Technologies: HTML, ASP, JavaScript, VBScript, ADO, MS SQL Server, MS Visual Source Safe
Description: This project was requested by an on-line furniture reseller to enable vendors to upload images of their products to display to the public. Once uploaded, the images could be checked out by vendor employees and edited should changes need to be made to the image. The edits would be tracked using MS Visual SourceSafe, both for security issues and in the event that an incorrect update was made, a previous (and correct) image could be reloaded. Additional information regarding the image would be stored in a SQL database.
Technologies: HTML, ASP, ADO, JavaScript, VBScript, MS SQL Server, COM
Description: The goal of this project was to provide a site to all students in the state of Michigan to track their progress regarding aptitude tests (SAT,ACT,etc) as well as research different career goals. The site would allow students to view hundreds of careers and view the skills that would be required to attain these careers. The site also provided students with a tool to research universities, community colleges, and trade schools across the country.
The site had an ASP front end created by a team of web designers. My role was as an ASP developer, making the provided front end work with the MS SQL Server providing the data. Other information, particularly career descriptions, where were stored in text files, requiring the use of the Visual Basic File System Object. The site required that school administrators and teachers have different kinds of access, and allow school district adminitrators to run usage reports on any or all of their schools. Database queries were done using custom created COM objects to provide faster response, as there were eventually going to be tens of thousands of school age children across the state using this tool.
Technologies: ASP, ADO, VBScript, MS Access
Description: A plastics manufacturing company was having problems with a custom created application that queried a Unix Progress database for information describing the location of invoices stored in Adobe Acrobat files. The application would run fine for a certain amount of time before stopping to run and returning errors. My role was to fix this issue. After examing the issue, I determined that the problem was that the NT based system was not freeing memory after ending the queries to the Progress database when a user cancled a query (which often were quite long, depending on the user-entered query string) and during concurrent connections.
In order to resolve the issue, I created an application that copied this information from the Progress database into a local Access database every fifteen minutes, so that only if the system determined that data was too old would the system connect to the Unix system. This resolved the memory issues and made the queries many times faster than they were before.
Technologies: HTML, ASP, ADO, JavaScript, VBScript, MS SQL Server
Description: A wallchart tracks initiatives (project) status and allows for updates to be made. Using the dynamic initiative creator, project leaders could display project status on an intranet. To view the Dynamic inititiave creator, click here.
Technologies: HTML, ASP, ADO, JavaScript, VBScript, MS Access
Description: A simple application to help employees keep track of where other employees are sitting. This idea came to me because I used to work on a large helpdesk (well over 150 people), and helpdesk agents often moved, making it difficult to know where exactly an agent was when I needed to ask him or her a question regarding a previous trouble ticket. With this simple app, a team leader or designated person could update the seating chart whenever they gained or lost an agent. The seating chart can be viewed here.
Some improvements that could be made to this idea: first, the graphics could be improved to look better than a third grade art project. Next, security could be added to this page so that only authorized personell could edit the chart. Currently, the grid is based on a 10x10 grid. It would be easy to modify it for a larger area. Lastly, the seating chart is based on a static HTML table. A useful improvement would be to enable a construction mode, where clicking on a square would create an editable seat. This would be very helpful in an office where cubicles are frequently re-arranged.
Technologies: HTML, ASP, JavaScript, VBScript, MS SQL Server 6.5/7.0, ADO, CDONTS, MS Site Server
Description: The Global Knowledgebase project was first created to replace the previous method of storing policies and procedures for the helpdesk, which was stored on Windows help files. The replacement tool was an NT based system running IIS with Index Server. The policies and procedures were stored in HTML files. The authors created the P&P files using MS FrontPage. The authors would save these files to a staging server, and these files would be replicated - first using robocopy and then using MS Site Server - out to production servers - two in Lansing, MI, two in Troy, MI, and one Antwerp, Belgium.
The Asia Pacific region had their own system. Originally, they had a production server with contenct replicated from the United States. The amount their system was expanding required them to have their own staging server, and I was sent to Australia to configure the server for staging content from Australia and New Zealand, and also a staging server for the Australia helpdesk agents to view. I was then sent to Wellington, New Zealand to configure the production server to replicate content from Australia.
The Knowledgebase used both user created knowledge and packaged knowledge in the form of Serviceware Servicepacks.
Technologies: HTML, ASP, JavaScript, VBScript, MS SQL Server 2000, ADO, Visual Basic
Description: This project for a small alternative health care reseller (cassettes and CD's to help people stop smoking and the like using self-hypnosis) was to improve the sales of their products through the web. The project used a shopping cart /front end using ASP and scripting languages and connectig to a SQL database to store product information. The credit card validation and payment mechanisms were done through Authorize.net, a third party company.
In addition to the web site, I creatd a Visual Basic application so the user could browse through her catalog and add new products as needed. The VB app used ADO to connect to a SQL database, and had filtering enabled so that user could limit the query to on CD's or cassettes.
Technologies: Visual Basic 6.0, COM
Description: This is a project I just started on my own time. I have worked with Motive, a self-help, self-healing technology in the past, and I was curious to see if I could do the same thing on my own. The project consists of a dll that runs through different properties of a client system (like free disk space, MS Word version, etc) and then reports it back to a server to help diagnose the issue. I have just begun working on it, so it is far from done.