wayneellis.co.uk | codemwnci.co.uk
Welcome to the website of Wayne Ellis. I am a Software Architect, who loves web technology and writing about it, and enjoys building web applications.
Take a look around to learn more about me, my hobbies and my favoured technologies; the personal projects I am working on; and a selection of my blogs and articles.
You can also connect with me on Twitter, Medium, StackOverflow, LinkedIn and Github, below.
I am a CIO working for a FTSE 100 insurance company. I studied at Aberystwth University where I gained my Masters in Software Engineering, and then went on to complete an MBA at Cardiff University. I live in Wales, UK, with my wife, daughter and son, and spend most of my time either at work, with my family, or working on one of my many personal projects.
As for hobbies, although I love sport and try to watch a bit now and then, I rarely get time to play these days! The sports and hobbies I most enjoy include:
As mentioned, I am passionate about technology. I explore this passion and learn new technologies through personal projects.
Below is a list of different projects I have worked on, or am currently working on.
I was very much an early adopter of the Play!Framework and became an evangelist of the technology. I wrote many blogs and became top StackOverflow contributor for Play! After several months, I decided to write a book which I published on Lulu.com.
Read The BookProperty Tracker is a simple Chrome Extension that tracks property prices on the RightMove website. I created it when I first started using the Chrome browser, and the PropertyBee Firefox extension author was not intending to build one for Chrome.
Visit Chrome StoreDevMap was a Christmas break project, playing around with Play! plus Google Maps. I decided to create a simple web application that would allow developers etc to pin their position on the map against technologies they are interested in.
This is probably my most enjoyable, and definitely most challenging side project. It is a desktop web app, that connects to an ANT+ enabled Smart Trainer, for cycling GPX routes with simulated gradient.
See a Screenshot HereWODRoom stands for Workout Of the Day Room. It was a prototype site I put together for a friend who wanted better information about workouts at hotels that standard hotel sites don't cover, such as nearby external facilities and food options.
I have written 5 Facebook applications since Facebook open up the API for developers to integrate into the platform. Most of these I ended up selling on to larger US companies, but a couple I have held onto.
Many years ago, a mentor of mine suggested I do two things to help keep my focus on success. He said to keep a list of things you want to achieve, and always keep your eye on the goal. Set achievable, but challenging targets and always aim to complete those goals. Secondly, keep a list of all the achievements you have met, both on and off the former list. Use this list to remind yourself of how capable you actually are, especially during the tough time, to encourage you to continue to push to achieving your goals. This is my done list.
Below is a selection of my most recent, and my most popular blogs and vlogs. Most are now present on Medium.com, but some of my older ones are available on DZone or Wordpress.
After good reviews from my Kotlin WebSockets blog, I decided to go more mainstream, and created a series of posts creating a ToDo List WebApp using Kotlin, VueJS and SparkJava (plus SpringBoot example).
Read on MediumHaving found a potential successor to Play, in Kotlin and SparkJava, I tried a more complex example, by using WebSockets to create a simple vanilla javascript chat application with Kotlin/SparkJava backend.
Read on MediumTaking a bit of a break from Play, I started learning some JavaScript game engines, including PixiJS and PhaserJS. I decided to write a getting started post, based on my own learning experience.
Read on MediumWhen PlayFramework became Play2, with its emphasis on Scala, I felt like the magic of Play 1 was lost in Play 2. I began searching for a new (or at least maintained) project that could replace Play. This blog post described that search.
Read on MediumAs I got more experienced with the Play source code, and answering questions on StackOverflow I began to discover hidden features. This blog post was an investigation into some hidden features of the Routes file.
Read on DZoneThis was one of my most popular posts on Play Framework, with over 30K views between DZone and Wordpress. This post was also what began my writing about PlayFramework.
Read on DZoneIt has been a while since I have refreshed my homepage, and now seems an appropriate time to do so. Each previous incarnations of this homepage was written in a different backing technology, and this incarnation is no different.
