Web Developer

Dev skills overview: PHP, mySQL, Linux, jQuery, Mootools, Codeigniter, Flash & Actionscript, SVNX

I'm a keen web developer. Pretty fussy about plaforms, though. I prefer to work on LAMP setups and my server-side programming expertise is exclusively PHP. This very website has been built using a hand-built CMS of my own creation, based on the Codeigniter framework. Codeigniter's performance benchmarks, coupled with a great userbase have made it a fantastic framework, and it's 'loose' implementation of the MVC idea mean that you've got a bit of flexibility too.

As a developer I'm always aware of loading time and server load, so I'm currently working on a really stripped back framework which will aim to serve pages rapidly at the expense of coding ease - this is always the trade-off: make it too easy to code, and the performance of the page suffers. Check back on that one, but for now Codeigniter works very nicely.

Background

My interest in programming started with Flash and basic actionscripting in the late 90s. This developed into simple game programming in both Flash and DarkBASIC. Taking Computer Science at A-Level allowed me to continue this interest more seriously and the syllabus covered C,C++ and Visual Basic. I developed simple games and applications (network chat applications over the school network, tic tac toe games etc). The final project required me rebuilding the school library system in Visual basic. At this stage it was not merely the scripting that was satisfying, but the combination of an attractive and intuitive user interface with great functionality.

I continued to improve my scripting at Uni where the computer animation course covered Flash and HTML modules. My introduction to PHP allowed my to build on the database programming from A-Level and combine it with Flash and HTML, which has continued to this day.

Recent projects

(Check out the web design section)

All my development projects have been either hand-coded from scratch using scripted procedures (more like Wordpress) or with Frameworks such as CI, but many have been varied in their requirements from the client. In 2009 my work as lead developer for the Race of Champions website meant creating bespoke driver and race management features, cache routines for high web traffic and custom Javascript coding. The project took me over to Beijing to for the event and experience the joy of heavily policed national internet restrictions.

2008's Salon Business project was an entire community build, with photo sharing, commenting and discussions. Naturally membership and security were factors here and project timeline meant a rapid turnaround was necessary. Implementation of Mootools javascript framework and Codeigniter meant as much of the given development time could be focussed on the brief as possible.

2009 LYSNET project required a fully bespoke cloud-based management system for luxury motor yachts. This was commissioned by Large Yacht Solutions who are currently using the sytem to manage Georgio Armani's luxury motor yacht, MARIU. The sytem has various access levels, user creation and restriction settings, reminders, calendars and dynamic filing features, where files can be organised into folders and uploaded onto server for storage. The server-side portion of the project was handled with Codeigniter, while the user interface was scripted with jQuery.

Typically my development work involves building content management systmes for clients with specific requirements, and integrating these systems with a controllable front-end interface. Take a look at the web section to see examples of my web work. Some of the projects are merely static xHTML and CSS projects, while others will have been built into a CMS of my creation.