on to.
Good luck.
Is this something you'd like too?
I would like it, but I wouldn't attempt it again, knowing Apple as well as I do now. As much as it may seem that I'm complaining and being harsh, this site is actually run quite well. I referenced the Apple Developer forums that are a disaster. There are other Apple forums that are even worse. This is as good as it gets, or at least, as good as Apple can, or wants to, make it.
Does anyone use anything besides bookmarks to help navigate or enhance their ASC experience?
They do, but they regularly complain when the site gets updated and breaks their custom-made systems.
I don't want to discourage you from contributing, but I do want to discourage you from getting too invested in someone else's system, especially when it is a system as openly hostile to being extended as any Apple system is.
