Joshua Lim

Websites & Applications Development

Skills

I’ve been building websites and applications since the mid-90s, and have been paid for it since around 2006. In that time I’ve picked up a few things:

  • PHP

    I’ve been working with PHP since version 3 and it’s my language of choice for web development.

  • WordPress

    WordPress is my go-to CMS when I need to quickly set up a website. I don’t just install pre-built themes and plugins, I can (and have) built custom themes and plugins for my clients. I also use WP-CLI a lot.

  • CakePHP

    CakePHP is my framework of choice when I need to build a custom application. I have used CakePHP since version 3 and also have experience with version 1.3.

  • React & NextJS

    When it’s time to build a component-based user-interface with Javascript I use React and Next.js. I have to admit though, Svelte is looking mighty tempting…

  • Static Site Generators

    While I’m comfortable with Next.js, that’s my default when needing a static site generator. But I’m still experimenting and have used Gatsby and Eleventy.

  • HTML 5

    I learned HTML 3 in the mid-nineties and never looked back.

  • CSS 3

    I still remember the huge book I bought to learn CSS 2. This journey has been nothing if not colourful. I usually use LESS as a pre-processor (and I can also work with SASS) but am becoming a fan of custom properties (aka CSS Variables).

  • JavaScript

    Yes, I jumped on the jQuery train like everybody else but have been moving towards using Vanilla Javascript.

  • Composer

    Because PHP applications are so big we need something to automatically manage the dependencies.

  • npm

    Because Javascript applications are so big we need something to automatically manage the dependencies.

  • git

    I’m a team player who’s not afraid to "branch" out or "commit"!

  • Apache/OpenLiteSpeed HTTP Server

    Because it powers one-third of the Internet.

  • nginx

    Woo, why didn’t anybody tell me about this sexy beast sooner?

  • MySQL/MariaDB

    Because we have to dump (heh heh) our data somewhere.

  • Headless WordPress/CMS

    Because all the cool kids are doing it I’m still experimenting with this though…

  • Website optimization

    I prefer fast, light-weight websites. It’s not always possible but there’s nearly always something we can optimize.

  • Managing web server VPS

    Something I taught myself during all the COVID restrictions. It can actually be kind of fun. Kind of…

Spotlight

Here is some of my work I like to spotlight.

  • The website for Caveena Solutions uses a custom-built WordPress theme that leverages the Bootstrap framework.
  • Brunei Institute For Leadership And Islamic Finance (BILIF). I have been involved with their website since they were known as Centre For Islamic Banking, Finance And Management (CIBFM). While building their first website, I engaged a European designer to provide a design befitting their brand. I was involved in the following 2 re-designs including the re-brand to BILIF.
  • Expression Music. I have been working with Expression Music since 2011, first developing their website then leveraging it to increase new sign-ups and requests for performances. I also performed some SEO-targeted writing to improve their search engine ranking for selected products.
  • Ulu Ulu Resort. I inherited this website when the client’s former developer shut down without giving notice. Unfortunately the client was locked out of the server meaning their account would eventually expire and the website taken down. I was able to use their access to the website administration to salvage all their files and data. Over the years I re-designed several key pages which I believe served as inspiration for several of their competitors (whose own re-designs looked very similar). Ulu Ulu Resort would unfortunately be badly hit by the global COVID-19 pandemic closing their doors in 2020.
  • PostcodeBN. Search for a Brunei postcode or kampong name. I created this project to learn React. The actual postcode data was scraped from a webpage circa 2005 by a PHP script that I wrote.
  • ExcelBN. A website advertising my Microsoft Excel training. A project I created to learn NextJS.
  • (Client name withheld) I inherited a custom-built human resource management system for internal use. For over 10 years (and counting) I maintained it and developed new features.
  • (Client name withheld) Custom-built event management system for internal use. Keeps tracks of sign-ups and produces reports with a break-down of sources of sign-ups.
  • (Client name withheld) Custom-built logistics workflow system. I built a system to match the client's unique processes to allow them to shift most of the work to a paperless system.
  • Judge for WorldSkills Brunei. I helped select the team that would represent Brunei at the Worldskills Competition 2012.
  • CNET Asia Blogger for Brunei Darussalam (Jul 2008 – Jul 2012)

More of my work can be seen on Caveena Solution’s Portfolio page.

Story

I was a teenager in the 90s when the Internet started to take hold. A simple 56kbps modem allowed me to explore this new digital world. I quickly became so enthralled by websites that I bought myself a book to teach myself HTML (version 3, in case you were wondering!) That led to playing around building all manner of websites on Geocities and Tripod (remember them?) After completing my A-Levels I got a job at BruDirect where my responsibility was to update their front-page twice a day using Microsoft Frontpage. We’ve come a long way since then.

My formal education in applications development started at The National University of Singapore where I studied under the Singapore Scholarship. I was taught Java but also picked up PHP, CSS and Javascript in my own time. I graduated with a Bachelor of Computing in Information Systems (2nd Class Honors, Upper) and returned to Brunei where I continued to tinker with the online world. I set up a website for my family’s real estate business, wrote a program to scrape Brunei postcode information from a webpage (which I would use some 15 years later as PostcodeBN!), set up ICDL test systems and got my first job teaching desktop applications including Microsoft Excel.

I spent 2 years as a Monbukagakusho: MEXT Scholar doing research at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). My area of interest was in mental models and behaviours while seeking for information in an online environment. When I returned home to Brunei in 2010 I began developing websites and applications in earnest under my business Caveena Solutions.