CodeIgniter Developer for E-Commerce Integration
Budget: $2 – $8 USD
PHP / CodeIgniter Developer — E-Commerce Catalog Integration
Part-Time | 5 hrs/day, 5 days/week | $2/hr
About the project
This is a jewelry e-commerce site built on PHP CodeIgniter with a MySQL backend. The site pulls product inventory from five separate vendor/manufacturer sources, each with its own data structure. Our current priority is unifying these into a consistent shopping experience: a single mega-menu navigation, category/listing pages, product detail pages, and cart — all working correctly regardless of which vendor a given product comes from.
Foundational architecture (data model, controllers, and navigation spec) is already in place. We need a developer to take this the rest of the way: wire it into the live site, build out the remaining views, resolve outstanding data gaps, and ensure everything works end-to-end against the production database.
What you'll be working on
Completing the listing → detail → cart flow across all 5 product sources
Building/finishing CodeIgniter view templates to match the existing site theme
Writing and testing filter logic (by style, shape, metal, collection, price, etc.) against real MySQL data
Resolving legacy database debt — the app has a large number of old, duplicate, and inconsistently-structured tables from a previous business/template; part of this role is helping sort out what's live vs. dead code
Implementing a unified cart that correctly tracks which vendor/table a product came from, so "view details" and checkout stay accurate
General CodeIgniter MVC development: controllers, models, routing, views
Working from existing technical specs (we maintain detailed documentation of table structures, filter mappings, and navigation requirements) and knowing how to ask sharp clarifying questions when specs and reality don't match
Required skills & experience
3+ years of PHP development, with real production experience in CodeIgniter (not just Laravel/Symfony — CodeIgniter's conventions matter here)
Strong MySQL skills: writing performant queries across multiple tables, understanding schema design, comfortable with JOIN/UNION decisions and indexing
Experience with e-commerce systems: product catalogs, cart/checkout logic, category and filter-driven browsing
Comfortable working in a legacy codebase — reading unfamiliar code, identifying dead vs. live logic, and making safe, incremental changes without breaking existing functionality
Front-end competency: HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and ability to match an existing site's visual theme rather than defaulting to your own style
Experience with data import/migration — CSV/Excel to MySQL, handling inconsistent or messy source data
Git or equivalent version control
Strong written communication — this project has multiple data sources with real ambiguities (missing fields, inconsistent formats, unconfirmed values), and we need someone who documents assumptions and flags gaps clearly rather than guessing silently
Strongly preferred
Prior experience integrating multiple vendor/supplier product feeds into one storefront (drop-shipping, marketplace, or B2B jewelry/diamond industry experience is a big plus)
Experience with jewelry-specific product attributes: 4Cs (cut/clarity/color/carat), metal types/karats, stone shapes — understanding why these matter to filtering and search
SEO-aware development: clean URL structures, avoiding duplicate/thin content across large combinatorial catalogs
Experience building or maintaining mega-menu/faceted navigation systems
Comfortable reading and executing against detailed technical specs (we'll provide schema docs, filter-mapping sheets, and architecture notes)
Soft skills that matter for this role
Asks good questions before writing code, not after something breaks
Comfortable saying "this doesn't match what you told me, can you confirm" rather than guessing and shipping it
Documents changes clearly enough that someone else (or future-you) can pick up the work
Works well async — this is a spec-driven, documentation-heavy project
Part-Time | 5 hrs/day, 5 days/week | $2/hr
About the project
This is a jewelry e-commerce site built on PHP CodeIgniter with a MySQL backend. The site pulls product inventory from five separate vendor/manufacturer sources, each with its own data structure. Our current priority is unifying these into a consistent shopping experience: a single mega-menu navigation, category/listing pages, product detail pages, and cart — all working correctly regardless of which vendor a given product comes from.
Foundational architecture (data model, controllers, and navigation spec) is already in place. We need a developer to take this the rest of the way: wire it into the live site, build out the remaining views, resolve outstanding data gaps, and ensure everything works end-to-end against the production database.
What you'll be working on
Completing the listing → detail → cart flow across all 5 product sources
Building/finishing CodeIgniter view templates to match the existing site theme
Writing and testing filter logic (by style, shape, metal, collection, price, etc.) against real MySQL data
Resolving legacy database debt — the app has a large number of old, duplicate, and inconsistently-structured tables from a previous business/template; part of this role is helping sort out what's live vs. dead code
Implementing a unified cart that correctly tracks which vendor/table a product came from, so "view details" and checkout stay accurate
General CodeIgniter MVC development: controllers, models, routing, views
Working from existing technical specs (we maintain detailed documentation of table structures, filter mappings, and navigation requirements) and knowing how to ask sharp clarifying questions when specs and reality don't match
Required skills & experience
3+ years of PHP development, with real production experience in CodeIgniter (not just Laravel/Symfony — CodeIgniter's conventions matter here)
Strong MySQL skills: writing performant queries across multiple tables, understanding schema design, comfortable with JOIN/UNION decisions and indexing
Experience with e-commerce systems: product catalogs, cart/checkout logic, category and filter-driven browsing
Comfortable working in a legacy codebase — reading unfamiliar code, identifying dead vs. live logic, and making safe, incremental changes without breaking existing functionality
Front-end competency: HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and ability to match an existing site's visual theme rather than defaulting to your own style
Experience with data import/migration — CSV/Excel to MySQL, handling inconsistent or messy source data
Git or equivalent version control
Strong written communication — this project has multiple data sources with real ambiguities (missing fields, inconsistent formats, unconfirmed values), and we need someone who documents assumptions and flags gaps clearly rather than guessing silently
Strongly preferred
Prior experience integrating multiple vendor/supplier product feeds into one storefront (drop-shipping, marketplace, or B2B jewelry/diamond industry experience is a big plus)
Experience with jewelry-specific product attributes: 4Cs (cut/clarity/color/carat), metal types/karats, stone shapes — understanding why these matter to filtering and search
SEO-aware development: clean URL structures, avoiding duplicate/thin content across large combinatorial catalogs
Experience building or maintaining mega-menu/faceted navigation systems
Comfortable reading and executing against detailed technical specs (we'll provide schema docs, filter-mapping sheets, and architecture notes)
Soft skills that matter for this role
Asks good questions before writing code, not after something breaks
Comfortable saying "this doesn't match what you told me, can you confirm" rather than guessing and shipping it
Documents changes clearly enough that someone else (or future-you) can pick up the work
Works well async — this is a spec-driven, documentation-heavy project