The fertile playground of a WordPress developer
January 3, 2007, 4:18 pm
Portfolio
The KODAK Gift Guide is a project started since I began work for KODAK. The visual layout of the “sitelet” is designed by our marketing partner and then converted into an HTML document by myself. The current incarnation includes a main Flash piece, supported by an XML content list which I maintain. The Flash wrapper is called using JavaScript, the call being based on a variable set in the URL.
I am primarily a PHP/MySQL web designer, building pages which are database-driven. The best example of my work, and the one on which most of my skills get put into play, is DragonFlyEye.Net. This is a news and opinion driven page. It is built on WordPress MU, a multi-user, multi-blog platform meant to create “Blogger” type websites. I’ve used it, with some plugins and modifications, to create a community portal for progressive bloggers in Rochester.
HTML, CSS, JavaScript and JHTML:
KODAK.com Consumer Digital || KODAK.com Gift Guide
My current job at KODAK requires me to maintain a number of Consumer Digital Group pages, leveraging assets provided by marketing partners or in-house designers to maintain the current list of promotions and current products. Pages such as the CDG home page are maintained in several discrete languages.
Features:
- Internationalization: Multi-language, Multi-national content supported by XML and transformed using XSLT.
- Project Management: Site requires the cooperation of many agencies in many countries. My role is to make sure all needs are met by all parties, and that everyone understands the limitations of the platform or of the design imperatives placed on the page, where they affect the results.
The KODAK Gift Guide is a project started since I began work for KODAK. The visual layout of the “sitelet” is designed by our marketing partner and then converted into an HTML document by myself. The current incarnation includes a main Flash piece, supported by an XML content list which I maintain. The Flash wrapper is called using JavaScript, the call being based on a variable set in the URL.
Features:
- Design: All final HTML designed by me using XML, JavaScript, Flash, JHTML and CSS.
- PhotoShop: Graphic borders and designs lifted from PhotoShop files.
- Project Management: Constraints created by the original design affect what promotional copy can be used. As the designer, I work with the marketing team to ensure that goals are met in a way which works within the framework of the original intent.
PHP, MySQL, JavaScript: DragonFlyEye.Net
I am primarily a PHP/MySQL web designer, building pages which are database-driven. The best example of my work, and the one on which most of my skills get put into play, is DragonFlyEye.Net. This is a news and opinion driven page. It is built on WordPress MU, a multi-user, multi-blog platform meant to create “Blogger” type websites. I’ve used it, with some plugins and modifications, to create a community portal for progressive bloggers in Rochester.
Features:
- MySQL driven content: Served through PHP. Fast and accurate updates across all pages and feeds.
- Custom-built Template: HTML and CSS layout for all pages designed by me.
- Plugins: There are a number of plugins and modifications to the core designed by me to get the system working as a community portal. Among these are a “news ticker,” which pulls content from a private blog into the front page; another that pulls content from the most recently updated blog on the network; one that allows users to pick their own custom colors for their blogs.
WordPress Research, Plugins, Tutorials and Widgets
- Titles to Tags: Uses a stop-word list to trim trivial words out of titles, and converts the rest to Tags for automatic post keyword generation.
- WPMU Site-Wide Latest Posts w/Gravatars: Uses the WordPress MU (multi-user) platform’s API to create a list of the most recent posts across the entire site (multiple blogs). Works with the Gravatar API to create author images on each most recent post.
- The Theme Styles Plug-n-Hack: Proof of concept tutorial for creating multiple custom color schemes for a single WordPress theme.
- The JavaScript Animated Collapsing Categories Widget: (January 12th, 2007) JavaScript-driven WordPress plugin that creates animated, folding Category lists where parent/child relationships exist between categories. Major improvement over the previous version, which required a page refresh to redraw and had very few options. This plugin allows the Administrator to set preferences for sort order of both top-level and child Categories, setting both the label text of each Category and the link TITLE attribute, as well as specifying the CSS Class to use for top-level and child Categories. Supports any depth of parent/child relationships.
- The Enviro-Quotes Widget: (December 27th, 2006) A modification of the Joe’s Quotes Widget that allows administrators to create randomly-generated, environmentally-friendly tips in their Widget-ready sidebars. Also allows administrators to link those tips to relevant content or advertising.
- The Folding Categories Widget: (June 10th, 2006) PHP-driven plugin that allows administrators to create folding lists of categories where there are parent/child relationships between the categories.
- WordPress Plugin Directory/SVN: Plugins created on this site are stored in the official WordPress Plugin Directory, which is an SVN repository.
- Member of the WordPress Testing Community: I have a non-published blog that I use to test the latest versios of WordPress and report errors back to the community. Use SVN to download the latest version and BugTraq to report errors.