Tag: portfolio

anyutt82 announced the site http://www.edasovkusom.ru/. So it can be considered launched. I'm not into cooking, so I can't judge its content, but I worked on its software side and want to write about that. Before this I hadn't made such complex sites on Joomla, though initially nothing foretold trouble, except for the fact that the whole functionality and design was begging to be done on WordPress, but the client's categorical requirement was Joomla! The outwardly simple little site was handed over to a new programmer, and I went off on vacation to finish up the three online stores hanging on me.

Remotely I helped with building the site all week, but in the end the boss handed the development over to me entirely, since the deadline was running out and the project had to be finished urgently. The functionality turned out to be unusual, it was the first time we were making something like a blog on Joomla. I had to use the Tag component for adding tags to recipes and the MultiCategories component, which replaces the standard Content component, since a single recipe has to be in several categories. To display a thumbnail image in the intro text the JA News module was used.

All in all, I enjoyed the work on the project and it stuck with me. I see in the office it got the others pretty fed up, and some even cringe at it. But I like that kind of thing, I like it when the client knows specifically what they want, even if the requirements are a bit unusual and strict. That's better than when you have to come up with part of the site's functionality on the fly during the build, and then rewrite it on top of that when, after showing it to the client, it turns out they want to redo part of it.

I've worked another three months. Now at a proper computer and in a room separate from the managers, a good spot, though I miss the company of the cat Dasha a little — she lives in Khersonstroy and sometimes drops by the office. She visited our room only once, when the managers weren't watching and she managed to squeeze through the hole for cables in the wall :) And the window is farther away now, but that's fine, on the plus side I work at a big 19-inch monitor, which doesn't tire the eyes as much.

I've gotten more comfortable with Joomla, though I still never learned to program for it, I don't see the point in that. You can find everything ready-made and tweak it to the client's needs. I didn't learn much new in PHP either, there's no need to build sites from scratch, and you can figure out any ready-made one, as long as you have the skills. I've gotten a better handle on SEO, but that's more for myself, since by job title I'm a programmer and we promote local companies' sites, and in this market there isn't much competition in that respect — everyone uses outdated, even harmful, promotion methods and clients are willing to pay for them, there's a years-long reputation, and some fairly prestigious clients too. And if you look at how other firms in town promote and optimize sites, then we're still pretty far ahead.

And now a list of what I worked on at the job over the winter:

I've been working for over two months now. The work really is interesting — they're constantly handing me tasks I'm running into for the first time and have absolutely no idea how to do. At first it's just a rush, when after a few hours you finish doing something you previously had no clue how to do, and you've either figured out the solution yourself or found it online. What's interesting is that with a shallow search for some solutions you turn up results saying it's very hard or impossible to do, but if you dig deeper or think it over properly, a not-too-difficult solution turns up.

Mostly I do the tasks my boss finds on freelance sites — the kind of thing you could do from home, but the firm has a good reputation, so finding clients is no problem. I doubt I'd be able to deal with the client myself successfully, working out all the details. And there's no way I could make myself work at home either :) You could say this kind of work isn't prestigious and doesn't have great prospects. But considering that the city's large programming firms have made layoffs because of the crisis and are having trouble with orders, a small firm like this with lots of clients is the best option when you have zero experience under the current conditions.

Below is a short list of the sites and what I did for them in these first months — whether that's a lot or a little I don't know, with experience it'll become clear. In the future, I think, this list will come in handy, and here it won't get lost.