Surface is my web development freelance endeavour. I will be working with design agencies and other web development companies to bring my services of both front- and back-end development to their teams.
My main aim is to allow purely print-based design agencies the perfect path in to the online market place, handling web projects from start to completion.
I am available for contract work, adding extra capacity for any web development work required. I can work competently with existing codebases or help your internal team move to new best practices and adopt appropriate frameworks.
Résumé
Introduction
I have over seventeen years of web development experience working for both small design agencies and large development-focused companies. I am currently working at MyPubGroup and freelancing at Surface. I also work with agencies helping them offer web development to their clients.
I have a passion for everything web. I am fluent in both front- and back-end coding, as well as deployment and tooling.
I develop usable and accessible front-end interfaces using web standards, including semantic HTML, CSS for layout and visual design, and JavaScript for progressive user interface enhancements.
On the server side, I use PHP and MySQL, as well as theory in database design and security. I have used multiple frameworks including FuelPHP and CodeIgniter. All large projects are now built using Laravel, which I have been using for almost 10 years, since version 4.
I have built WordPress projects using modern architecture, including the Roots development tools, that allows for composer-managed dependencies build processes and continuous atomic deployments.
I have delved into the world of modern JavaScript, including NodeJS, ES2016, WebPack and VueJS. I have investigated JavaScript-based static site generators, deploying a custom Eleventy blog on Netlify. I have built component libraries using Fractal and making use of Tailwind CSS, deploying them using GitHub Actions.
I have also delved into the world of development operations (DevOps) including Docker, Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine Application Platform and Terraform. I have also used GitHub Actions and BitBucket Pipelines for continuous integration pipelines.
To view some of my development work, check out my GitHub profile or visit my LinkedIn profile to make a connection.
- Name
- Trevor Morris
- Role
- Full-stack PHP Developer
- Age
- 41
- contact@trovster.com
- Telephone
- 07884 182178
- Address
- Surface 21 Little Tixall Lane Great Haywood Staffordshire ST180SE
Experience
Working along side the technical web manager, I was brought in to upgrade all the company's web systems using best practices and maintainable solutions. Using the Laravel framework, each of the individual systems are being modernised, with extensive testing, continuous integration and deployment. A custom PHP SDK has been built to bridge all of these individual systems and an API developed to help broaden the company's offerings.
I was brought in to help in a short-term capacity to provide support on existing projects, help document and standarise them and provide client support. I was working with large existing codebases for multinational clients with projects spread across Laravel, CS-Cart, WordPress, Shopify and APIs.
This short role was focused on upgrading a legacy application, moving it to Laravel 8, working alongside a small team of developers. This included refactoring the codebase to modern PHP best practices, as well as improving coding standards using PHPCS and PHPStan.
I was responsible for providing advice in building ground-up service APIs using Node. My main focus was to build multiple UI interfaces – both client and internal facing. These were built from the ground up using Laravel, TailwindCSS and included developing a custom SDK shared between them. I setup a full development and deployment suite, with Docker, using unit tests and code coverage, code linters, best practices including commit messages and branching using Git Flow and deployment on the Google Cloud Platform.
Invited back to help the development team complete their new platform. Working with a small team on two-week sprints, writing tests, deploying with a continuous integration pipeline built on Jenkins, we release new features quickly and with confidence, helping add value to the company.
Contracted to work on a fledgling platform which is built using a VueJS frontend on top of a Laravel-based backend and managed with Kubernetes. Working with a small team on two-week sprints, writing tests, deploying with a continuous integration pipeline built on Jenkins, we release new features quickly and with confidence, helping add value to the company.
I was contracted on an initial three-month period to add extra development resource to an existing large CodeIgniter-based project. The contract was extended three times where I worked on new systems using Laravel 5 and a large bespoke management system built in CodeIgniter. Finally I was tasked to pick-up and then lead a complex Cold Fusion-based system, fix bugs and integrate new functionality.
Working with a large team of both front- and back-end developers and designers, developing bespoke content-managed ecommerce websites for a range of clients. I built large ecommerce websites from the ground-up as well as from existing database structures and code. Each project usually has a team of developers.
Since joining Interactive Web Solutions I was the lead developer in working with the Zend Framework, and taking steps to unify the codebase used throughout the company.
As a developer I worked on every aspect of the development process. This included writing HTML templates, CSS and jQuery, as well as complete back-end code, in the form of the Zend Framework. I also liaised with designers and write specifications.
As the sole web developer at Creation, I worked every aspect of the web development process, excluding visual design. I structured and implemented the databases, developed the server-side code (PHP). Front-end code consists of semantic HTML styled with CSS and progressively enhanced with JavaScript (custom or jQuery).
I also advised on best practices for usability and interface design when creating the design visuals. Because of this process we are quashing the belief that accessible websites are boring – our websites are accessible and beautiful.
Testimonials
Trevor has supported me exclusively on development projects for over 14 years. I’d say there’s nothing he can’t handle.
The Design Frontier
When it came to hiring contractors in Staffordshire, contacting Trevor was a no brainier! He completed large agile stories with a high technical standard & meeting the stakeholder expectation.
A professional web developer that considers how to make content management easy for the end user. He delivers excellent websites on time, always meets expectations & will talk through solutions to overcome any website challenges to deliver the best result possible.
Plinkfizz
Trevor is able to handle projects of all sizes & complexity. He is equally comfortable working on both SaaS products & traditional websites, making him a great asset to any project team.
Combiine
Case Studies
iSite
SGS
Built in
A Laravel-based content management system, with multiple offline web apps.
Originally conceived in 2013 to replace their Access database and ageing handheld devices, a solution was developed to manage clients and projects using a modern web-based interface combined with an offline web app designed to run on mobile devices and tablets.
Laravel (version 4) looked like the ideal base for the content management system and the AngularJS framework was decided upon for the base of the web app. A REST API was built for these two systems to communicate.
The project was hosted on conventionally managed hosting and grew in size as the business moved to the application full-time. Additional mobile applications were developed for specialised areas of the business.
Modernising
Due to growth, the project went through some rearchitecting with the main development focused on moving from a monolith repository to separate CMS and application codebases. The Laravel application was upgraded to version 8 and the system updated to PHP 7.4. The database and file management was split out and hosting was moved to Amazon Web Services. The hosting was all managed with IaC (infrastructure as code) using Terraform.
An ecommerce WordPress website built using modern development techniques.
I was originally recommended to provide a Laravel-based solution that also included a WordPress blog, but after a discussion of their requirements, it was decided the entire project could be built successfully using WordPress.
I wanted to apply the modern development best practices I was using with Laravel-based projects. This included managing dependencies via Composer – including WordPress and plugins – rendering via templating including using components and deployment using a CI/CD pipeline.
Bedrock was used as the base of the project and Acorn was used as the theme. I used a Laravel-focused dependency to model the WordPress datasets, including additional fields provided by the WordPress Advanced Custom Fields plugin.
Site-specific content was driven by numerous custom post types. Components were built – and made available via shortcodes – to allow for a consistent look and feel. WooCommerce was used to drive the services and the checkout process. The Gravity Forms plugin was installed for form management and emails.
Tailwind was used for the styling and basic JavaScript was custom written. Animate On Scroll Library was used to add some animation to the content. Custom SVG elements were optimised for the project, with colours designated from the style guide.
The project was hosted with Cloudways using DigitalOcean and deployments to multiple environments were handled with GitHub Actions. Deployments were atomic, with assets and dependencies compiled within the pipeline.
Education
I started university studying Cybernetics. In my free time, however, I ventured into the basics of dynamic websites by learning PHP and MySQL. I also improved my knowledge of best practices in HTML and CSS. In my second year I moved to a new department and course which better reflected my passion — “Internet Product Design”.
My final year project was entitled ‘Unrestricted Access’, a website built using web standards, with articles and interviews about web standards. The site also showcased the flexibility of semantic markup and CSS, with multiple style sheets changing the entire look and feel.
View Unrestricted Access.
Publications
Builidng a Community
An opinion piece in the printed net magazine, issue #216 (July 2011) about building a digital community in your area.
Transparent CSS Sprites
An article for the hugely popular Smashing Magazine about a twist on the common sprite technique that many developers already use on their projects. Using transparency within the sprite means that you can use it on different coloured backgrounds.
Read: smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/31/transparent-css-sprites
Front-End Code Reusability
An article for 24 Ways, the yearly advent calendar for web developers, discusses best practices when developing a jQuery plugin. It includes a full step-by-step explaination of the plugin and example showcasing what can be achieved.
Read: 24ways.org/2009/front-end-code-reusability-with-css-and-javascript
Styling for Submission
An article for Treehouse, a web development magazine, about styling form submit buttons. The article discusses ideology, cross-browser caveats & fixes and best practices.
Web Standards: User Interface Makeovers
Features an interview with myself conducted by David Travis, a usability expert, about dispelling the myth that accessible websites can’t be beautiful. Also showcasing the work I did to recreate the Nokia and Vodafone websites with semantic markup and CSS to make them accessible.
More Information
I have been a web developer since my first role in 2005. My experience has been focused on full-stack development - starting from small custom systems, WordPress development and bespoke large scale framework-based projects.
During the past ten years of freelancing, I have also contracted. This has helped me learn how to integrate with teams and existing codebases quickly. It also allowed me to experience different flavours of agile methodologies. I have been able to transfer knowledge allowing the teams to improve their best practices, from linting and testing to continuous deployment.
Freelancing has allowed me to bring a range of complete solutions for clients. I use WordPress for smaller projects, allowing for a content management system for clients with tight budgets.
For the last five years I have specialised in building bespoke web-based solutions using the Laravel framework. This helps me provide solutions that are robust and scalable which in turn provides value for the client.
I transformed a paper-based compliance company to a modern app-based workflow. This was a multi-year project with a centralised CMS and four bespoke web-based apps built in Angular. I recently upgraded the project from Laravel 4 to Laravel 6 (and 7), refactoring for security and speed, improving unit tests, as well as moving to Amazon Web Services platform.
I have helped design RESTful platforms using micro-services. A specific API was rapidly improved from a minimum viable product as more requirements were outlined and feedback from the UI admin integration. A PHP SDK was built for the API that feature high test code coverage, allowing confident integration with multiple projects.
Outside of official roles, I have learned about JavaScript-based static site generators by building a new personal development-focused blog and other personal projects. I was able to research multiple solutions for deployment, including GitHub Actions, Netlify and Vercel. I also implemented a component library and improved my understanding of SVG.