About Me

My interest in web development started with my ambition to start my own online e-commerce business. This lead me to enrol and study through the open university. I began my study towards a Certificate in Web Applications in 2008. This qualification is made up of 6 courses and covers a broad range of web technologies. I have also done some freelance work for local businesses for further information please go to my portfolio page.

My first course was Web applications: design, development and management. This first course covered HTML and CSS and emphasised the importance of accessibility and usability. For the course project I designed various pages of a online store and also wrote a report to about how my design followed the strict accessibility guidelines set out by the W3c (World Wide Web Consortium). The course also focused on project management methods that are required for developing complex web applications. I passed this course in 2008.

My next course was The client-side of application development which covered client side technologies to create interactive elements for web pages. For this course we learnt and use Java script to create interactivity which included image galleries and drop down menus. We also researched the different development methods and good development practices that should be kept to. Our course project involved creating additional functionality to an existing website using Java script. I completed and passed this course in 2009.

I next studied The server- side of application development. This course focused on using ASP framework and VB Script scripting language to create dynamic content. We used VB Script to process and validate form data, read and write server files and track user activities. We explored in detail the security threats websites have and what should be done to create secure applications using methods like the public key infrastructure (PKI) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. The course project involved creating a web application enabling users to log in, register a new account, add items to a shopping basket, complete an order and view previous orders securely. I completed and passed this course in 2009.

The next course was Databases within website design. The course covered how web applications can use databases to create dynamic content. We used Cold Fusion and MYSQL to create a web application that retrieves and inputs data into a database. We also learnt how to use entity relationship diagrams to design databases. The course project involves creation of a web application that allowed a user to purchase products and view previous orders. I completed and passed this course in 2009.

My next course was Open source development tools. This course introduced us to Open Source software and its origins and aims, and its principles of software development and distribution. We also covered how versioning tools such as CVS can be used to manage development of Open Source projects. This course focused on how to use PHP alongside Apache and MYSQL to create a web application. With PHP we created scalable functions that can be used throughout a web application. We used PHP to validate form data and create server-side response pages. We also used PHP to process stateless transactions utilising cookies and session variables. The course project involved me creating a e-commerce web application using PHP. The web application allowed users to browse product catalogue pages and add products to a shopping cart. It also allowed uses to purchase products and view previous orders. I completed and passed this course in 2010.

I am continuing my studies with the open university and have one course left which is Web server management, performance and tuning. This course explores the role of server administration and its contribution to planning, deployment, and management of a web application. It introduces tools and techniques to assist with capacity planning, monitoring of workloads, identification of performance bottlenecks, and security failures. I will have completed this course by July 2010.