My Portfolio

Keen to get into website development I made a site to show off my achievements with my recently completed IT Certificate IV and Advanced Diploma course.

My first portfolio site used the Terra Firma CSS template from NodeThirtyThree and Free CSS Templates. It was edited using Dreamweaver 8.

The site's purpose is to be an online supplement to my resume and to showcase my skills in:

• Website design and setup
• PHP and VB.NET programming
• Documentation skills
• Joomla set up and CSS design
• Working in collaboration
• Image manipulation (using Photoshop, Fireworks and GIMP )

Free Hosting

The site uses free hosting from 000webhost. For a free service it's quite reliable, I remember it being down only a few times when I was using it. In the last few years, they have added an annoying "nag" screen whenever you visit now.

I recommend only using free hosting for small clubs, hobby and personal sites. For anything else, the splash screen will put most users off.

Another great free hosting service is Hostinger. Unlike 000webhost, you need to supply a domain name. I have a test one for trying out eCommerce sites at RinetShop. There is no nag screen which is great and it has most of C Panel features

HTML and CSS

The site uses Terra Firma, an orange scheme HTML template from Free CSS Themes (now offline). The page bottom says www.nodethirtythree.com, but it seems they have now been taken over by another unrelated business.

The site uses a few PHP commands to simplify editing. The header and footer are kept in a separate file and each page loads them. This way the header and footer only need to be changed once.

PHP Projects

The site hosts a number of PHP projects I completed for the Advanced Diploma course at NMIT, including the WMRC site which has basic member's only content and the Loco Shed, which features a forum. Members can add their photos, which are then automatically resized using PHP and Image Magick.

Update

The website has since been updated to WordPress. The old site was on 000webhost, which has now been taken over by Hostinger, a much better free hosting service. The site is now offline, but unless the site is accessed regularly it gets removed. Just too much bother. It illustrates a problem with free hosting, you have no control over your domain, it can go at any time, taking all of your followers with it.