Natural Animal Foods

Full Stack Programmer at NAF, Systems Admin, Development, DBA, Everything

In 2010, Natural Animal Foods (NAF) approached me to build a website that would allow their retailers to sell NAF products directly to customers. The system I created allowed retailers to link to NAF’s product listings from their own websites, while processing payments through the retailer's PayPal account. The retailers handled the fulfillment of the orders themselves.

The backend of the system was powered by a MySQL database that stored retailer information, product ranges, prices, and other relevant data. The site was hosted on a dedicated Unix server, with a JBoss application server delivering JSP pages.

Direct-to-Customer Website

Following the success of the retailer site, NAF asked me to build a direct-to-consumer website to sell their products directly to the public. However, product prices and purchase options were restricted to users in the UK. The entire product catalog, including prices, product information, and ingredients, was stored in a database to enable easy management and updates.

To support ongoing product changes, I also developed an administration system that allowed NAF to update ranges, products, and prices. The system enabled testing changes on a staging site before pushing updates live to the public website.

Site Redesigns and International Expansion

After the core functionality was established, I worked with a graphic design company to refresh the site's look and feel multiple times. Additionally, I developed several European versions of the site, each localized in the respective country’s language. These regional sites were accessible from the main site but ran on separate databases and application servers to allow each site to operate independently.

Technical Challenges

Several technical challenges were encountered throughout the project:

• SEO Optimization: I worked closely with an SEO expert to optimize site performance by caching and compressing images and stylesheets for faster delivery. This involved configuring Apache server settings, which sat in front of the application server.
• Google Requirements: Various system amendments were made to comply with Google’s guidelines, including URL structures and performance enhancements.

Natural Vetcare

In addition to the NAF project, I also built a separate website for NAF's other product line, Natural Vetcare, which specializes in natural foods for dogs and cats. This site featured a similar structure, allowing for seamless product management and order processing.

Ongoing Responsibilities

Although the company later hired front-end developers to maintain and update the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I remained responsible for the following:

• Dynamic Backend Development: I managed all Java and JSP aspects of the site.
• Systems Administration: I maintained the MySQL database, handled URL routing, managed the WildFly/JBoss server, and performed Unix server administration using Plesk.
• Security: I continuously monitored and strengthened the server’s security to protect against hacking attempts, ensuring the system remained robust and secure.