Does anyone know how the Publix vaccination site works?
 

Anyone with technical experience know how the Publix vaccination or other sites work?

There must be thousands of people logging in a the same time. How does the site recognize who is first?

Does opening the site 5 minutes early give you an advantage?

Is your home internet speed help/hinder?

Is there any advantage having my laptop and phone logging into the site at the same time?

Any other information on how these sites work would be helpful.

I guess these are questions a non technical person would have.

If you log on at an opportune time, the site puts you into a queue before allowing you to schedule an appointment. Hopefully, Publix manages the queue using a first come first served basis, but that would only be known to whoever designed the queue. Logging in early will not help unless the server is ready to accept people into the queue. When you log in, it could be helpful to refresh the site frequently until you are actually accepted into the queue. Then, the server will automatically refresh itself. I think the more devices you have logged in, the better chance you have to get early access into the queue. Your internet speed will have very little to do with your success as long as you are able to log into the site.

After going to the Publix webpage, it was doing an automatic refresh every minute. I believe doing manual refreshes every second or so makes more sense. It appears to be just blind luck whether you got a "slot" to be asked to schedule an appointment. I tried for an hour but was not able to be accepted to schedule an appointment. It took about an hour for all appointments to be filled.

That was my experience. I was wondering if a different browser might work better. I generally use Chrome, but may switch next time. I think it's easier to win the Mega Millions or Powerball than get an appointment.:)

I don't think a different browser will make any difference.

Try Chrome
 

I and a couple of other friends had real problems with Safari. I had both a Safari and a Chrome window opened...Safari (started that first) never went beyond the queue. Chrome, however, took me to an appointment after about 10 minutes.

I don't doubt what you said. I had success with an Android phone using the Samsung browser, and had no success using a desktop computer with the Windows 10 Microsoft Edge browser. But, logically, going from the queue to making an appointment has everything to do with what the remote Publix server does and very little or nothing to do with the type of browser you are using. That is, assuming your device was connected to the Publix server and communicating with it.

Are you sure that manually refreshing the browser after being added to the queue cannot cause the remote server to change your position in the queue?

No, I am not sure of anything. However, the webpage was doing an automatic refresh every minute. It isn't clear that the automatic refreshes were any different than the manual refreshes. It also isn't clear that there was a queue. On one system, the page was being automatically refreshed. On another system, I was refreshing manually. Same result.

Just a word of caution re refreshing...I got locked out of the Lake County scheduling system on both my laptop (with Chrome) and phone (with Safari) and got a message that said I refreshed too much at 11 a.m. Did not get an appointment.

I logged in off my laptop via Firefox. Never got in. My wife logged in after me via her iPad and Safai. She got, put in personal info, got to second page but the Publix program would not let her choose county. Eventually, it was all over.

For those who were successful at making a Publix appointment this morning, may I be super nosy and inquire if you are a full time resident or part time? I was wondering if somehow the Publix complex algorithm seemed to know that we are part-time and not full time residents.

Thanks!

My neighbor that I play golf with, just emailed me and said he got a Publix appt this morning. He got up at 5:30 and started and his appt is at the Inverness Publix (Citrus County) for next Friday.

I logged in with my iPad and husband on computer with Firefox right at 6:00. Site didn’t open until about 6:05. Both put into queue. Logged in around 6:15 on computer with Microsoft edge and went right to make appointment. Filled out form and chose Marion county and then a Publix store. Offered a time but when clicked confirm it said that time was already taken. Instead of letting me choose another time I had to review my info, accept terms and tell it I wasn’t a robot. This happened several times before I scored a time that was actually available. Chose make another appointment to schedule for husband and was put through the same loop of being closed out of times. Finally only appointments in distant counties. Never got out of the queue on iPad or husband’s computer. Will try again during next registration window and hope to get one for him. BTW, when I got my confirmation email it also had a second time scheduled for four weeks after at same time and place.

Technically, if you are in a queue, it is not necessarily a first come first served queue system. Obviously, the Publix queue is not. Bummer.