Phuc's Portfolio

Details retained for privacy. Resume upon request.

Education:

Bachelor's Degree in Web Technology.

Web Work:

Build websites & program applications, web technology consultant. Mobile sites & basic iPhone Apps. Technical support experience at the University. Freelance & corporate experience since 2005.

Code:

PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, Prototype, JSON, DHTML, (X)HTML, CSS, AJAX, ColdFusion, PERL (w/Catalyst framework & template toolkit), some familiarity: XML, PROGRESS 4GL/database, Java (& GUI), some SpeedScript, Objective-C

Databases:

Sybase (w/SPRs), MySQL, SQL, some PROGRESS

Environments/Servers:

Subversion, Windows, Macintosh, Linux/Unix (terminal environment), Apache, IIS, Webspeed

Applications:

Joomla (Open source CMS), Gimp (like Photoshop), some Wordpress, DreamWeaver, Zend, Safari, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Macromedia Homesite, Eclipse, Firefox, IE, Chrome, & more

Other:

W3C standards, cross browser testing, accessibility, table-LESS design, some search engine optimization (SEO), information architecture, publishing, graphic manipulation, familiarity with e-commerce (online shopping buying/selling), basic hardware, & more

My Work: Websites Web Applications Other Related Activities

Web Applications

My web application experience includes:

Content Management System (CMS)
basic iPhone applications: My 1st iPhone App
Front-End (scripting/programming) & Back-End (databases)
Fixing technical bugs

PROGRESS & New Technologies

It's RARE to find PROGRESS developers, so I got familiar with PROGRESS database, 4GL, SpeedScript, & WebSpeed, for a company, to integrate newer technologies (PHP, AJAX, Prototype, adv CSS & JavaScript), and start rebuilding their entire 20 yr old CRM. It was the most challenging to learn because it's unlike other code, with limited documentation, and docs aren't for beginners.

"Auto Complete" aka "Auto Suggest"

Like Google search, as users start typing in a search box, a drops down of clickable suggestions dynamically appear. Complex process, integrated unrelated PROGRESS 4GL, PHP, AJAX & Prototype.

Web Technology Consultant

Company desired to get up-to-date with the latest technologies. The 20+ yr old CRM system needed more than basic HTML, JavaScript & interface from the 90s. I assessed company's needs, examined competitors' websites, provided valuable advice on what newer technologies can be use (depending on projects), educated them on web standards of today, and suggested how to move forward, planning for the future. I also suggested a more modern development environment and project management.

User Downloads System

Designed and programmed entirely by scratch, this system allows customers to apply for an account to get access to exclusive downloads. Built an admin system that allow company to control access, & manage users. Download area is hierarchy directory structure. For security, application form is provided with CAPTCHA, checks for required fields, and valid email formats. Like most sign ups, once user is approved, they receive an email (which verifies that email is theirs), a temporary password, in which they have to change to activate their account. The system makes sure user has permission and logged in to download files, (there are no direct url links to access to files) & logs out users after a periods of inactivity. Built with PHP, MYSQL, AJAX, etc.

OR-Live

With the lack of ColdFusion developers around, this Broadcast company, (in the health industry), was looking for a consultant who could go in and pick up a new programming language to lend them a hand. So I learned ColdFusion, started assignments ASAP on the first day, then after a week or two, got the hang of ColdFusion and the company's development environment. Assignments included collaborating with account managers, developers and design team to set up customized microsites, maintain them, and write scripts to customize components like forms, login authentications, etc, from client requests. From there the broadcast/production teams use the site for client Flash webcasts. Dreamweaver was used to code.

Rivalwire

This company who provides web applications in the sports industry, needed a hand with client work. So I got familiar with PERL, Catalyst (Framework), Template ToolKit, jQuery and the MVC model. Assignments included converting old site to the new site design (according to web designer specs) using the Model Viewer Controller concept, which is the separation of backend (database), front end code (HTML, CSS, etc, what you see displayed on websites), and the code that makes calls the database to retrieve data or insert. The reason why MVC is useful is because it is easier to manage on developers end, and better performance on user end. I spent time separating, breaking up code, re-building applications, and creating different forms and search pages. Aptana editor, subversion source control, and MySQL database were used also.

Dynamic Search

One of Rivalwire's client is a college athlete recruiting network site; I helped build a mechanism that works with SEO friendly links so that when a coach selects a sport and/or gender from the drop, it will search the database and list random athletes of that gender of that sport with their school info, city, state, etc. The URL will reflect that with ../[sport]/[gender] Each athlete info is clickable, so clicking on the high school's name would bring a list of other athletes from their high school, clicking on a state would show athletes from that state, and clicking on athletes name would bring to their detailed profile page and links to videos, info, and so forth. I also worked on the high schools pages, teams, and college pages.

To get into the technical details, JavaScript using the jQuery library is used in an entirely separate js file and is not written or called from the actual template or page where all the coding lies.

When user fills out a contact form and clicks submit, a binded jQuery event is automatically called on that button by id reference, which checks the required input fields in the front-end, and if valid, uses jQuery AJAX call to process data back-end and send to site's administrator. JSON, a JavaScript method of formatting data to return data with AJAX is used with a message template to return a message to the user on front-end, that the form has been submitted. The back-end code that gathers all the data sent to admins, are in the Catalyst controller and model files. AJAX calls the Catalyst controller (PERL file), which gathers all the POST variables submitted, and calls the send email subroutine/function in Controller files; if any database interaction is need to be made, it is done in the Model files. Whatever variables/data results that are "stashed" back-end can be retrieved by other Controller files and also on template side to display to the users. All the layout markup gets placed in a template and uses external CSS for formatting.

School Management

Another project involved creating an interface for the site admin to manage and gather all the athletes who inputted schools that didn't already exist in the database. There were groups of athletes who had put in the same schools, city and state. So the Admin interface lists the non-existent schools, city,state, and how many athletes put the same thing, allowing admin to create the new school into the database or associate with an existing school that the athletes might have meant to put in (maybe because of misspelled it or different abbreviations.

When admin clicks a school in the div, (child of div id reference e.g. $("#id1 div").bind("click",theFunction)), the jQuery "click" event is called to submit the form and redirect to the add/edit school interface. Back-end takes the first 3 letters of the non-existant school, searches like schools in the same state, and gives admin a list of suggested schools. PERL sort functions that I created organizes the school by city and name and displays it in a select drop down on template side. There are also a lot of the behind the scenes jQuery code that I have included, which dynamically sets hidden fields values with information that will also be inserted into the database.

Intertech Media

A web software company in the radio industry (including clients such as CBS radio and Entercom), I helped build new modules and improve existing modules for their company-built content management system (CMS). When a radio station wants a website, the design team starts off for them by using the CMS to build out the site for them and radio stations can continue update and maintain their content through the CMS. There are management tools for pages, images, videos, podcasts, polls, forms, forum and so forth. Whatever is edited back end (e.g. adding text onto a pae), will show up front-end (on the page itself to the viewers). Zend editor, subversion, Sybase database, development/QA/Live servers, were used as well.

"Rate a Picture"

I integrated "Image Gallery" and the existing "Rating Content" to be its own application similar to the popular "Hot or Not," but instead called "Rate a Picture." Basically stations would upload images back end, then fans of the radio stations go onto the site and rate that picture on a scale from 1 to 5. Through a combination of ajax, php, and javascript, the rating gets saved into the Sybase database, and the user gets redirected to the next image to rate. The upper left corner will show the previously rated picture with the average ratings below it. The stations have the option back-end through the station configurables to hide/show average as well as limit the amount of ratings that can be done per picture; (Once, Once a week, Unlimited, etc controlled by cookies).

Because there are over 1000 radio station sites that update their pages and also have articles expire everyday, it is hard to find example links for all the projects I have worked on. In addition, some projects are not for public viewing.

"Picture of the Day"

Based off the existing "Image Gallery" and "Events Calendar" but built as its own separate component. Stations could upload pictures back-end and set the dates they want to show as the "picture of the day." Front end detects the date according to the station's time zone to determine which picture is scheduled to show up for that day. There's a monthly calendar directly below the "picture of the day" so that fans of the stations can view thumbnails of the past "picture of the day." When user clicks on the thumbnails, they see the full size image on top and they can flip through the previous months.

Here is an example of a corporation using it at the moment as "Funny" picture of the day.
http://www.sagainteractive.com/Of-the-Day-Options/2042007

Please also note that app may have been changed by the company since then.

"Google Site Maps"

Users have the ability to add, edit, delete links to their radio station pages and set the settings listed here: XML Tag Definitions The purpose is so that station clients have an easy user interface with no xml experience required, so that the sitemap.xml is automatically generated for them based on what they put in.

"Forms"

I worked with other developers build a javascript powered drag and drop editor to give clients the ability to dynamically create forms, with a variety options for form field types (radio buttons, check boxes, text areas, input boxes, etc), and the ability to put text labels and form fields in any arrangement position desired. It also allowed grouping of fields like radio buttons and checkboxes. There was already a form creator in the CMS that was non-drag and drop, but we rebuilt that from scratch to integrate it to the new forms

Bugs

Nothing is built 100% perfect 100% of the time. When I see a bug, I try to kill it. If it's reported by a customer, I request the steps taken to replicate it and then I manually examine the script. Every bug is unique for a huge CMS so it takes digging around and really understanding the system and what each section of the code does.

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I enjoyed the fact that Sybase stored procedures were used in the company, which was an efficient way to reuse database commands without having to rewrite it. In addition, SPR's flexibility allowed us to use the commands with different parameters in any order.