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Martin Brampton

I'm Martin Brampton, welcome to the Black Sheep Research web site. Twenty years ago, I was drinking a pint of Black Sheep bitter and thinking about a name for my business as an IT Industry Analyst. Maybe it wasn't very original, but it quickly became Black Sheep Research. As things turned out, I soon went back to software, including the development of Remository. As well as the product itself,  I supplied custom versions to clients. From 2013 to 2016, I also worked as a Principal Software Engineer for MariaDB, the database company.

Along the way, web hosting became a necessary ingredient of everyday work. I gradually got more involved, and now manage hosting for select clients. As SSL grew in importance, Lets Encrypt® came along and provided free certificates suitable for all but the most demanding applications. The only drawback was difficulty with automation of renewals. Hence the service I'm now offering, based on the DNS method of authentication. If it can work for you, take out a subscription. Let me know if you need help, there's a WhatsApp chat button down in the corner. Or it isn't difficult to guess my  email address.

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We develop custom software in PHP. If you need something special, or have a problem with an existing application, we may be able to help. Based on the creation of PHP software over the last 20 years, we offer high standards and creative development. Talk to us about your project.

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Black Sheep Research offers hosting services. We do not compete on price, but nor do we leave all the problems to you. For a high level of service combined with powerful and secure servers, talk to us.

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Over many years, I have developed Remository - a file repository application for Joomla. It provides a flexible way to store any kind of file. They are organised into folders, which can be nested to any level you like. Although the files in the repository can be stored in the file system, Remository allows them to be stored in the database or in any AWS S3 compatible storage. Those offer security, since it is absolutely impossible for a hacker to find a way to execute a file that is not in the file system. S3 storage is available in large quantities too, often at relatively low cost, and can offer fast global delivery of files. Remository uses an advanced role based access control system to decide who can access a file.

More recently, I took up the former Alpha User Points, now renamed UserPoints. It provides a mechanism for awarding points to users for many different possible actions. And points can be used to "pay" for a variety of things, such as file downloads or membership subscriptions. UserPoints is readily extensible to work with other software products or to implement new rules for handling points.

Remository relies on the Black Sheep Research Library for Joomla.  It is the library that provides a file abstraction layer so that Remository can handle files in the same way regardless of whether they are on disk, in the database or in S3. It also provides advanced cache services - in particular the ability to cache objects thus saving the work of repeatedly constructing complex objects. The library also provides the role based access control system, that is a user friendly way to specify complex conditions for who can access what resource. There are also methods to enhance database services and a set of services for accessing the API of the modern Listmonk mailing system.

Other useful software includes a Changelog Manager that makes it easy to keep track of changes in software products and to create XML that is compatible with the Joomla changelog mechanism. Also a Restful Plugin that makes it easy to implement REST APIs in Joomla with minimal overheads.