Hi, I'm Hugh.
I develop great solutions at the University of Winchester and occasionally build mashups
I head a team of four .NET developers at the University of Winchester. We work on all sorts of IT projects, from designing a secure singe sign-on solution, to creating account management tools, from supporting legacy systems, and to integrating third-party solutions for around 6,000 students and staff.
Web technologies
Simplicity and elegance is key to my coding style.
I have been building web applications for the past couple of years, most recently using C# and ASP.NET 2.0 and 3.5 with SQL Server and Active Directory for data stores.
On most projects, I develop both the visual user interface, based on our corporate branding guidelines, and the business logic that controls it.
Keeping up to date
To keep current with fast-moving web technologies and web security, I read quality blogs such as Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie, web security site gnucitizen and Web 2.0 Mashable.
My employee is very suportive of local training, and recently I have been to Microsoft’s MSDN Technical Roadshow and completed a three-day training course on UML.
I also use facebook as a social network, flickr for photos, youtube for videos, and gamercard to share my Xbox 360 progress.
Training and development
To enhance my skills as a team leader, I am taking the Institute of Leadership and Management Award in Management, having passed the Level 3 Introductory Award.
I have also passed the ITIL V3 Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management.
Mashups
Super Fun Days Out
Find high-adrenaline activities from across the country in an easy to use browsable map.
Two friends and I started this company after winning an University of Winchester Business Start Up Scheme Award in November 2008.
I’m responsible for the website, which incorporates a dynamic map with clustering for a great user experience when searching for local fun activites.
Top 20 UK Chart
A mashup of Yahoo Pipes and YouTube APIs wrapped up in a smooth interface.
My wedding
I used this site to keep friends and family updated with details about my wedding in Malta.
Development portfolio
These are some of the web applications at the University of Winchester that I am proud of.
The Portal
A complex project involving devolved content management for staff in departments and faculties.
The portal is an in-house content management system that allows faculty and professional services staff to easy create and publish web content.
It was designed primarily for non-technical users, and has a simple workflow and approval process.
I joined the portal project half way through as lead developer, and was responsible for driving the completion of the technical aspect of the projects.
Over the last two years it has grown to over 4,000 pages, grouped into 258 mini-sites and authored by around 250 users. It receives about half a million page views a month. www.winchester.ac.uk
My Password
Secure single sign on and user account management using ASP.NET and Active Directory.
My Password extends the standard forms authentication built into ASP.NET, incorporating designs from other established single sign on implementations.
It is the single point of authentication for users, handling account problems such as expired passwords and locked accounts in one place, by interfacing with Active Directory.
For University application developers, a single httpmodule added to the application’s configuration file provides a secure single sign on solution. mypassword.winchester.ac.uk
My Portal at Winchester
As the University’s central hub, My Portal is a high traffic site and the home page for all users.
It incorporates Portal Messaging, which allows students and staff to communicate with each other in an effective way, and Popular Places, which brings together in one place a variety of other services offered by the University.
I designed the user interface based on the corporate style, and designed the back end using ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server.
The application was built to scale well, and uses the .NET framework to aggressively cache data and resources. myportal.winchester.ac.uk
