MetPhoto
Mark E Taylor IT Consulting Limited

Various projects I have completed outside of work. If you have any questions please get in touch.

  • Job application tracking system. Using PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML CANVAS and jQuery.

    • I have created a job application-tracking database for use at home. The system is built with PHP and with a backend database using MySQL and is hosted on a RaspberryPi. Overall it has taken around three days to complete.

    System features:

  • Create new job application
  • Search job applications over any field
  • Edit existing job applications
  • Create a report showing job applications over a time period (required as proof of seeking work)
  • Configuration options – number of items on the summary page and width of columns
  • Application tracking sparkline-like graph on each page

    • The summary page shows a user defined number job applications, with the newest at the top and the oldest at the bottom. Each application has a unique ‘ID’, which in this summary view provides a link to the editing option. The ‘role’ column provides a URL to the job application details on the relevant web site on which the role was advertised. Finally the ‘contact email’ column presents a ‘mailto’ link for the contact person at the advertising agency.

    Each job application record contains some 16 fields. Including a status field and an optional ‘Follow up’ flag, used to indicate particularly interesting roles.

    At the top right of each page is a simple bar graph that shows the relative number job applications over the last five weeks. This graph is created dynamically using JavaScript and jQuery. The graph is drawn on the pages, as needed using the HTML 5 CANVAS tag.

    I produced a brief video showing the database in action – this was created before the system was finished.

    Job Application System - part 2 from Mark Taylor on Vimeo.

  • Simple blogging system. Using PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and jQuery.

    • I have created my own simple blogging system which powers the news pages. The system was created using PHP with a backend database of MySQL. The editing screen uses JavaScript and jQuery to allow me to insert HTML tags. The system is fairly basic but provides all the features that I need.

    System features:

  • Create new blog post (news item)
  • Edit existing blog post
  • Delete previous blog post
  • Blog entry editor with HTML tag insertion and preview function
  • Optionally Tweets when a new entry is created.

    • If you have any questions please let me know.

  • Current Cost power consumption meter data published to iPhone. Using Perl, RRDTool and iWebKit.
    • During the early part of 2009 I created some Apple iPhone optimised web pages to show the output of a Current Cost power consumption meter. I used some simple Perl code, RRDTool and iWebKit to create the pages. Here is an article (PDF) describing how the project was created. The actual web pages created by this project are here. Update November 2012. These pages have now been decommissioned. Additionally the application sends out notifications when power consumption hits a specified value. The notifications are sent out via Prowl (an iPhone third party notifications application) and Twitter.
  • Network connected temperature sensor. Using Arduino, MQTT and Perl.
    • In January 2010 I started a small project to create a network attached temperature probe. This project made use of an Arduino micro controller and and Ethernet shield. The Arduino is loaded with the MQ Telemetry (MQTT) client which in turn sends messages to a Really Small Message Broker (RSMB). A simple Perl CGI web page then subscribes to "topics" published by the RSMB. The whole is system is embarrassingly crude, but it does work. I am certainly no programmer, and yet I am pleased with the result. Here is an article (PDF) describing how I created the project. The web page created by this project is here.
  • Waterrower S4 monitor data logger. Using Perl and MySQL.
    • I have been using a Waterrower rowing machine for quite a number of years. However I wanted to record the data from the S4 monitor automatically. I could not find an application to do this that ran on a Apple Mac. So I set myself a small challenge to learn the programming language Perl to record the data in a database. The application will record the data output from the S4 monitor at regular intervals and store the samples in a MySQL database. If a heart rate monitor is attached to the S4 it will also record that data as well. At the end of a rowing session the application calculates a summary of the data. This application is a very crude but it does what I need it to do. Here is an article (PDF) describing how I created the project. You can download the application code from here.
  • Waterrower S4 data output to Excel spreadsheet. Using a Perl.
    • Following on from the project above I have since written a new Perl script to create an Excel spreadsheet from my Waterrower data. My original project was to capture data from a Waterrower S4 computer and store it in a MySQL database. This project extracts the data from the database and creates an Excel spreadsheet. In addition a chart is created from the data and embedded in the spreadsheet. At this time I only extract three data elements; time, heart rate and distance. From these a chart is created showing heart rate over time. The application was written in Perl on an Apple Macbook Pro, but should work equally well on a Windows system which has both Perl and MySQL installed. The Perl script and the documentation can be downloaded from here. An example spreadsheet is here.