About me

Since I got my bachelor in Computer Science, I’ve been devoted to the web development, and now I’ve been a professional web developer for over 10 years.

From my early beginnings in the World Wide Web, I’ve been interested in new technologies and standards that improve users experience in the web and transform the web in a prowerful environment.

I’ve coded in almost every programming language for the web and have a solid background on server side languages and technologies such as PHP, ASP.NET with C#, Python and also I have done some Ruby. As part of the course program of my bachelor in Computer Science, I learned and lateley became an specialist on Object Oriented Programming and Relational Databases.

In the front end side, I speak HTML,CSS and JavaScript fluently, also I became interested in the new JavaScript frameworks and I gave a try to ExtJS which I found interesting but since I tried JQuery I feel like I’ve got all what I needed from a JavaScript framework and since then it’s the only JS framework I use for my projects.

PHP is my world

Even though I code in other server side languages, my main area of expertise is PHP, actually most of my works are on LAMP environments. PHP is used in a large number of websites, actually it’s one of the most used server side languages and it’s weird to find a hosting provider that doesn’t support PHP or MySQL. I’ve been coding in PHP for 8 years now, and have coded in all versions from the early PHP 3.x to the latest 5.x and now I’m looking forward to coding in the new PHP 6.

As part of my experience as PHP developer, I’ve learned to work with Zend Framework and Zend’s technologies in general, also I’ve tried some other MVC frameworks such as Symfony, CakePHP, CodeIgniter and Prado but I work mainly with my own set of libraries to perform common and some not so common tasks and ease web development. Also as a complement and sometimes a requirement in some projects I’ve learned to work with Smarty Templates to provide support for templates in some web projects.

i know money matters

Since everyone needs money to live, I have had to help a lot of people to sell in the Web, and since I don’t want to reinvent the wheel I had to learn to use, customize and extend some existing tools for E-Commerce. That’s how I learned to use E-Commerce software such as X-Cart, OsCommerce, CRE-Loaded, Zen-Cart and Magento, eventually becoming an specialist on setting up, customize and extend those tools, actually I’ve done some works that if I don’t tell you, you won’t know one of those tools is behind the site. Also, as a natural complement to E-Commerce, I have learned how to integrate and process payments from some of the most popular Payment Processors online such as PayPal, 2ChekOut, E-Gold, MoneyBookers, Authorizenet and PayWay. Anyway, sometimes people want to keep it simple and I have had to develop some custom E-Commerce systems too, why would you need a hammer to kill a fly?

I know content must be managed

At the end it’s all about the content, and that’s what will define your success or failure in your online adventure. People always want new content, and they get tired of the same quickly, that’s why most webs need a simple way to keep up to date and manage the content. Again, I won’t reinvent the wheel, that’s why I learned to use and specialized in some Content Management Systems, actually I have tested a lot of them like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, PhpNuke, Sitefinity, Mambo, Sarendipity, DotNetNuke and some others that I don’t even remember the names, but I’ve found Wordpress and Joomla more interesting and mainly Wordpress because of its great flexibility, and the number of resources that can be found out there.

Also since Content Management Systems is one of my areas of interest, I have developed some small and custom content management systems for specific purposes, sometimes combining the features of an E-Commerce system with the CMS capabilities to provide a complete and remarkable experience to the end user.

I know each project is different and we need to socialize

Every project has it’s own requirements, and sometimes it requires a set of skills that I might not have, but I like to learn new things, actually the projects I like the most, are those that represent a challenge or require the use of some technologies or tools that I’ve never heard about. That’s how I learned to use Google Maps API v2 and 3, Twitter’s API, Facebook’s API, JQuery, Youtube’s API, Yahoo’s YUI library, Bit.ly’s API, Google Analytics, Google AdSense and many other things that I needed to learn to complete a project. Also that’s how I learned to play music and stream videos on the web.

I know it must be complete

More often than you think, when you’re working on a web project, the moment when you think it’s over is exactly when it starts. I have had to learn how to make websites search engine friendly, and mainly I have had to become an specialist on cross browser compatibility to make sure websites look the same when visited using Internet Explorer (in all its ‘cute’ versions), Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome.

I have done different kind of works

In my years as web developer I have worked for several customers, and have done several kind of works.

As part of my work with Hosting 24/7, I had to provide support, maintenance and develop custom functionallities to websites such as revolvingtravel.com and 6k4you.com, also I developed a custom team management system, integrated payment processors in several websites, and also did some bug fixing.

My main role when I was working for Cosource.com.au was integrating templates and developing custom features for E-Commerce portals working under X-Cart, CRE-Loaded and OsCommerce such as dynamicorganics.com.au, mimiko.com.au, homeart.com.au, whowantsdiamonds.com.au and boutiqueskinstore.com.au, also I developed some websites powered by Sitefinity, and did some bug fixing too.

With RLMWebCreations my main role is back and front end developer. Basically they create the design, and I make it functional, that’s how I developed several websites such as superiorpropertysolutions.com.au, neemrich.com, coorparoomarine.com.au, pubsales.com.au and pubjobz.com.au.

Working for NewViewSolutions my main role is back and front end developer for custom projects, also I do X-Cart customizations and Wordpress,Joomla based websites. In the case of Wordpress and Joomla, basically I get a web template from them, and I make it an standard theme, also in the case of Wordpress I have to develop administration features to ease theme customizations.

For Zidalgo.com I provide technical support for customers, and I develop and extend some Wordpress themes. Also I do themes customizations for customers, and develop some custom features and plugins for Wordpress based websites.

I have also done some smaller works and helped a lot of customers to go online, I have fixed bugs, improved systems or added new features to websites, examples of this can be found at www.45second.com which I developed, empirehomesqld.com.au where I developed a project tracking system for customers, beinformed.com.au where I fixed some bugs and made some improvements to their newsletter management system, lifepsyche.com where I integrated a premium wordpress theme and made some customizations. I have a lot of examples of work I have done, actually I have so many that there are some I don’t even remember, sometimes I develop just a small function or program like a serial numbers generator and verificator I developed once for a guy, and are other cases where I just fix some small bugs.

I have my own interests too

Even though mostly I have to do what customers want, I have my own fields and areas of interest, and I try to spend some time doing some research and trying new things.

My main areas of interest are Object Oriented Programming, Content Management Systems, Web Semantics, Mobile devices and I’m also interested on PHP, JQuery, Web standards and basically whatever makes the web better.

Right now I’m looking forward to programming on the new PHP 6, also I’m studying the new HTML5 and CSS3 standards, I’m testing the new Visual Studio 2010 with its new set of features, also I’m developing software for PDAs and I’m going to try the development for Windows7 powered mobile devices. I like everything related to Wordpress either.

To sum up, I’m not just a professional developer, I’m also an enthusiast and lover of the World Wide Web and anything related to computers. I don’t do this just for the money, I do this because I love doing it, and even the simplest project I enjoy seeing it going live like if it was my first project.