mrmarkajohnson.co.uk
- About This Site

Overview

Thanks for visiting! This page is a repository for my job-seeking resources, for prospective employers or anyone interested in the Secret Santa application - or anyone who has used it and is curious about who made it.

Click on the blue headers above or below to expand or collapse sections.

About me

My name's Mark Johnson, and I live in Leeds, West Yorkshire. I'm looking for a Senior Developer role nearby using ASP.NET.

My LinkedIn profile is mark-johnson-20b38aa7. You can download my CV here.

Why this site exists

I created this site to show who I am, and what I can do.

I taught myself C# development in 2019, and have worked in ASP.NET development for 6 years, but most of what I've done is owned by the company I work for, and has been worked on by a team of people.

In 2024 I decided to create an application that showcases my skills, as well as giving me a chance to try different techniques and strategies, and fill in some gaps in my knowledge.

I also wanted to build something that people can actually use, and I realised that every year my family does a Secret Santa that ended up not being very secret. So I built the Secret Santa site.

- About Secret Santa

What is Secret Santa?

It's an online tool for families and other groups to organise their annual Secret Santa present exchange for Christmas. Secret Santa can:

  • Automatically pick who you are giving to, but avoid drawing your partner
  • Allow you to message people in your group, without giving away who is giving to who
  • Remember who you gave to previously, to avoid always getting the same person
  • Add suggestions, skip a year, set group limits, etc.

See the About page for more information, or register and try it yourself.

Does it work?

Yes! I've used it for Christmas 2025 with two different groups, one for my immediate family and another for my in-laws.

Can I see the code?

Yes, it's at github.com/mrmarkajohnson/SecretSanta.

The site is made using C#, a SQL Server database, HTML, JavaScript and a small amount of JQuery.

How is it hosted?

It's hosted using plex at hostinguk.net, the best value site I could find that will host ASP.NET applications and a database.

 
Mark Johnson 2025