Project notes

Anonymous project notes from real delivery work.

Selected examples are written to show the type of technical work delivered without exposing client names, domains, internal systems or private implementation details.

Selected delivery notes

Practical work across new builds, inherited systems, migrations and support-heavy websites.

Portfolio of public information websites

Multi-site editorial publishing portfolio

Designed, built and launched a portfolio of independently branded editorial and utility websites through a reusable static-first delivery system.

AstroStatic publishingTechnical SEOCloudflareAccessibilityOperations

Situation

Several websites in distinct subject areas needed to move from early concepts and domain ideas into credible public products. Each site required its own audience, identity, content structure and search intent, while the underlying delivery process needed to remain efficient, secure and maintainable across the portfolio.

Technical work

Defined the purpose, audience, search intent and information architecture for each website before implementation.
Created a reusable static-first delivery pattern while preserving separate branding, navigation and editorial structure for every property.
Used Astro or lightweight frontend tooling according to each site's content and interaction requirements.
Structured topic hubs, article collections, taxonomies and internal links around useful visitor journeys rather than isolated search pages.
Implemented page metadata, canonical URLs, social previews, structured data, robots controls, XML sitemaps and search-engine submission paths.
Built responsive interfaces with semantic HTML, accessible controls, consistent heading structures and stable image dimensions.
Optimised images, fonts, CSS and JavaScript, with explicit handling for LCP resources, lazy loading and cache behaviour.
Added legal, consent, contact and anti-abuse controls where required by the purpose of each website.
Prepared production DNS, TLS, CDN, cache and firewall settings independently for each domain.
Connected search, analytics and edge reporting so indexing, plausible human traffic, crawler activity and security noise could be reviewed separately.
Standardised build, deployment, public validation and handover checks to make further launches and maintenance more predictable.

Outcome

Launched multiple independently positioned websites on a consistent technical and operational baseline. The portfolio now has a repeatable delivery model for new properties while each site retains its own purpose, identity, content strategy and measurement path.

Inherited production website

Production access and recovery baseline

Mapped and stabilised the access, backup, DNS and recovery baseline for an inherited production website before deeper technical work continued.

Server accessRecoveryDNSOperational risk

Situation

The project risk was not only in the website code. Access paths, hosting ownership, DNS control, backups, deployment knowledge and recovery assumptions were spread across people, tools and suppliers, making every production change harder to trust.

Technical work

Mapped known production access across hosting, DNS, control panels, email, analytics and support channels.
Identified missing or unclear ownership around server access, credentials, backups and deployment responsibility.
Separated urgent production access risks from lower-priority cleanup work.
Reviewed backup and recovery assumptions before treating them as dependable operational controls.
Documented a safer support baseline for future fixes, migrations and production decisions.
Created a practical next-step list covering access recovery, supplier handover, DNS visibility and ongoing maintenance.
Kept private credentials, supplier names, infrastructure details and client identity out of public documentation.

Outcome

Reduced production uncertainty before technical changes, clarified where ownership was missing and created a safer foundation for support, migration planning and future incident response.

Multi-site production hosting estate

Managed VPS migration and hosting consolidation

Migrated a fragmented portfolio of production websites, databases and email services into separated managed VPS environments with controlled access, legacy compatibility, monitoring and recovery planning.

LinuxVirtualminWebsite migrationEmailCloudflareBackups

Situation

The estate included multiple production websites across inherited hosting environments, with different PHP requirements, databases, email accounts, DNS settings and operational dependencies. The migration needed to reduce fragmentation without disrupting active websites, email delivery or legacy applications.

Technical work

Audited websites, databases, mailboxes, DNS records, storage requirements and cross-domain dependencies before migration.
Designed two separated managed VPS environments for different workload and operational requirements.
Configured Linux hosting, Apache, MariaDB, Virtualmin/Webmin, mail services and per-domain PHP-FPM handling.
Provided multiple PHP runtimes for supported and legacy applications without weakening the system stack.
Migrated website files, databases, mailboxes, folders and compatible password hashes through staged domain-by-domain cutovers.
Created independent webmail and restricted access models for domains that needed local email or external technical access.
Protected website origins behind Cloudflare while keeping email and required non-web services reachable.
Applied firewall controls, intrusion-prevention measures, SELinux enforcement, TLS configuration and automated security updates.
Added monitoring and alerts for web, database, email, storage, certificates, backups and PHP services.
Prepared DNS snapshots, rollback plans, backup policies and recovery notes before each production cutover.
Produced operational runbooks for infrastructure configuration, access, monitoring, recovery and future maintenance.

Outcome

Consolidated a fragmented hosting estate into a more controlled, separated and documented infrastructure. The migration preserved legacy compatibility where required, reduced administrative exposure, improved monitoring visibility and created a clearer operating model for ongoing website, email and server support.

Consumer campaign website

Consumer promotion microsite

Built a public promotional microsite for a consumer campaign, with mobile-first participation, proof-of-purchase upload, consent steps and a browser game entry flow.

Campaign siteUpload flowFrontendProduction support

Situation

The campaign needed a short-lived public website that could make participation simple for mobile users while keeping eligibility, legal acceptance and upload behaviour clear before users reached the game step.

Technical work

Built the public campaign landing experience and responsive participation flow.
Implemented proof-of-purchase upload handling with clear validation and user feedback.
Structured consent, eligibility and legal acceptance steps before participation continued.
Connected the entry flow to a browser-based game step without exposing participant data publicly.
Prepared campaign content, FAQ and support-facing states for public launch.
Handled production deployment support for a time-sensitive public campaign.
Kept participant data, operational details and campaign administration outside public portfolio material.

Outcome

Created a clearer and safer campaign participation path, reduced friction on mobile devices and supported a public promotion without exposing private participant or operational details.

B2C comparison platform

Technology comparison platform

Built and hardened a public comparison platform for technology products, with a dedicated crawler, structured catalogue pages and a separate management environment.

CrawlerCatalogueSEOAffiliate routing

Situation

The project needed to move from an internal data-collection and staging setup into a stable public-facing comparison service, with safer affiliate routing, environment separation and ongoing catalogue refreshes.

Technical work

Built and operated a crawler pipeline for public product, offer, price and image data.
Normalised catalogue data around stable identifiers where available and structured public search, product, category and brand pages.
Added canonical product/category URLs, hierarchical taxonomy handling and price-history display.
Routed outbound merchant links through opaque tokens instead of exposing raw offer identifiers.
Separated public production, staging and internal management environments.
Added SEO controls, sitemap filtering, noindex handling and scheduled refresh/publishing jobs.
Built management views for catalogue review, crawler status, statistics and editorial publishing.

Outcome

Gave the platform a cleaner operating model: catalogue updates, publishing checks, affiliate routing and internal review could be handled without depending on ad hoc scripts or unclear environments.

Education operations platform

AI-assisted automation stabilisation

Stabilised and improved AI-assisted operational automation workflows spanning internal communications, activity reporting, order creation and fulfilment processes.

AIn8nWooCommerceWorkflow reliability

Situation

The client had a production n8n environment running multiple operational workflows connected to Airtable, Slack, WooCommerce, Gmail and a dashboard API. Several workflows needed investigation because they produced incorrect AI-generated messages, failed order creation, relied on fragile source data or exposed mismatches between records and operational views.

Technical work

Investigated production n8n workflow executions and documented active/inactive workflow inventory.
Added guardrails to AI-assisted Slack-message workflows to block empty, invalid or structurally broken generated messages before sending.
Validated prompt placeholders, required parameters and language handling for AI-assisted message generation.
Added pre-checks to an AI report-review workflow to avoid processing effectively blank reports.
Investigated WooCommerce order creation failures caused by invalid fee and product payloads.
Removed problematic fee-line usage while keeping VAT handling through line-item tax classes.
Added product validation before order creation to block records without valid product mappings.
Rebuilt activity reminder times from facilitator timezone data instead of trusting preformatted source text.
Fixed automation mapping so newly created fulfilment records inherited the correct operational status.
Investigated dashboard/API visibility issues where attachments and status fields controlled operational views.

Outcome

Turned fragile AI-assisted workflows into a more supportable operation, with clearer failure modes, safer message generation and a stronger diagnostic path for future production issues.

B2B services organisation

Security hardening plan for a B2B website

Reviewed a third-party security report for a public corporate website and converted the findings into a practical hardening plan.

SecurityHardeningRisk reviewRemediation

Situation

A third-party security rating report had identified several areas of concern on the client's public website. The client needed the findings reviewed, improvement actions assessed and a clear distinction between work already covered by support and work requiring separate quotation.

Technical work

Reviewed a third-party security report for a production website.
Assessed the listed risks and translated them into a practical remediation plan.
Prepared a security hardening plan documenting actions already applied and remaining work.
Separated work that could fall under existing support from work likely requiring additional budget.
Reviewed SSL/TLS signals, exposed service indicators, security headers and website/server hardening items where they affected the public security posture.
Prepared technical guidance to support remediation decisions and supplier handover.

Outcome

Converted a broad external security report into a clearer remediation path, separating immediate hardening work from items that needed separate scoping or supplier coordination.

B2B industrial technology website

Complex CMS migration

Migration support for a complex site into a structured WordPress build with editable content models, form handling and visual QA.

MigrationWordPressFormsVisual QA

Situation

The agency needed senior technical execution for a migration involving institutional pages, service pages, editorial content, investor-related pages and light e-commerce areas. The visible scope required careful handling of redirects, forms, content models and visual parity.

Technical work

Assessed migration feasibility and defined a WordPress architecture around custom templates and editable content models.
Rebuilt global theme structure, including header, footer, navigation, wrappers, typography and shared layout rules.
Implemented priority pages, news content, forms, redirects and SEO preparation.
Prepared shop-related structure and validated priority routes, mobile navigation, search and visual parity.
Built visual QA workflows comparing live and staging screenshots across desktop and mobile.

Outcome

Created a clearer and more maintainable WordPress foundation, improved the QA process and reduced migration risk before go-live.

Research and data operations platform

Research data platform for campaign validation

Built a secure web platform for campaign-based data entry, laboratory coordination, sample reporting, validation workflows and operational dashboards.

PHPAuthenticationDashboardsData workflows

Situation

The project needed to support structured campaign data collection across participants, laboratories, cities, monitoring sites and validation teams. The system required authenticated access, scoped permissions, campaign creation, sample reporting, validation status tracking and reference data management.

Technical work

Built a PHP web application using Smarty templates.
Implemented authenticated access, including Keycloak/OAuth2 integration.
Added secure session cookie settings with Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite=Lax.
Implemented role and scope handling for participants, laboratories, cities and elevated users.
Built campaign creation and campaign management flows.
Built data-entry screens for monitoring sites, sampling dates, volumes, population data and comments.
Built sample and substance reporting flows, including special flags such as < LOQ, Not Analysed and unusual values.
Built submitted-campaign views with validation status tracking.
Built reference-data management areas for cities, laboratories, sites, substances and related metadata.
Built dashboards, charts and map-based reporting views.
Added user logging, login tracking and email capability through PHPMailer.
Produced user documentation and schema reference material.

Outcome

Delivered a structured campaign-data workflow with scoped access, validation states, reference-data control and documentation that made handover and future changes less dependent on informal knowledge.

Retail e-commerce operation

Catalogue sync and server support

Maintained and supported a server-side product import workflow connecting XML catalogue data with a WooCommerce store.

WooCommerceXML importsCron jobsServer support

Situation

The server contained operational PHP scripts for importing XML product data, updating product records, managing stock visibility and logging errors or removals. The workflow touched production catalogue data, scheduled jobs and database operations.

Technical work

Maintained PHP scripts for XML processing, product import and stock synchronisation.
Processed zipped/XML product feed files into database-backed import structures.
Updated WooCommerce products, variants, prices, stock quantities and catalogue visibility.
Used scheduled jobs for import processing, product synchronisation, log cleanup and maintenance.
Kept operational logs for product updates, removals, insertion errors and slow queries.

Outcome

Made catalogue synchronisation easier to diagnose and operate by clarifying processing steps, scheduled jobs, log retention and failure visibility.

Production web hosting environment

Managed LAMP server environment

Configured and supported a LAMP-based production server environment for PHP and WordPress sites, with AlmaLinux, Virtualmin, backups and ongoing operational maintenance.

LinuxVirtualminBackupsProduction hosting

Situation

The hosted sites needed more controlled server ownership than basic shared hosting could provide. The work required Linux stack configuration, hosting panel setup, backup routines, SSL/DNS handling and practical troubleshooting around production PHP websites.

Technical work

Configured AlmaLinux-based LAMP server environments for PHP web applications and WordPress/WooCommerce sites.
Set up Virtualmin/Webmin hosting management for domains, sites and server-side administration.
Managed Apache/PHP, MySQL/MariaDB, permissions, logs, cron jobs and production troubleshooting.
Handled SSL, DNS and migration-related server tasks where required by the hosted sites.
Configured backup routines and recovery-oriented maintenance for website files and databases.
Reviewed PHP versions, execution limits, cache and database settings to keep the production stack supportable.

Outcome

Established clearer server ownership for hosted PHP and WordPress sites, with backups, permissions, configuration and troubleshooting paths that could be maintained without relying on shared-hosting assumptions.

Real-estate advisory business

Property-sector website support

Senior technical support for a public property-sector website with listing discovery, bilingual content and enquiry flows.

CMSListingsBilingualLead flows

Situation

The public site showed a media-rich property platform with listings, filtering, contact forms and multiple lead-capture paths. There is not enough evidence to state what was broken before the work started.

Technical work

Implemented or maintained a CMS-based public website.
Built or supported custom front-end behaviour and property listing flows.
Supported listing detail pages, pagination, filtering and enquiry paths.
Supported bilingual content structure and third-party media embeds.

Outcome

Kept the listing and enquiry experience more predictable for visitors while giving the business a cleaner base for content updates and recurring technical support.

Children's education activity provider

Public education booking website

Technical support for a public-facing education activity website with content pages, product-style listings, booking touchpoints, forms and account access.

BookingsFormsAccount areasSupport

Situation

The public website combined educational content, programme information, activity listings, enquiry paths, account access and privacy-sensitive forms. The visible scope suggests that stability, content accuracy, form handling and ongoing support were important.

Technical work

Supported public content areas for schools, holiday activities and activity listings.
Supported product-style listing behaviour, detail pages and public enquiry paths.
Maintained form and account-related areas that collect or expose personal data.
Reviewed booking, catalogue and form behaviour where public journeys depended on those flows.

Outcome

Kept key public journeys more dependable across content, listings, forms and account touchpoints, with clearer attention on privacy-sensitive user flows.

B2B technical services organisation

Corporate website support

Technical support for a public corporate website with multiple service areas, sector pages, portfolio content, news and contact workflows.

Corporate websiteFormsContent supportMaintenance

Situation

The public website presented a broad corporate content structure with service areas, portfolio entries, news, certifications and contact flows. That type of site needs reliable maintenance, content-led updates and production support.

Technical work

Maintained public-facing corporate website structure across services, sectors, portfolio and news pages.
Supported contact form functionality and public enquiry flow.
Supported content areas for certifications, portfolio items and news.
Kept the public content structure and enquiry path aligned with the organisation's ongoing website needs.

Outcome

Gave the organisation a steadier public website base for content updates, enquiries and routine maintenance without exposing the client or internal implementation details.

These notes are intentionally anonymised because much of this work is delivered for agencies, inherited systems and production environments where client names, domains, internal workflows, credentials, infrastructure details and private implementation context should remain protected.

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