This week I finished up two big projects. I had been working on a fairly complex web project at work that I launched as phase one. I’m quite proud of it as it has gone through several revisions based on feedback and requirements changing. It’s an online purchasing guide for Vernier Software & Technology. By far, it’s the most complex web app I’ve built for them.
My other project has been in production about the same timeframe. I’ve wanted to redesign the Portland Swing Dance Club web site since last year. After setting up this blog, I really grew to like WordPress as a publishing platform, and also reading how other freelance web developers would use WordPress as a content management system for their clients, I wanted to try for myself if a non-blog web site could be built purely from WordPress. And I am quite content in knowing it can.
There were a few concessions— any page that required specific scripting had to be outside WordPress, so it’s not perfectly ideal. However, it’s a small price to pay for an interface on the back-end that people who don’t know HTML code can contribute content with. It’s one step closer to being a platform I can hand off to someone when the day comes that I can’t maintain the club’s web site any longer.
Working with the web has been a thrill. There are so many tools now being built with web technologies because they draw on the familiarity and the power to collaborate easily on the web. I’ve spent a lot of time keeping up with the latest web apps that I can’t help but be inspired to work more with the web medium.
I’m thankful to God that he has placed me where He has—in a field that is quickly changing so I don’t have a chance to stay still for too long. I have to keep learning. It is equally a blessing that my wife helps me debug and proofread things for me. It’s great working as a team together, even in things she probably doesn’t understand code, but she can appreciate it.