It gets complicated: My love/hate relationship with Greensboro 101

The way in which the complexity of a data-driven website can quickly explode both fascinates and frustrates me. I am amazed by the abilities of the popular web application programming combination of JavaScript, PHP and MySQL, which are what drive Greensboro 101, but there is not much room for error. The code never responds with "I think this is what you mean to do;" the instructions are either executable or not. Get it right and it's a thrill often provoking an involuntary "woo yeah"; forget an ' or include an extra ; and everything can come to a grinding halt. Figuring out what is wrong can be maddening but for a walk around the block or a glass of Scotch, depending.

When I added the "Just blogs" section to the main page of the new Greensboro 101, I did so by recycling the code that generates the "Latest" items, making the changes necessary to only retrieve items from blogs. It appeared to work and, for the most part, did. Alas, I forgot to change what must be a unique code for each "Recommend this item" button. So, if you tried to recommend an item in the new "Just blogs" tab, nothing appeared to happen. (Recommendations were recorded, there was just no feedback to the user.) A detail overlooked. Fortunately, not a critical one. Important, but it didn't send the site into a coma.

It's fixed now. Thanks to user BK for bringing the glitch to my attention.

Source: http://roch101.blogspot.com/2011/04/it-gets-complicated-my-lovehate.html

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