At the back end, we use LAMP bundled with a little bit of a twist. MySQL is really good for keeping and querying a user ID and matching it with additional personal info. At a higher level, we use Python to synchronize objects such as videos and resumes to profiles stored through MySQL, Python also has more flexibility with search tags and so on. We use Solr to talk to Python, to relay and retrieve data during search operations. PHP comes in as the kind of bridge we need to communicate between the HTML and the back-end so that the user can get what they want to be presented with.
At the front end, we use Django as our framework. We like Django’s loose coupling and strict separation between pieces of an application’s philosophy. It’s very easy to make changes to one particular piece of the application without affecting the other pieces. For example, in view functions, it’s very important to separate the business logic from the presentation logic by using a template system. With the database layer, we’re applying that same philosophy to data access logic. Django is well suited for making database-driven Web sites. Amazon.com is a great example of a database-driven site. We also like Django’s URLconf system that encourages the use of pretty URLs by making them easier to use than not to.
