Junior Software Engineer · PHP Joomla Webmaster Developer

The GRSP (Regional Public Health Group) of Aquitaine was a public administrative body created by the August 9, 2004 law, attached to the Ministry of Health. Based in Bordeaux (103 bis rue Belleville), the GRSP coordinated regional public health stakeholders - State, health insurance, InVS, INPES, ARH - to implement the Regional Public Health Plan (PRSP) under the authority of the regional prefect. France had 26 GRSPs (22 in metropolitan France, 4 overseas), each with its own web portal. The GRSP funded prevention actions through calls for proposals and monitored health programs across the 5 departments of Aquitaine (Gironde, Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, Pyrenees-Atlantiques). This structure was absorbed by the ARS (Regional Health Agency) during the 2010 reform.

Within GRSP Aquitaine, I was the web developer in charge of redesigning and maintaining the internet portal, extranet, and the 'Briques' grant management tool. I worked directly with the GRSP teams to gather functional requirements from the 57 users spread across health institutions in the 5 Aquitaine departments, and coordinated with the Ministry's network/security team for deployments. My scope covered the full cycle: requirements analysis, specification writing, development, integration, video tutorial creation, testing, production deployment and user support.

The GRSP Aquitaine website had existed since 2007, but the published information was rarely consulted. The goal was to make the portal more user-friendly and attractive by investing in graphic and ergonomic design. The specification document defined precise criteria: sobriety, readability, usability (3-click rule), speed (page load under 15 seconds, images of 30-40 KB maximum) and interactivity. The site had to be organized into 7 main sections - Monthly News, The GRSP (team, missions, governing bodies), The PRSP (founding texts, objectives, calendar), Call for Projects (eligibility criteria, online application process), Toolbox (promoter guides, CRAES/INPES/BDSP resources), Downloads, Links to members (URCAM, ARAMSA, RSI, Regional Council, General Councils) - with a private area for GRSP reviewers including a discussion forum and a grant application management tool.

• Designed and developed the web portal grsp-aquitaine.fr on Joomla 1.5 with the premium JA Utahia II template (JoomlArt): ministerial visual identity, RokSlideshow integration, custom modules (news, calendar, internal directories) and document spaces via DocMan
• Set up a private FireBoard forum for the 57 GRSP reviewers across the 5 Aquitaine departments (DDASS, CPAM, MSA, URCAM, RSI, DRASS, Education Nationale, Regional Council) - secure document sharing and messaging
• Developed a secure PHP extranet for the grant application review workflow: login, dossier access, reviewer opinions, departmental commission reviews, Excel dashboard export
• Created interactive video tutorials with Adobe Captivate 3: 9 tutorials for the reviewer workflow (login, password, dossier access, opinion editing, commission review) and 8 admin tutorials (content management, menus, users, slideshow, FTP with FileZilla)
• Integrated a public health glossary (Glossary component) with institutional acronyms (DRASS, DDASS, PRSP, INPES, InVS, URCAM..) and an interactive FAQ (QuickFAQ) for health project promoters
• Wrote the specification document (7 main sections structure, ergonomic criteria, graphic layout, 3-click rule) in collaboration with the GRSP team
• SEO strategy with 200+ keywords covering the public health domain, XML sitemap generation via JCrawler/Xmap, Google Analytics integration, Google Webmaster Tools verification
• Collaborated with the network/security team for production deployments on Claranet Pack Easy+ hosting - FTP-validated deployments, security protocols followed, CNIL compliance for health data
• Administered web infrastructure: MySQL backups, migrations, regular security updates of Joomla 1.5 and its 15+ extensions (DocMan, FireBoard, JCE, Glossary, QuickFAQ, Xmap..)

This was my first professional experience in web development, and it threw me straight into a demanding environment: a public institution attached to a government ministry. No room for error on security, no shortcuts on deployments, validations required at every step. I learned technical rigor in a context where the consequences of a vulnerability were real - health data, personal information, government infrastructure. The GRSP Aquitaine portal was recognized as the highest quality site among all 26 GRSPs in France - a concrete validation of the work done. This trial by fire gave me reflexes I have kept throughout my career: document, validate, secure, and never treat security as optional.