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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-18T06:43:59+00:00

The previous programmer left the website in pretty unusable state, and I am having

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The previous programmer left the website in pretty unusable state, and I am having difficulty modifying anything. I am new to web design so I don’t know whether my skills are a mismatch to this kind of job or is it normal in the real industry to have websites like these

  1. The Home page includes three frames
  2. Each of these frames have their own javascript functions ( between <head>, and also call other common javascript functions (using <script src=..>
  3. Excessive usage of document.all – in fact the elements are referred or accessed by document.all only.
  4. Excessive usage of XSLT and Web Services – Though I know that using Web Services is generally considered a good design choice – is there any other way I can consume these services other than using xslt. For example, the menu is created using the data returned by a web method.
  5. Every <div>, <td> and every other element has an id, and these id’s are manipulated by the javascript functions, and then some appropriate web service and the xslt files are loaded based on these..
  6. From the security perspective, he used T-SQL's for xml auto for most of the data that is returned by the web service – is it a good choice from the security standpoint to expose the table names and column names to the end user??

I am a lot confused about the state of the application itself. Should I learn about the intricacies that he has developed and continue working on it, or should I start rewriting everything? What I am perplexed a lot is the lack of alternatives – and whether this is the common way web projects are handled in the real world or was it an exception?

Any suggestions, any pointers are welcome. Thanks

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    No, it is not acceptable in this industry that people keep writing un-maintainable code.

    My advice to you is to go up the chain and convince everyone that this needs to be rewritten. If they question you, find an external consultant with relevant web development skills to review the application (for 1 day).

    Keeping this website as-is, because it ‘works’ is like keeping a working model Ford-T car on today’s highways, very dangerous. Security and maintenance costs are likely the most persuading topics to convince anyone against keeping this site ‘as-is’.

    Next, get yourself trained, it will pay off if you can rewrite this application knowing the basics. Todays technology (asp.net MVC) allows you to implement core business value faster than trying to maintain this unconventionally written app.

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