Scope of works: Web design, Wordpress CMS, web hosting, email server and maintenance

A brand new plumbing and construction company asked me to put together a web site.  Their initial budget for web marketing was quite tight, so the solution had to be quick to implement, and easy for them to update.

I put together the framework for the web site using Wordpress v3 hosted on my dedicated web hosting servers.  Using Wordpress meant the web site could be created quickly and All Star Plumbing Ltd could update the content themselves, they could even add new pages.

To get the most out of the theme selected, I hand code and altered portions of the theme code.  This meant the content was laid out appropriately and the branding was attuned for All Star Plumbing Ltd.

All Star Plumbing web site (click to enlarge)

Scope of works: Software development

Whilst developing a new interactive kiosk product a requirement arose for web browser functionality that included an automatic timeout to a default web site on inactivity feature, filtering web pages and allowing navigation to specific web sites only.

I could not produce this functionality with any of the existing web browser applications, even using some of the multitude of rich and varied web browser add-ons currently available, so I had to develop my own software solution.

Using Visual Basic 6 with Microsoft Internet Controls, I developed a web browser with an automatic timeout feature, web address, mySQL database integration, content filtering and comprehensive administrative logging.

Custom web browser application - click to enlarge

Scope of works: Web development

I am always looking to expand my software development repertoire so I have delved into the wonderful, rich world of Facebook Application Development and Facebook Markup Language.

When learning a new language I always find it helpful to develop something you would find useful or interesting. With this in mind, I wanted to create a Facebook fan page for my online portfolio and have the ability to show on my website the current number of Facebook fans, and give new people the opportunity to become fans.

So, I started by creating my own Facebook fan page, unsurprisingly called www.johncove.co.uk. This is viewable by visiting http://www.facebook.com/pages/wwwjohncovecouk.

The next step was to develop a widget to show the existing fans of my Facebook page and also allow Facebook users to become fans to the page. Using Facebook Markup Language (FBML), I created the following widget:-

I have started to develop my own Facebook application, so check back soon or become a fan of my online portfolio in Facebook and receive an update as soon as the application is released.

Scope of works: Programming, software development and web sites

When giving the general public the opportunity to enter their personal details, such as their email address, on an interactive kiosk, you have to be prepared to filter incorrect, fake or false information and where possible correct it.

I noticed when the general public entered their email addresses they often got the name of well known email addresses incorrect.  For example, joebloggs@hhotmail.com and joebloggs@aool.com, which should be joebloggs@hotmail.com and joebloggs@aol.com respectively.

To deal with this issue, I wrote a PHP script with MySQL data access code to interrogate email addresses in field of a table within a database.  The script identified typical email address entry errors and corrected them.  Once the script had finished, it reported on all originally entered email addresses, the new corrected email addresses and a red or green status indicator.

Once the script is complete, the amount of correct email addresses within a system increases.  Which, from a marketing and advertising perspective, can only be advantageous.

The script also includes an undo feature and manual deletion of duplicate email addresses.

Email address cleaner (click to enlarge)

Scope of work: Programming and Software development 

After development and deployment of a digital signage network, maintenance and monitoring is paramount.  To improve remote media player health monitoring, I wrote an application in Visual Basic.NET that takes a current screen grab, collates health information such as CPU temperature, free hard drive space, critical errors etc and uploads this vital information to a central ftp and web server. 

Once this information has been uploaded it can be used to form part of an administrative web site to monitor the health and status of a digital signage network in real time.  If there is an issue to resolve, it is good practice to install remote access software to gain control of the media player as if you were standing infront of it.

Below is a screen shot of a web site I wrote using ASP which displays the vital digital signage network information on a single web page that automatically refreshes with the latest information every 5 minutes.  If there is a potential problem with a media player, the monitoring staff will know about it within 5 minutes.  It is also an effective way of ensuring the correct screen content is playing and the digital signage software is running correctly.

Remote media player monitor (click to enlarge)

Scope of work: Programming and Software development

Most digital signage networks utilise some kind of XML feed containing anything from latest news to weather.  But how do you get this information onto your digital signage?

XML is a data delivery language that stands for “Extensible Markup Language” and allows users to define their own elements for sharing structured data.

Sports news feed as it appears on the infoScreen

Below is a single markup and content item extracted from a typical XML feed.  In this case, it is used to produce the newsfeed item in the above screen shot taken from the infoScreen, which forms part of the patient infoPoint system I developed for Surgery Media Systems.


<Heading>
Inter 2-1 Chelsea
</Heading>

XML feed parsed into a database - click to enlarge

Now that the XML newsfeed markup and content items are contained in an industry standard database, the information can be directly accessed by digital signage software, third party applications and web sites with the help of standard database access object code.

It is then possible to develop additional functionality. In this case a news story item approval procedure using a basic web site, as below:-

News approval web site - click to enlarge

The same information can also be used to populate stories and headlines on a web site, as below:-

The public health portal - click to enlarge

Like anything, once the basics have been mastered, the possibilities are endless!

Scope of works: Software development and web technologies

The infoMessenger is a web based appointment by text message and email reminder application primarily directed at appointment based businesses, such as dentists and hairdressers.

With the aid of Adobe Micromedia Dreamweaver CS3 and Notepad++ I developed the web site using HTML, CSS, PHP5 and AJAX using Javascript.  For the concept, design and images I used Adobe Photoshop CS3.  The database was designed and hand coded using mySQL.

I set up a web server to host the application using Linux and incorporating Apache for the web server and Linux cron jobs for the scheduled database and web site backup.

Appointment reminders can be sent out immediately or scheduled to be sent at any time in the future.  A full CRM facility means the appointment manager can send out reminders quickly and easy from a database of clients they have already entered, or simply add new client details.

Following its general release in 2010, this web application is now being used in 15 plus dental surgeries and continues to expand.

Log in screen

Welcome and main screen

Sending a reminder screen

Sending a reminder screen