I joined the development team at 6 Degrees to help build new internal systems based on existing code and databases, but utilising modern tools and techniques such as the Symfony2 platform.

The HPO use an innovative web based system to challenge the status quo of the manpower intensive auditing industry. Their system has been evolving for the last few years and it needed to be redesigned and rewritten from the ground to take advantage of the latest technology and techniques.Based on existing functionality and new requirements from the company, I created a new architecture and database design and implemented the main administrative application. The new system is based on a REST compliant server implemented in PHP with CodeIgniter, and a client application mostly written in Javascript using MVC principles, using AJAX interaction with the server and utilising jQuery and handlebars.js templating.Also during this time I was supporting the existing system, needing to quickly understand the old code and locate problems in addition to adding new functionality to support ongoing client requests.

I was brought in to help refactor an existing monolithic PHP system consisting of multiple pages and sub applications. All the SQL and database interaction code was moved into separate model files using the mysqli library, decoupling the main application from the database. Once this had been completed, all the HTML was removed and the Smarty templating engine used to split out presentation. The new code base is much cleaner and easier to extend and maintain going forward.I also provided some architectural and development advice on a new application they were about to start developing.

Contracted to help enhance and consolidate existing systems that aid the sales team and provide customer information. The work involved understanding existing databases and applications, adding functionality, designing a new common database and merging multiple systems together into one platform for the whole business. Working with MySQL and PHP.

Joined Boost Juice Bars Malaysia and Singapore, working remotely from the UK, to design and develop a completely new sales and inventory analysis system that would allow detailed, highly flexible analysis of sales trends and operating costs. I knew very little about Retail operations when joining the company and had to learn fast, including spending time in-store serving customers!The new system provides managers with on-demand, real-time reports to enable performance analysis of day to day sales, marketing promotions, cost of goods, shrinkage etc. The aim of the system is to provide advanced analysis previously reserved for large retail chains. Written in PHP and Javascript with a MySQL database and utilizing AJAX, jQuery and CSS.

My primary role was as a software engineer working with the C language but also used the opportunity to develop my skills creating applications using PHP, MySQL databases and dynamic HTML in combination with stand alone C server applications. The major products I designed and implemented are explained in brief below, I also worked on many smaller projects.Service Performance Monitor: An SOA application comprising PHP, MySQL and C components that processes Call Detail Records and generates usage statistics that are available for on-demand analysis using a web-based interface. The largest installation is used by T-Mobile to record and analyse their customer services traffic and processes over 16 million call records a day. In order to reach this high throughput, performance analysis and tuning using MySQL tools was required and modifications to the queries and server configuration allowed us to reach these goals using a relatively inexpensive commodity server. Database replication was implemented to provide hot backup and extra read performance, and table partitioning provided performance benefits and simplified archiving the large amount of data collected.SCP - Service Control Point: A server application used to control Intelligent Network telecoms equipment to enable advanced call handling and caller interaction. The SCP is managed through a comprehensive web-based front end written in PHP and utilizing Javascript and AJAX. A MySQL database contains all configuration and scripts and is replicated to provide the dual redundancy required for network infrastructure.CDR-Safe: A C application to retrieve Call Detail Records from telecoms switches, process the raw binary files into various different formats and transmit to other applications ( such as billing systems ) as required, ensuring a guaranteed, fault-tolerant, sequential feed.