Entries tagged "portfolio"

Lessons Learned: Automated Script for Populating Meeting Handouts Database

A few years back, I developed a script for processing sets of PDFs to populate a database. That database is then used to dynamically generate the corresponding meeting handouts page for visitors to download the PDFs. The project was planned out so that pretty much everything needed for the meeting handouts page could be found in the set of PDFs. The only other extra thing I needed to do, besides making occasional minor corrections to the database, was store these handouts in a folder that was named with the meeting date, which I was already doing. Then I just needed to upload the files to the server and run the script. [Continue reading]

Lessons Learned: Live2Lead Website and Using Qualtrics for Collecting Event Registrations

For the new websites I create, my goal has been to make them responsive. That way I get some practice before committing to an overhaul of a major website. The extra practice should make the redesign process go smoother since hopefully I'll have the experience to solve whatever problems I come across. With the latest website, I was given the opportunity to further enhance my skills. Plus, I found a new, and somewhat unusual, solution for collecting event registrations. [Continue reading]

Lessons Learned: Responsive Design and the SU4T Website

I was asked to develop a website for a one-day event. The project proved to be an excellent opportunity to sharpen my responsive design skills. Now, I have completed projects here and there where website content was adjusted on the fly to fit different browser window sizes, but I haven't spent much time making an entire website responsive. [Continue reading]

Lessons Learned: Outputting Shortcode and Plugin Results

If you look closely at the documentation for WordPress Shortcodes, there is a specific way to output content to the screen. Of course, this is a part of the documentation I skipped while developing my first plugin which lead to some baffling results. To help save you time, I wanted to share one last lesson learned from writing my plugin. [Continue reading]

Lessons Learned: How Not to Name Shortcode Attributes in WordPress

Developing my first WordPress plugin provided me with many learning opportunities. We already talked about the quicker way of uploading plugin files. In this post, I wanted to share the problem I had with shortcode arguments. Hopefully it will help you avoid the same issue. [Continue reading]

Lessons Learned: Quick Way to Upload Custom WordPress Plugins

While writing my first WordPress plugin, there is one thing I wish I would have known sooner. Much of the early development time was spent zipping, uploading, activating, and deactivating files. There was a lot of monotonous work that is easily avoided. Let's take at quick look at how. [Continue reading]

My First WordPress Plugin: Generates a Bulleted List of Clickable Blog Post Titles

I recently helped with a redesign that involved building a website with an out-of-the-box WordPress theme. The theme met our needs for the most part, but we were looking for something to dynamically generate an FAQ page from blog posts tagged with "FAQ". After trying some third-party plugins which didn't quite work for us and attempting to modify the theme files directly, I decided it was time to build my first WordPress plugin. [Continue reading]

Lessons Learned: Management Program for the Plan Preparations Guide

Several years back, I developed one of my first in-depth PHP scripts. The goal was to create a voting mechanism for a set of notes posted online. The vote helped committee members decide on whether specific notes should be removed, moved, or changed. Although the completed solution wasn't perfect, it was an excellent learning experience. So I wanted to share a few things I learned. [Continue reading]