Portfolio

Universal Building Products

Summary
The website for Universal Building Products was created to be a full service, one-stop shop for all construction products that the company supplies. Heavy emphasis was focused on the hierarchy of products, the library of brochures and support documents, the interrelation between the two, and the searchability of all aspects of the site. Aside from the product catalog, a full, template-based content management system (CMS) was built so authorized users can quickly update page content throughout the website.

Responsibilities

Created page templates from Photoshop mock-ups. Page template are all CSS-based layouts.
Designed the database schema for the CMS-controlled portions of the website.
Optimized the database schema for the product catalog section of the website. This optimization decreased page loading times by 200%.
Created the secured administration section. The administration section allows authorized users to modify the product catalog, change content of the home page and interior pages, update the branch map, and administer the authorized users of the CMS.

Technologies
PHP, MySQL, AJAX, Adobe Flash, Google Maps API

Flinn Scientific – eLearning Website

Website
http://elearning.flinnsci.com

Summary
The eLearning solution for Flinn Scientific brings the top science teachers from around the country to the web. Schools and teachers are able to buy viewing passes and apply them to secured high-definition streaming videos of various science demonstrations. The teachers are also able to manage a future viewing list along with previous viewed videos through the player’s built-in play list.

Responsibilities

Developed the use case documentation during the discovery of the project. This was the main functionality document that was continually referred to through the life cycle of the project.
Designed the database schema for the entire eLearning system.
Created the secured administration section. The administration section allows authorized users to manage the eLearning topics and videos, add testimonials, view reports/statistics, and manage the customers and authorized administrators of the web site.
Created the data layer using LINQ to SQL. The data layer is accessed by the front-end and the administration section of the website. The entire development team utilized the same data layer.

Technologies
ASP.NET 3.5 using C#, SQL Server, LINQ to SQL, Adobe Flash, Akamai, jQuery with plugins

G. W. Thiel

Website
http://www.gwthiel.com

Summary
The human resource (HR) solution for G. W. Thiel allows the contracting company to accept, view, and process job applications in a paper-less environment. Applicants are able to register through the website and fill out a dynamic, XML-driven job application built in Adobe Flex. When the job application is completed, authorized administrators and supervisors can view, accept, and/or decline applicants. The system completely manages the process of new applicant to new hire. Once applicants become employees, the system can manage dates of upcoming performance reviews, as well as save the review information and notes for past performance reviews.

Responsibilities

Designed the database schema for the front-end website and HR system.
Created page templates for the HR system of the website.
Developed the Flex job application for the front-end. The pages and content of the Flex job application builds dynamically off of a database-driven XML file.
Created the secured HR system for the website. The HR system allows authorized users to view information about job applicants, update job applications via the Flex form, and set statuses for job applicants. The HR system also manages the current employees of the company, and allows supervisors to add performance reviews and notes on employee’s performance.
Developed the functionality for the HR system’s applicant search module. The module allows users to search for applicants within a specified radius of a zip code.

Technologies
ASP.NET 2.0 using C#, SQL Server, Adobe Flex

Modern Steel Construction

Website
http://www.modernsteel.com

Summary
The website for Modern Steel Construction (MSC) was built as a way for the magazine’s readers to view articles and columns of past issues. More importantly, the website is focused on providing a resource to the reader community by offering user-commenting on articles written by MSC staff, open posting and commenting on messages written by readers, and steel construction-related resources, such as job classifieds, industry links, and a product directory. The secured administration section allows authorized MSC staff to update all sections of the website and to moderate messages within the community.

Responsibilities

Created page templates from Photoshop mock-ups.
Integrated three separate installations of WordPress and one installation of bbPress. These installations served as the user community for the website. Each installation utilizes the same user tables in the database, and allows users to log-in to the systems all at once.
Developed the advertising component for the website. This component allows the administrators to associate graphical advertisements (of various sizes) with different sections of the website. The component also prevents the advertisements from making the page too tall by mathematically picking ads that will fill a 800px tall area.
Created the secured administration section. The administration section allows authorized users to moderate/edit the content of the WordPress installations, add magazines and magazine articles, post classified ads, manage the advertising component, and update page content throughout the website.

Technologies
PHP, MySQL, WordPress (3 instances), bbPress

Warp Bros.

Website
http://www.warpbros.com

Summary
The website for Warp Bros. allows the 85-year-old company to bring their product catalog online. The family owned and operated company wanted an online product catalog solution that extends, and complements, their traditional and well-known branding. Along with this, a secured administration section allows them to manage the hierarchy and content of the product catalog. Since the product hierachy varies greatly from one product line to another, the front-end has flexibilty so users are not presented with useless, one-item intermediate levels.

Responsibilities

Overhauled the front-end and back-end (administration) code of a previously developed product management application. The application is now much easier to maintain and the markup and logic of each page is consistent with other pages.
Redesigned and optimized the database schema to meet the needs of the content for the product catalog. The database is very flexible on how it hold the data and the descriptions of the data.
Reprogrammed the flow from categories to sections, sections to sub-sections, and sub-sections to products. Some hierarchy levels can be skipped based on the number of items in the level.
Extended the secured administration section to meet the needs of the content for the product catalog.

Technologies
ASP (classic), SQL Server

ChicagoGolfNoob.com

Websites
http://www.chicagogolfnoob.com
http://track.chicagogolfnoob.com

Summary
ChicagoGolfNoob.com (under the tag line “I’m a golf noob.”) is one of my ongoing side projects. The goal of the project is to play all of the public 9 and 18 hole golf courses within a 35 mile radius from the center of Chicago. Considering Chicagoland consists of over 100 public golf courses, this project could last me many years. To go along with this project, I built a tracking tool using CakePHP that stores all the golf courses I play, all my golfing buddies that play a round with me, and all statistics and scores from the rounds we play. The main section of the website is a customized WordPress blog that allows me to post detailed round information, as well as golf tips, terminology, game rules, products, and interesting golf-related videos.

Responsibilities

Designed and created the WordPress template for the blog section of the website. Designed and created the regular template for the tracker section of the website.
Configured a base WordPress installation to support a KML-driven Google Map, as well as Google Analytics, and Google Adsense.
Designed the database schema for the tracker portion of the website.
Created the tracker section using CakePHP. Portions of the tracker section integrate with the Google Maps API to allow pin-pointing and longitude/latitude retrieval of golf courses much easier and faster. Adding a new golf course, including plotting it’s point on the map, now takes less than one minute.

Technologies
PHP, MySQL, WordPress, CakePHP, Google Maps API, KML

The Commerce Game

Website
http://www.thecommercegame.com

Summary
The Commerce Game was developed in August 2006 as an educational teaching game for a DePaul University commerce class. Funded by the Target Corporation, the game is a supply chain management simulator that was originally developed by professors at the MIT Sloan School of Management (traditionally called the Beer Distribution Game, or the Beer Game). Due to server limitations, I was challenged to create a multi-player online game in a stateless environment. To complicate the development, the game also needed to synchronize timers for up to 40 players connected to the web on different machines. The result is a PHP/MySQL-driven, fully-moderated, online multiplayer experience that synchronizes the player’s round timers and incoming/outgoing game data through a central database.

Responsibilities

Designed the database schema for the entire game and moderator section.
Designed a basic layout that focused more on content than visual appeal.
Developed front-end logic that allows for multi-player synchronizing (via MySQL) in a stateless environment.
Developed game logic that processes incoming and outgoing data from the other players in the group.
Created the secured moderator section for the game. The moderator section allows authorized users to add other moderators, setup up game sessions, view session statuses, and control session rounds. This section also allows moderators to tweak game settings, which can dramatically alter the life cycle of the game. The settings can also be changed to accomidate slow servers.

Technologies
PHP, MySQL