Project Summary
As part of a full site build, the client requested a custom rosary builder with dynamic option selection. Certain rosary components are incompatible or may not match, requiring options to load and unload dynamically based on previous selections. Additionally, each rosary part is a separate product, necessitating real-time inventory tracking.
Project History
This was one of the most challenging builds of my career. I was given this project just 3–4 months into my first web development job, with no prior example of anything similar within the company. A salesperson even described it as "the most complex customization I've ever sold."
The Custom Rosary Builder has undergone several iterations. The first version was built around the client’s existing product database, but it didn’t account for the performance impact of loading hundreds of options on a single page, resulting in slow load times. Over the years, I applied incremental fixes to improve performance, but a full overhaul was ultimately necessary.
With BigCommerce’s introduction of GraphQL and the client’s flexibility in restructuring their product database, I was finally able to rebuild the customization properly. The result is the version that’s live on their site today—optimized, scalable, and built to handle the complexity it required from the start.
This project is one of my favorites. It felt like a trial by fire, and there were moments when I doubted whether I could pull it off. But with the support of my senior developers and a trusted coworker and friend, I pushed through and made it happen.