Web application for turning retweets into betting opportunities

Summary of requirements

A platform that hooks into Twitter's API to listen for retweets of a tweet with mentions of the "retweet2bet" handle. That's quite the mouthful, but basically it works like this;

1. A twitter user creates a tweet, and they make sure to @mention the retweet2bet handle - this is the seed tweet
2. The application picks up the tweet and it is mapped to a bookmaker market once
3. When other users retweet the seed tweet one of two things can happen;
• If the user is registered we will send them an SMS or an instant message through integrated channels (like facebook messenger), where they can reply with their stake
• If the user is not registered we send them a link to the registration page, and upon completeion they are sent the offer over their preferred channel

Technology

• Java Spring Gradle build process with jenkins continuous integration & SVN version control
• Hibernate ORM for MySQL databases
• AWS EC2 instances running Tomcat servers

Mass market iOS and android instant messaging app

PaddyPower Messenger is an instant messaging client that puts punters directly in touch with their bookmaker. It hooks into the Onionsack platform which automatically parses and understands a written bet so users can just input their stake and selections, in a text form, to get their bet on.

Used by over five thousand dedicated daily users.

Summary of requirements

This application must login to PaddyPower directly before it can interact with Onionsack's public API in an OAuth-like manner. The login process gets an access token from PaddyPower's backend to pass to Onionsack for verification.

The application then logs into Onionsack's API with the access token, creating an Onionsack session for initialising the websocket. Users can then interact with PaddyPower by sending messages, clicking links, requesting prices or adding alerts.

Alerts, or 'follows', allow users to pick events, horses, venues or particular sports they want to be alerted on, then later they will recieve messages about these events with embedded betting opputinities.

Many different message types must be supported by the application requiring a large set of specific native views. For example, the deposit feature must use a modal view for entering of the user's CV2 number as this can not be stored in the clients message history.

Smooth handling of reachibility changes, intelligently restoring connections as needed.

Technology

• iOS XCode, git, pods
• android Android studio, gradle, git
• Websockets with SocketRocket, Autobahn
• PaddyPower & Onionsack APIs over HTTP and websocket
• Fabric, Answers & Crashlytics for internal releases, crash reporting and analytics

Shiftiton is an exclusive marketplace for Irish college students.

Contract to design, develop and deploy a commerence platform that would allow Irish students to trade with each other directly, safe in the knowldege that they were dealing with other verified students.

Summary of requirements

Two primary user tiers, student & business. Business users can not access student listings or directly contact students but they can create paid advertisements to be shown at the top of a student's search results.

Verified students can search for listings based on; tags, terms, cost and campus location. Students can comment on listings or contact the original poster directly via their verified email adddress.

Student emails should be protected where possible, so that only those transacting with each other can see each other's emails. Original posters of listings can see emails of those who comment, and all students can see the oringal poster's email. Otherwise, emails are hidden.

Students can easily find and manage their own listings, or save interesting listings for later review.

An administration panel to manage the platform's configuration without any specialist knowledge. It also had to be possible for admins to add new colleges and their set of verified email domains.

Listings and adverts reported by students are also visible on the administartion panel; giving administrators the option to remove reported content and ban users posting reported content.

Admins are also emailed system alerts or business support queries.

Technology

• Python & Pyramid MVC framework
• SQLAlchemy ORM for MySQL database
• Mako, Bootstrap & jQuery python's mako templating to produce a styled bootstrap frontend

Fitness eBook by bestselling author

Contract iOS project for a bestselling fitness author's book, first few chapters can be read for free, but users must buy the full eBook with in-app purchasing.

Summary of requirements

A styled HTML version of the entire book's text to be shown in a webview, with the first few chapters visible for free users, and the whole book visible for paid users.

Chapter icons beside the scrollbar to indicate the user's progress, with the app persisting the user's read location between uses.

In-app purchasing to allow users to buy the full book, as well as restoring old purchases across installs.

Marketing links to the authors blog and amazon page for the book.

Technology

• iOS XCode, git, pods
• HTML, CSS, Javascript for actual book webview and scroll management

iPad app for competition entry

Last minute contract to produce a quick and simple iPad app for the museum's curators to enter visitors into a competetion to win a weekend trip away.