Code Monkey Projects
In the sections below, I describe projects I have worked on or am currently working on. The name of the project is a link to a web page for the project where possible (some of the projects are proprietary and unavailable to the public). I list the customer I did the work for, and what kind of work I did (I may have shared the workload with others, I may have used a template or other 3rd party tool, and so forth).
Toghers - Toghers LLC
Toghers is the brainchild of Anne Togher (the founder of Toghers). It is a website dedicated to helping home caregivers (for example, someone taking care of an aging or ailing parent). It is a for-profit site with revenue from advertisements, subscriptions, product sales, and affiliations.
I did the main development and back-end work for this site. The page stylings were a group effort (Jaclyn Agy, the Toghers Marketing Director, and Phil Tobias, another fine web designer and I collaborated on the color and style choices as well as page and navigation designs). The desire was to have something soothing and welcoming. This site uses PHP, Javascript, AJAX, and Flash. The site was developed using the MODx Content Management System (CMS). The backing store is a MySQL database.
Crash Course Phase I - Parallel Consulting
Crash Course is the result of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant through the Army. The goal of the web site was to look sort of "army-ish" and to provide a clear interface to training tools for teaching driving wisdom to army personnel.
I did 100% of this site. The site uses some flash (for video), some wav files (for sounds), and does communication with another site (Pearson Knowledge Technologies' (PKT) Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) tools) through XML over http (not quite REST technology because the interface is a little simpler than that). This site was hand developed using Dreamweaver. The code is PHP and XML is used for backing stores.
Crash Course Phase II - Parallel Consulting
The Phase II portion of Crash Course is ongoing and is the result of a phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant through the Army. This site is the initial data collection site used for the Phase II work. As the project goes on, it will be expanded to include more scenarios, lessons, and so forth related to the expansion of the driving program.
I did 100% of this site. The site was developed using MODx. This site uses PHP with a backing store of MySQL, some Javascript, and AJAX.
HFD Website - HFDesignworks
HFDesignworks belongs to a colleague of mine. The site is the promotional and informational presence on the web for HFDesignworks. Scott Scheff, HFDesignworks principal, wanted a slicker look for an existing web site, selected a flash template he liked, and contacted me to do the work.
This flash site was built from a template. I altered the text and some of the layout.
UEDG Website - UEDG Services
UEDG Services belongs to Michael Nico, a colleague I know through Scott Scheff (of HFDesignworks above). This site is the primary promotion and informational presence on the web for UEDG Services. Michael saw the work I did for Scott, selected a flash template he liked, and contacted me to do the work.
This, too, is a flash site from a template. Various elements have been altered somewhat to fit the style and information the customer wanted to present.
Veridictus Website - Veridictus Associates
Veridictus Associates is a marketing consultancy specializing in data storage, management, and information technology. Bill Mottram is the head of it and wanted a site that he could largely maintain and update, but which would be a better advertisement for him on the web.
This website is from a template on Network Solutions (using Image Cafe). I aided in some of the styling and in organizing the data the customer wanted to present.
StorageTopics Blog - Veridictus Associates
As part of his advertising efforts for Veridictus Associates, Bill Mottram writes a blog. He was unhappy with how the topics were presented, and wanted some changes to make scanning his blog easier.
This blog is on blogger.com. The customer wanted to present a snippet of the blog entry, and then the whole blog entry when "view more" was clicked. The blogger template he was using did not provide this functionality, so I worked with the blogger template and added some javascript to make this happen.
Nationwide - Proxix Solutions
Nationwide is a site is focused on GIS oriented tools for determining insurance issues (fire danger, flood plains, etc.) in a region. The site is provided to Nationwide insurance by First American (formerly Proxix Solutions). The agents of Nationwide can use the site to determine risks when assessing underwriting.
The site is constructed using C#/.NET. The work I did adapted similar sites for other customers to something usable by Nationwide (largely trimming out pieces that were not necessary, changing logos, and modifying data displays to show new information). The time frame was short and many tools already existed. This is a good example of my ability to learn new systems quickly.
The site is proprietary and so I cannot offer a link to it.
Part Finder - IHS
IHS offers database services regarding mechanical and electrical parts to a wide variety of clients. The Part Finder solution was developed for their customers. Part Finder allows the customer to search parts in various ways displaying data about what parts are available as well as technical details regarding the parts.
I did some of the work here, but this is a massive undertaking. The main language is Java/JSP running on a Tomcat installation. Much of the design was in place when I was contacted. My contributions were to add some new features, fix some bugs, and so forth, all without perturbing the existing design (some of which is a little fragile). Part Finder highlights my ability to work with legacy systems without damaging them.
The site is proprietary and so I cannot offer a link to it.
ICE Tools - IHS
ICE Tools is an offering by IHS. This tool allows the customer to search the IHS database for parts and associate metadata (such as additional attributes) with the parts. The ICE Tools also keep track of which parts have been updated and which have not, so the customer can track their work flow.
The ICE tools are a desktop application written in C# on a .NET platform. The ICE tools present a set of parts to the user (which they can filter) and allows them to provide additional meta-information on those parts (for example, adding attributes relevant to the design process, mappings between attributes in multiple databases, and so forth). The interface contains multiple screens in a "wizard" style, with dependencies on user entry and database state to indicate what screens show and in what order. All in all, a somewhat sophisticated interface.
The application is proprietary and so I cannot offer a link to it.
Transformer - IHS
The personnel at IHS get data in various formats. One common one is a comma separated value (csv) file. Sometimes the data in the csv file needs to be rearranged or modified before importing it into the database. The Transformer tool automates much of that process.
The Transformer is a tool written in Java/JSP and is deployed as a web application. The user creates a mapping of input field names to output field names, provides an input comma separated value file, and the tool produces an output file also in comma separated value format. Multiple input fields can be mapped to single output fields, and fields can be selected as keys (for later use when importing to a database).
The application is proprietary and so I cannot offer a link to it.
Calor Novus Website - A gaming group
If you have visited the Hobbies page, you know I play some historically based games. This site supports the group I play with, aiding us in keeping track of what has happened in our story. I have done some recent updates to the site, so it shows more current work on my part. It is more ajax-y and web 2.0-ish.
This site was done using modx.1.0. The main code is PHP, the site uses javascript for ajax functionality, with MySQL for the data storage.
Mile Hi FSBO website - A Real Estate Web Site
I did this web site for a friend. He is in the real estate business and wanted a site where home owners could list the property they were trying to sell. It is a membership based site.
I did all the initial coding and worked from page descriptions provided by my friend. This was my first site using the 1.0 version of modx.