Mai Portfolio — Professional & Freelance Hub

I built the system in stages: architecture and data contracts first; the initial Apps Script/Sheets backend; the Next.js website and Flutter companion app; migration from sample data to real project records; progress and milestone presentation; and the Reviews workflow. The web data source was later migrated to PostgreSQL and an Admin area was added for direct content management. Recent work has focused on operational safety: development/production isolation, guarded production writes, CI, deployment controls, and explicit consent before a Review can become public.

1. Technical challenges

   Three challenges shaped the system. First, evolving the data source without losing consistency: it started with Google Sheets/Apps Script because that was lightweight and fast, but the website moved to PostgreSQL once administration, moderation, and data-safety requirements grew. Second, keeping one content model coherent across two structurally different clients — server-rendered Next.js on the web and Flutter on mobile — without duplicating business rules until they drift. Third, turning truthfulness and privacy into system rules: project status must reflect reality, client identity stays private unless explicitly cleared, approximate progress stays visibly approximate, and a Review can be published only when its status, visibility, and consent are all valid.

   How I approached it

   The architecture separates data access so each client can be developed and tested independently while keeping a common public data contract. The Next.js website now reads content from PostgreSQL through its own transport/repository layers and manages changes through an authenticated Admin area; local and preview environments are prevented from connecting to the production database. Flutter still uses its HTTP transport to the Apps Script/Google Sheets path, and both clients can run against fixture data during development. Reviews deliberately separate intake from publication: Google Form/Apps Script receives submissions as pending, while the website publishes a Review only after moderation and documented consent in Admin. This reflects the system's evolution from its original Sheets/Apps Script architecture to a PostgreSQL CMS for the web without implying that mobile has already migrated or that the two data stores synchronize automatically.

   Impact

   The system now manages 15 real projects across professional, freelance, and personal work. Public portfolio content comes from real project records rather than fictional filler; even this portfolio's own case study is held to the same rules for status, privacy, and what information is safe to publish.

This project is deliberately not framed as expertise in every technology it touches — the goal was never to claim senior-level mastery across web, backend and mobile all at once. What it demonstrates is the same habit described throughout this portfolio: understanding a problem's real shape before building, choosing simple/appropriate tools over impressive ones (Sheets over a database, a shared API contract over a shared runtime), and treating truthfulness as something the system enforces structurally rather than something to remember to do by hand.

• Web Development
• Backend Development
• Android Development
• Third-Party Integration
• Automation
• QA & Testing
• Requirements Analysis