Code Hardening

[bmbruno]

handle possible errors, look for brittle code, refactor as needed

Smells

• User input should be sanitized
• Objects loaded from database should be checked for null
• Method/function calls into services should have error handling
• Services should throw appropriate errors
• Complex variables (lists, etc.) should be init'd to empty objects

[bmbruno]

Added error handling for several smells with commits a8e4e97698974a5ced9eb9b5406a8d1f7c2b2b2e and 1945198664fea9ada1763b577d1aad321d857e28