Freelance PHP full stack developer

Highly experienced in database application development

Skilled in a variety of object-orientated programming languages

Expert in desktop and mobile applications

About me

I am an IT professional with over 25 years commercial programming experience. During this time I have worked on everything from mainframe emulation systems, aviation subsystem simulators, educational CD-ROMs, bespoke content management systems, publishing processes to database driven websites.

I have commercial experience in using a multitude of languages including C, C++, Java, PHP, Flex to name just a few.

I now work remotely on a freelance basis.

If you're looking for an experienced, dedicated and exceptionally motivated developer for your project, then please don't hesitate to contact me.

"Andy worked on my development team at Accedo and helped deliver a number of key features for one of our clients. Andy proved himself as a very capable Roku developer and always willing. Hopefully we’ll work again in the near future."

Mark Paramor ~ Engineering Director at Accedo
"Andy is a very dependable and talented individual with strong people skills that I would highly recommend to another business. Andy was hired to develop our Hopster app for the Roku TV platform and although I was a manager with no prior TV experience, Andy was very patient and explained everything with a brilliant attitude so that I could learn from his expertise and we could build a high quality experience. The app is still highly featured on Roku TV due to Andy’s hard work he put in and motivation to do the best job possible."

Ryan Courtier ~ Senior Producer at Hopster
"We used Andy to develop the back end on a PHP project for a commercial estate agent website and also do the integration work with an API. He was quick and very thorough and was happy to suggest additional options and solutions that we'd not thought of. We'd definitely use him again :)"

Andy Chemney ~ Marketing Consultant ignition CBS Ltd
"Andy is a great PHP developer who worked really well within our team even when working remotely from Spain. He worked very hard to help us deliver a critical project and put in lots of very long days to help us get there. I would certainly recommend Andy to anyone needing a solid PHP developer on their team."

James Cannings ~ Chief Technical Officer at MMT Digital
"Andy is an exceptional developer, who is equally skilled at writing new applications as adapting others work. He communicates well with colleagues and customers. He has a positive approach to work that is very motivating to the teams he works with."

George Sallows ~ Senior Technical Architect at Pearson Education
"Andy is an excellent software developer with a wide breadth of knowledge and very strong design, analytical and implementation skills. I would have no hestitation in recommending Andy for any software development role."

Roy Margolis ~ Technical Director at the Learning Clinic
"Andy is clearly very able technically but what sets him apart is his interpersonal skills - he listens, understands and interprets a client's needs without difficulty. He's a great team player with a big personality that makes work fun and easy. Nothing is too much trouble for him."

Julia King ~ Digital Publishing Consultant

Get in Touch

If you are interested in working with me, get in touch at...

Curriculum Vitae

Summary

An IT professional with over 25 years commercial programming experience:

Extensive experience in delivering Web and CD-based software projects
Highly proficient software developer with a rich and varied set of programming language skills
Excellent written and verbal communication in technical contexts
Deep and broad knowledge of technology with experience working individually and as part of a large team
Specialist experience developing interactive software for the education market
Specialist experience developing e-commerce systems

Skills

Software/Scripting Languages	Object-Orientated PHP 7, Doctrine 2 ORM, MVC, jQuery, Java/J2EE/J2SE/Swing, Visual C/C++, OO JavaScript, Visual Basic, Action Script 2 & 3, PHPUnit, Zend Framework 1 & 2, HTML5, CSS3, Ajax, REST, XSL, XML, XSD, XSLT, SPARQL, BrightScript, Slim, Twitter Bootstrap API, Amazon web services, backbone.js, Highcharts charting library
DBMS	SAPdb, Oracle 10g Enterprise Edition, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Access, SQL, ODBC/JDBC, SQLite
Operation Systems	Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OSX
Web Servers/CMS systems	Microsoft IIS, Apache Server/Tomcat, PHP/ HTMl, Apache Jena Fuseki, Visual Studio for C++/Java, Adobe Flex Builder 3, Concrete5, Magento, CMS Made Simple, Drupal 8
Version Control/Messaging	GitLab, SVN, SmartSVN, CVS, Visual SourceSafe, Mantis, Jira, Slack, SmartGit, Asana

Remote Software Developer

Hardens

June 2017 - Onwards

I have taken over the development work on the well known Harden's restaurant guide website.

Remote Software Developer

MiConcepts

June 2017 - Onwards

I was brought in to complete the partially finished Zend 2 project, MiProcurement. I quickly came up to speed with the project remit and under considerable time pressure successfully completed to specification.

I have now been asked to work on other projects including upgrading from Zend 1 to Zend 2.

Remote Software Developer

RentalRepublic

Septermber 2017 - Onwards

I have taken over complete development work on this site.

I recently integrated the USA resorts and implemented a new pricing model as well as adding new backend functionality to the bespoke CMS.

Remote Software Developer

Surge Online (UK)

June 2017 - August 2017

I worked remotely along side the Surge Online team as the principal backend developer on the Oxplore project. This is a Drupal 8 based site created in collaboration with Oxford University.

Remote Software Roku Developer

Plato Media Ltd (Hopster)

June 2016 - March 2017

Created the Roku channel (Hopster TV) using the brightsctipt scene graph XML framework. This links to all the dynamic content from the Hopster api's and also includes the Hopster/Roku subscription process.

I have also worked on updates since the original application, successfully overseeing the strict Roku certification process.

Application features:

full scene graph application
dynamic regional content via RESTful calls to bespoke Hopster api’s
links Roku subscription library and Hopster subscription api’s
login/logout functionality and persistence of login state via Roku registry
persistence of video play state via Roku registry
localised to French and English
incorporates significant event tracking to Google Analytics
deep linking to both series and episodes

Remote Software Developer

Surge Online (UK)

November 2016 - February 2017

I worked remotely along side the Surge Online team as the main developer constructing the bcs beacon project (http://beacon.bcs.org). This not only consisted of the site itself but sitting behind is a bespoke content management system, allowing complete control of the data and subscription process.

Remote Software Developer

RentalRepublic

December 2016 - January 2017

Worked remotely adding additional functionality to the ordering process of the website http://rentalrepublic.co.uk, the Number 1 ski hire and delivery company in France.

Remote Software Developer

Ignition CBS Limited

March 2016 - May 2016

Worked on a CMS Made Simple commercial property website, Lamb & Swift. Integrated property search functionality, plus the backend admin system to manage the bespoke property content. Integrated with the Google Maps api and the rightmove api to dynamically push content immediately to the rightmove website.

Remote Software Developer

New State Entertainment Limited

May 2015 - August 2015

Created Roku Music Channel - Pure Music using the Roku SDK and BrightScript language. The streaming video is controlled by a remote PHP driven CMS which allows dynamic editing of the music content. The music tracks are stored and served from Amazon S3.

Remote Software Developer

Insitu Architectural Salvage

April 2015 - June 2015

Re-developed the Magento site www.insitumanchester.com, applying new design and features.

Remote Software Developer

Pearson Education

September 2014 - January 2015

Worked on a bespoke content planner/authoring system using an RDF data model with the following tasks:

Construct algorithm to consume XSD and generate minimum valid XML snippets
Developed SPARQL queries for specific element XSDs
Created a Java J2EE application to call the SPARQL query
Generate minimum valid XML from the created algorithm above, wrapping the fragment generation in a RESTful service
Created an authoring environment to extract, edit and then update the content model
Provided detailed documentation in markdown syntax
Installed entire Linux server and Content Planner from scratch including step by step instructions using VirtualBox

Remote Software Developer

Lancashire Digital

June 2014 - ongoing

Worked on numerous projects including:

Developed several Concrete5 microsites including Black Flag, for Cambridge University Press. This is a companion website to the Book, providing a set of puzzles all themed around the book content.
Worked as part of a remote multi-national team developing a large e-learning system for Cambridge University Press. The system interoperated several external systems including data from Learnosity, a remote assessment development engine and Elevate, a bespoke CUP digital learning service to create and display educational content for students and teachers. These can be completed, submitted and marked online. All progress can be viewed online and downloaded in a variety of formats.

Remote Software Developer

McKenzie Guppy Limited

January 2014 - February 2014

Developed the site McKenzie Guppy Limited, integrating Twitter Bootstrap and the Flickr api.

Remote Software Developer

Carlin Music UK

March 2013 - ongoing

Continuous development and updates to the Zend driven music website Carlin Music and associated CMS which incorporates the Zend Lucene search engine.. The most recent work involved integrating the code to support a French site and CMS. Other activities include:

Converted existing site to a Multilanguage site, adding a French version
Added twitter api integration
Creation of Cron tasks providing up to date statistics and rebuilding search indexes
Speeded up admin CMS while simplifying UI
General bug fixes and additional functionality

Remote Software Developer

TouchIT.com

January 2013 - September 2013 (9 months)

Developed alongside Ben Baker the website www.touchit.com. This site uses a combination of Zend Framework, PHP, jQuery and Ajax to bring together a visually appealing and informative website for the touch manufacturing community.

Other technologies include the Twitter Bootstrap and the Twitter api as part of the numerous functionalities within the site.

Sitting behind the site is a fully integrated admin section allowing control over the site content and an advanced notification system minimising administration tasks.

The site has been multi language enabled and is easy to switch between English, Chinese (traditional), Korean and Japanese.

MySQL is used as the RDBMS.

Remote Software Developer

MMT Digital

April 2012 - July 2012 (4 months)

Worked in association with Pearson Education and LDL on a joint project extending the functionality of the Pearson Flagship web based PHP-MySQL ALG (Always Learning Gateway) platform.

My area involved coding the front and back end of the reporting section of the application, integrating with the Highcharts pure Javascript charting library to create interactive data charts. Front end also included heavy use of jQuery JavaScript library interacting with a Zend Json Server via Ajax requests. Backend uses PHP communicating with a MySQL db.

The project was run using agile development methods with the teams communicating via Google Hangouts each day and regular demonstrations of Sprints via Join.me.

Remote Freelance Developer

Pearson Education

September 2008 - January 2012 (3 years 5 months)

Began working remotely for the Pearson Central Digital Group working on the server side development of a Flex - PHP CMS system using Agile/SCRUM software development methods. Development used Zend Framework for PHP and Cairngorm for Flex with communication between PHP and Flex via Zend AMF.

Key activities and achievements:

Object Orientated PHP server development
Setting up of Apache / PHP-Zend server environment
PHP to Oracle 10g db communication with PDO providing the abstraction layer
Excellent knowledge of SQL for Oracle, SQL Server and MySQL
Development of Prototype Flex - PHP application using Flex Builder 3 prior to full development
Development of Flex - PHP based publishing tool for publishing from development to Production environment for both Oracle db content and transfer of physical resources to remote servers
Development of PHPUnit test classes
Development of VLE download site using PHP and Zend_Db as a separate project

Senior Software Developer/Team Leader

Pearson Education Ltd - Educational publisher (London, UK)

April 2001 - September 2008 (7 years 5 months)

My remit at Pearson Education was initially to design and implement the backend code base of the firm?s flagship e-learning product which is sold in the UK primary schools market. When I joined Pearson plc the UK product, KnowledgeBox, had yet to be developed. Coupled with this, I effectively designed, engineered and coded the CMS used as the primary source for content deployment into KnowledgeBox in Java. In addition to providing new PHP support for new planning modules to KnowledgeBox I now provide technical input and coding for individual bespoke software development projects at Pearson and provide support for existing and new customers and support teams.

Key activities and achievements:

Design and implementation of XML and development of PHP parser classes based on the XPAT PHP library
Development of all PHP library routines and classes between Flash and PHP
Design and development of KnowledgeBox edge server PHP architecture
Implementation of JavaScript interface to SCORM RTE
Design and development of Java Content Management system with JDK 1.4
Design and development of Java 1 push publishing system with JDK 1.4
Development of CD-Rom Content Distribution application/wizard
Design and development of in-house Oracle SQL query manager using JDK 1.4
Debugging and adding new functionality to Java Servlet code
System management of production Linux server, including management of Apache web server and Tomcat Servlet/JSP engine
Development of PHP import/export admin functions from Excel for bulk import and export of SAPdb
Statistical documentation from KnowledgeBox edge server usage creating dynamic reports
Technical consultant for evaluating proposed internal and external projects
Development of PHP based Web Services Client using SOAP
Integration of KnowledgeBox widgets into Local Education Authority (LEA) portals
Writing technical specification documents
Code review of internal and external developer code
Interviewing and writing technical tests for prospective employees

Senior Software Developer

Dorling Kindersley - Interactive Learning

June 1995 - April 2001 (5 years 10 months)

During this period I was fortunate to work in a variety of roles, initially as part of the 50 strong Software Development team, and then in the Localisation department and finally in the DK-Online team, developing the e-commerce website for the DK shop.

Software development team

I was initially brought into DK as a member of the ?core team? with the responsibility of maintaining and updating the generic C++ 16/32 bit core libraries for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. This was the core code used by the entire team of software developers and the engine for all the DK CD-Rom applications.

I requested a move into product development and became a developer on numerous DK CD-Rom titles including: Earth Quest, BMA Family Encyclopedia before being promoted to Lead Developer for Encyclopedia of Nature 2 and all of the Bear & Penguin series.

Key activities and achievements:

Design and implementation C++ 16/32 bit classes
Build and release of C++ core libraries
System administrator for Sourcesafe version control software for the department
Technical development support to software developers
Development Lead role for numerous DK CD-Rom titles

Localisation department

During this period my roles and responsibilities were two-fold. As well as working on the entire DK backlist of titles maintaining and localising products for export to foreign markets in conjunction with foreign publishers. I took on more of a technical consultant role to outsourcing companies. This was at the stage where DK was starting to move away from in-house CD-Rom production to outsourcing work externally.

Key activities and achievements:

Migration of code to support foreign titles
Technical consultant for a number of development projects both external and internal
Developed generic install routines for foreign titles

DK-Online

I worked as part of the on-line team developing the e-commerce website for the increasingly important DK Shop. I also developed an Interactive TV website in conjunction with NTL from re-purposed DK content from existing titles.

Key activities and achievements:

Writing DTS packages for US import spreadsheets into Microsoft SQL Server 7
Writing stored procedures
Developed an Interactive TV site in conjunction with NTL
Developed web-based applications for DK promotions

Analyst Programmer/TenCORE Consultant

Applied Learning International/Applied Learning Australasia Pty Ltd

November 1990 - September 1993 (2 years 10 months)

During this period I formed a Limited Company, Applied Software Consultants Ltd and contracted for a variety of CBT projects. Clients included: Rolls Royce, St James's Hospital, Allied Lyons and Barclays Bank. Most of the work involved mainframe emulation using the TenCORE language authoring system. In May 1992 I was asked to lead and develop a CD-Rom CBT course for the Ministry of Defence in Australia.

Key activities and achievements:

I developed numerous CBT mainframe emulation products
I was responsible for building a team of developers
I was responsible for the initial design and coding of all the main library routines
I acted as a technical Consultant and was responsible for the coding design and implementation

Education

October 1986 - August 1990

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London

Research Studentship in The Optical and Semiconductor Devices Group for design and development of a fibre coupled Fabry-Perot tunable cavity

September 1983 - October 1986

Queen Mary College, University of London

Awarded a BSc Honours Degree (upper second) in Physics