How an (asp.net) web site update shouldn’t be performed

There is a Vzajemci web site that tracks mutual funds available in Slovenia. It is a nice site if one wants to follow the mutual funds situation is Slovenia (they have all sort of news and information regarding mutual funds, plus forum and an option where you can track your own portfolio, etc.) however, they aren't very professional with updating their website. Today is the second day where their web site is severely crippled and practically unusable. At least lately appeared an apology text on the top of the page. It says something like: "We are sorry but due to website modifications some parts won't work."

Now, if it were I, I would create a private clone website, done all modifications there and only then update the public online version. The last step shouldn't take more than 10 minutes (if I exaggerate). Instead they are messing with live website in real time.

The bottom line is that the updates shouldn't be tested on live site. In the era of virtual computers ([VMWare], VirtualPC, etc.) nobody has a valid excuse to do updates like that.

BTW, does anybody know of any web-service that provides daily values of Slovene mutual fund points?

UPDATE (9.8.): Apparently they have legal issues, not technical ones. Duh. Still not working.

3 thoughts on “How an (asp.net) web site update shouldn’t be performed

  1. Hi Danijel,

    Yes, but do the provide *web-service*, not web-site?
    IOW I would like to create my application that loads data from a web service. Scrapping from websites is often too problematic 🙂

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