Tried to add a simple search bar and broke my whole site for 3 hours

I was coding at my kitchen table last Tuesday, just trying to add a search bar to my practice blog. I copied some jQuery code from a tutorial, pasted it in, and suddenly my whole homepage went blank. Took me 2 hours to realize I forgot to close a script tag, then another hour to undo the mess. Has anyone else had a tiny typo wreck their whole project like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_riley10d ago

Take it easy on yourself, a blank page doesn't mean you have to restart your whole life. You probably wasted more time panicking than actually fixing the problem. Honestly, half the time a broken site just needs you to step away for 20 minutes and come back with fresh eyes.

victorhernandez10d ago

Had the same thing happen with a missing comma in a JSON file once. 4 hours gone just staring at a white screen. You using localhost with something like XAMPP or just opening the HTML file in your browser?

shane_morgan10d ago

Did you try using a real server with proper error logging? That blank page would have shown the error instantly instead of you blindly guessing for 3 hours.