Projects
UBC Arts Faculty Directory
A screenshot from my layout design for the Faculty Directory.
While working at Arts IS at the University of British Columbia, I was one of two developers tasked with either fixing or rebuilding the Faculty Directory. After analyzing the old ColdFusion application, we opted to build a 3-tier system using PHP and MySQL.
This project was huge. We tied together data from four databases managed by different departments, integrated the user management with Campus Wide Login, and tailored the site to the needs of the approximately 2000 faculty and staff spread across over thirty departments. In addition to searching and browsing the directory, users can log in to edit their record, write a bio, and upload a photo. Department administrators have access to even more complex functions such as creating categories within departments and assigning people to those categories.
One of the biggest problems was integrating data from the different sources. Our Faculty Directory collects data from an LDAP directory, XML files, an XML-RPC interface, and an Oracle database. It also provides context-sensitive links to UBC's Wayfinding website and the Course Database.
In addition to the technical design and coding, this project involved several meetings and emails with different groups at UBC. In the end, our modular and easily maintainable code backed a system that was usable and attractive.
Technologies: Oracle, MySQL, LDAP, XML-RPC, PHP, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript (AJAX), Photoshop