I am web developer, server administrator, computer geek, and technophile living in the beautiful southeast region of Idaho. I am currently available for contracting or employment, full or part-time. My resume is posted and available for download at Indeed.com. If you are interested in contacting me, you can reach me there or at brian.c.heath at gmail.com.
I have been working on a content management system for a few months off and on, and this website is that CMS.
The website is written in PHP using Laravel, with MySQL as the database. The client-facing and admin pages are written using Laravel's template system, jQuery, Bootstrap, CSS3, and LESS. All of the content on this site is written utilizing the CMS, and all data is stored in the database.
All of the developing has been done on my computer locally. I use Git as my repository for the code, and the site is served by a shared hosting provider. Using SSH, I connect to my server and navigate the Linux system to deploy, update, and test the site. For larger companies I would add another development and/or beta server for complete testing with more extensive or live data.
I worked with their development team based in Boulder, CO, and together we created an in-depth and extremely complex system for the marketing team. They would utilize the software we wrote to run email marketing campaigns for companies such as Sprint, Hanes, and Ralph Lauren, just to name a few.
The back-end was written in Java, using MSSQL. The front-end heavily used AngularJS, jQuery, CSS3, Backbone, and some JSP. We used Eclipse with STS for our IDE, as well as Git, BitBucket, SourceTree, and Bamboo for all of our projects. We would work on two-week sprints and used Fibonacci numbers as our estimates.
Neowire is a company that broke off from Zeta and started their own venture. Also based in Boulder, I worked remotely for the company during their starting up phase.
We used Microsoft Azure for serving and hosting, C# for the back-end, and MSSQL for the database. The pages were written with HTML, CSS3, jQuery, and AngularJS.
I created all administrator pages including but not limited to report-generating pages, custom website-building pages, client management, and search pages.
I was contracted to create a site for their loyalty program. They gave me the images and design then told me what they wanted. I was the sole developer.
The site was written in PHP with AngularJS, jQuery, and CSS3. MySQL is the database being used, and it uses Twilio for the SMS messaging.
The entire site was created from scratch from the client-side, to the web hooks and SMS services, to the admin pages, and the functionality therein. More screenshots available on request.
Through word of mouth, I was brought on to help the designers fix issues and add functionality.
The site is a WordPress site, so most of the development was in PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, and CSS. I would modify plug-ins, add features like a custom carousel, video manipulation, and a very large amount of general CSS work.
The website has since changed a lot of what is on their website.
Another WordPress site, this one still has all of the work that I did.
Again, it was all PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, and CSS. With these WordPress sites, there is extensive CSS manipulation in order to get them to look correctly. I had to heavily modify and create plugins to achieve what is there now. While the content was all provided, I worked on everything from the menus to the carousels to the interactive images and the pages they link to.
One could say that with all I had worked on with these WordPress sites, there's a reason why I wrote this CMS myself. ;-)
Sadly, all of the work that I've done over the years is now gone from the site since the store changed owners. This was a long-term contracting job that was also a word of mouth referral.
The site I created was written in PHP with MySQL as the database. It used the standard assortment of jQuery and CSS. When I had created this, Kohana was the PHP framework that I used. One of the major features worth mentioning was the automatic updating of the New York Times' weekly bestseller list on the website. Via a cron job, the system would gather this data via their API. Then, using Amazon's API, it would grab the books' data to parse the images and descriptions to regularly update the site. This was especially nice for the proprietors of the shop who did not want to constantly update the information.
Along side with Zeta Interactive, this website was one of the most intricate, in-depth, and complicated sites I have ever worked on. ...and it was probably the most fun.
I used PHP and MySQL for the back-end, and JavaScript, jQuery, and CSS for the front.
Because this is a credit site, I had worked with Microbilt, Braintree, Geezeo, American Express, and their APIs extensively. The nature of the site, and fact that we collected SSNs, bank information, and paycheck data, meant that security was of the utmost importance. During my time of developing when this venture first started, I was the sole developer. I worked with the proprietor and a designer who was a colleague that I've done several projects together with over the years. There was a lot of figuring-things-out as we went, but what we had created was ahead of its time.
Yes, that was my actual job title. I thought the CEO was kidding about that, but then I received my business cards in the mail to prove it.
SwitchGames was a peer-to-peer marketplace for gamers, by gamers. We would facilitate trading, buying, and selling of videos games between users. We offered trading insurance, custom printable postage, mail tracking, Twitter & Facebook integration, member verification, gamers' personal gaming pages, and plenty more.
The site was created with CSS, ExtJS, and backed by PHP. MSSQL was used as the database for storing the ~8,000 users and all of their data. The site also extensively used APIs for USPS, Endicia, Thawte, PayPal, and IGDB.
As a result of scheduling and assorted life issues, I became the sole developer at about 25% progress into the project. I was made CTO and part owner of the company, joining the CEO and the CFO. Some years later, a prospective deal to sell the company unfortunately fell through, and that marked the beginning of the end for the company. I still think about starting it back up again, from time to time.
I was referred to a lady and her family who had a wonderful idea for a wish-list site. After a few meetings, I started working on some ideas for their web presence and what you see now is a result of that.
PHP powers the website, with the help of native JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, CSS3, MySQL, and Kohana. The most intricate part to all of this, though, is the massive native JS I had written. The code would be run from a user's browser bar, like a bookmark, to allow users to add an item to their "pic'd list". The web app would pull images and data from the current site, and then provide a nice modal-interface to allow the user to access their lists and items to add, change, or remove them. The code was written to be compliant for every browser, operating system, and platform.
I started my current venture into programming in the late 90's. I began with HTML and quickly saw the benefits of using CSS, so I immersed myself in both opportunities. After a short time, I saw all of the neat tricks you could do with JavaScript, so with that I was onto the next big adventure learning all about its versatile uses.
Around the turn of the millennia I was introduced to PHP. It was like a dream - the sky was the limit! I started to churn out web application after web application for the startup company I was working for. Not only was I able to make every single employee of the company much more efficient, but I was also able to reduce costs and increase profits for the company as a whole. That time period had changed me forever to a Web Developer.
And, as they say, the rest is history.
Now over 20 years later, I'm still passionate about programming and development and I'm always striving to learn more to better myself as a programmer and as a person. One individual alone cannot possibly know everything about it, but once you get your head wrapped around an idea, theory, or practice, I feel that it can be applied to new and unknown areas in both programming and in life.