As part of a modernizing business practices a client requested a new application to facilitate digital collection of field data using their employees mobile devices. With a split of user devices between iOS and Android we utilized React Native to allow development of a unified experience across platforms in a single code base. Together with the mobile application a web portal was developed to allow office staff to perform administrative tasks and to add new entries to the database for automatic form assignment and generation.

For this project I acted as team lead and  was responsible for guiding the development of the project as the SCRUM master but also reporting directly to the client in weekly meetings. During the development process I also acted as lead developer for the React Native portion of the application while also developing, performing code reviews, and mentoring the team responsible for development of the administrative portal.

To address challenges in the mobile space we opted to utilize GraphQL as our endpoint on the back-end with custom resolvers built around form generation and common workflows of users. This allowed the team to develop a mobile application that supported an offline mode, allowing users to complete work while in the field in low-network settings and sync data when a connection was available.

For the Aurora project we were tasked with developing a modern visualization to display collected aurora data from an API endpoint managed by the University. To accomplish this goal we worked with a stack utilizing Node.js on the back-end which produced a GraphQL based endpoint from the existing API. This allowed the team to restructure and compress incoming data. The compression of data from the existing API was essential to make requests on the client side performant and allow playback of the existing date/time based data.

On the front-end the visualization was built with a pairing of React and three.js for the interface and Apollo for managing GraphQL queries. Through the use of react-three-fibre we were able to maintain an efficient and modern framework for the application that gained the state management and efficient render methods of React while also having a robust and customizable 3D viewer in the application. The final application was built to be expandable with future datasets allowing future phases of development to continue adding new types of data to the visualization.

The first of these was the introduction of satellite and ground based instrument data in a second phase of the project, again through the utilization of an API endpoint provided by the University. With the existing structure of the first phase, minimal refactoring was required to allow the interface to support the new datasets. Development is continuing in phases for this project and the application is currently in its alpha stage.

For the platform developed for Morphometrix the development team utilized a broad set of technologies to produce a modern and easy to use web application. The primary goal of the application was to provide users with a front-end that was intuitive and would allow equine veterinarians to upload ultrasound videos and provide the needed data for a proprietary back-end to process and analyze the ultrasound. Through the analysis multiple data points would be generated, these data points can be viewed directly in the application, including 3D imaging, charts, images, and videos.

Throughout the development process as the Team Lead of the project I assisted developers with prioritizing work through weekly sprint planning, acting as the SCRUM master for the project, while also contributing code as a developer. As Team Lead I was also responsible for managing our CI/CD process and ensuring that production deployments could be completed efficiently while also maintaining high uptime on the application. The final product is being deployed to AWS on Elastic Beanstalk and Fargate resources running Ruby and Docker instances, respectively. This deployment process was automated with a testing suite for the application running on GitLab and a final manual QA driven approval before automated tiered deployments occurred to staging, demo, and finally production environments.

After continuing to add to my understanding of Drupal and gaining a greater level of expertise, I was assigned a new project for a website build for the City of Grande Prairie. My largest project to date, this proved to be a rewarding challenge that pushed my abilities with Drupal and have honed my understanding of the CMS. The new website brought together content from numerous sources using maps, news feeds, calendars, item lists, and other formats to clearly and concisely present content in an easy to navigate structure.

The Township of Clearview in Ontario approached Upanup to build a replacement website for their outdated website, however with new legislation in the province they needed to directly target improving the accessibility of their website. By working with the design team throughout the design process and into development we were able to focus strongly on accessibilty and meet the required WCAG 2.0 AA standard and even go beyond that requirement in many places. With the success of the Clearview website all Upanup projects have begun to meet a higher level of standards for accessibility.

As an ongoing maintenance client with Upanup, TPC Financial approached us to breath some new life into their existing website. With the assistance of our internal design team new designs were created. Using existing content a new structure was formed around their website and gave the online brand for TPC Financial some much needed improvement. Their website was made fully responsive, with consistent styling throughout the website with improved readability.

To further improve my skill-base within the Drupal Content Management System I offered my services to a not-for-profit community server for Wurm Unlimited called Sklotopolis. After going through a brief discovery questionnaire with my contact at Sklotopolis I was able to get a clear picture of what they wanted and needed from a new website. I took this and applied it to a custom theme designed specifically for them, this also came with a new logo tailored to their identity. These designs were then transferred into a brand new website that they continue to use to this day. This website brought some unique challenges with PayPal integration of donation options that link users directly to making the donation and simplifying their previous donation process.

The Comox Sanitation and Waste Management (CSWM) website was built from the ground up using a new Content Management System (CMS) that I had not used in the past extensively, Drupal. This was an exciting challenge for me and with the help of online resources and my coworkers I was able to deliver to the client a highly functional and visually appealing new website that fulfilled the goals of the project. This website also contained complex maps as well as a few customized webforms to move CSWM from paper forms to more user friendly online forms.

Upon moving from my previous position and joining Upanup my first project was a multi-site WordPress network for the Pembina Hills Public School Division. This multi-site network required two themes for launch, one for their main division site and another for the schools in the division. These two themes were designed in house by the design team and then provided to me, from which I built the division and school themes. Using modern HTML5 and CSS3 the designs were given life, JavaScript was applied on top of these new themes to increase the functionality and usability of the website.

Joey’s Seafood Restaurants had been running the same website since 2005, I was tasked as a part of my position with Joey’s Franchise Group to design and develop a new website that met their requirements and used modern web standards. The new website was built on a PHP and MySQL framework. Using these frameworks a backbone was built using HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript/jQuery to allow templating out of repeated elements and simplifying the process of changing and maintaining SEO information. After launch the new website was found to exceed the company's primary goals of improving accessibility and consistency of information; the website also met unrequired goals, such as improving conversion rates of customers into their rewards clubs (email and text).

When I first started at Joey’s Franchise Group the menuboard system for their fledgling restaurant franchise Joey’s Urban was running on USB sticks that plugged into the TV’s and played a video file. This system worked, however it limited the ability of head office to modify and update menuboards easily (new videos had to be edited, rendered, and shipped to the location). I pitched the concept of using Raspberry Pi’s and webpages to serve location, date, and content specific information to every menuboard across the franchise while also allowing edits either immediately or overnight. After getting approval the system was built using a Node.js backbone on the Raspberry Pi’s and PHP with a MySQL database as the framework for the webpage. This system has now been implemented restaurant wide and is also manageable by head office staff.

Cedar Bay Grilling requested a new website for their company when their staff could no longer update their WordPress 2.0 website which was no longer compatible with newer versions of WordPress without a complete overhaul. Typically when a new WordPress website is needed at the Joey’s Franchise Group a template is taken and revised to fit the requirements of the specific company/client. This was no different, we used a template as the base and added customized elements and functionality that met the specific requirements and requests of the Cedar Bay Grilling Company. After launch the company saw an increase in their direct to consumer sales.

The website for TEJA Food Group was original designed as desktop only and did not take into account the value of reaching customers directed to their website at conferences and sales shows. Their website stylesheets and some of the underlying HTML structures were rebuilt to accommodate possible clients visiting from mobile devices. Through the course of these changes we also reworked many of their product lists and other content to improve readability and accessibility.

At the start of my time at Joey’s Franchise Group, the Joey’s Urban brand only had a minimal website about becoming a franchisee with the company and little to no content for customers. So through working with the Marketing department a new website was developed that provided information to customers and prospective franchisees. The new website was built to meet modern web standards and to be mobile friendly.

Oasis Wellness Centre & Spa requested a mobile friendly conversion on their website when they found many customers openly complaining to their staff that the website was difficult to outright impossible to navigate from their mobile devices. With minimal changes to content of the website, their stylesheet was rebuilt to incorporate desktop to mobile responsive design. Since releasing the conversion customer complaints about website accessibility have stopped and they have also seen an increase in traffic to their online sales portal.