Special Projects: Custom Programming

Sometimes you don’t need a whole new website. Sometimes you just need a lift from an expert. You may be a solopreneur. You may be a corporation with an in-house team or a smaller firm using your IT guru.

One thing you have in common is that you don’t have the expertise or maybe you don’t have the bandwidth to complete that online software project you’ve been talking about.

That’s where Karen Callahan can help you.

Karen writes custom PHP programs and WordPress plugins and blocks, and, customizes PHP-based open source software products like WordPress. She has interfaced WooCommerce and custom-developed order forms with payment gateways like AuthorizeNet, PayTrace, Plug’n Play, and Mijireh Checkout (now CloudSwipe). (Some of the cool stuff she has programmed is listed below.)

Cost estimates for special projects are provided upon request. Estimates are free.

Need a special module that is unique to your business? Have a project and are calling upon programming contractors to complete discrete portions? Got questions? Call Karen now at 508-480-8833!

Typical Software Tools

PHP, MySQL, Ajax, jQuery, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, Apache, nginx

Karen Callahan as Your Contract Developer

Although building her own WordPress-centric business keeps her busy, Karen Callahan blocks time for contract work for agencies and private companies.

She contracts out as a WordPress developer and a PHP developer.

This might seem odd, however, Karen believes it keeps her on her toes! As a sole-proprietor, there is no one else giving input to these aspects of work (WordPress and PHP).

Doing contract work allows her to have a view into how U.S. businesses of all sizes are approaching challenges and creating solutions to their WordPress and custom PHP systems.

Contract work helps Karen maintain and stretch her WordPress and PHP skills. Oftentimes, it provides the opportunity to flex her advanced skills muscles. Plus, seeing what other businesses are doing confirms that Karen is aligned with industry trends in her own business dealings, and informs new ways to approach complex tasks for her direct clients.

Sampling of Special Projects

Custom Block for an Investment Advising firm in Newton MA

Client Request: Have a WordPress Block that would allow them to have great flexibility over the display of regular blog posts and custom post types.

Choose one or more post types to display. Client had 8 post types including, display all blog posts. Post types included All types, regular blog posts, events, in the news, news & press releases (post type from previous website, eventually retired), podcasts, press releases, webinars
Choose whether to display on full page, section of a page, or home page section. Posts-per-page were different for each display type. The client wanted the posts-per-page numbers hardcoded in order to force conformity so that the website would remain intact and presentable over time.
Choose to display post meta; date and author
Choose whether to display featured image or not

Solution:

Client selects block from the standard WordPress blocks area.

Client selects custom display options using customization sections (mini menus) on the right.

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The primary program retrieved the data from wp_posts and wp_postmeta, sorted it, and output it in a section or filling an entire page depending on the choices above, IF the data was one of the newer custom post types or blog posts.

The secondary PHP program was required in order to display the “old” news & press releases post type in sections or on an entire page. The massaging and display of that data was different. The code was kept separate since the post type was to be retired within a year.

Keeping the PHP code separated meant less re-coding of the primary PHP program when the post type was retired. All that had to be done was to comment out two “case” statements and the “require” statement that included the secondary PHP program.

Customizing WooCommerce Checkout Shipping Fields

One of my current WordPress website development projects includes eCommerce for equipment rentals and sales. Rentals are typically for nine to 12 months. To handle certain rentals, the checkout processing requires intrusive customization of the shipping section; the standard WooCommerce shipping section behavior and fields will be replaced entirely with a new shipping field group. Most of the time, the new shipping field group will be displayed, and then, about 15% of the time, the checkout process will default to the standard WooCommerce checkout shipping fields behavior. Which shipping section to display is determined by the renter's choice in one ... Read More

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Latest WordPress Contract Project

Project request was to allow for multiple authors on each post. There are plugins that do this for standard installs of WordPress (WP). However, this client has a highly customized version of WP. The solution included using a plugin with custom code. Previous Customization to Author The client defines all staff in a custom post type called "people". People includes the standard WP info plus additional fields that reference degrees and certifications, whether they are a writer and/or a presenter, and more. Earlier this year, I was hired to add that post type and to replace the standard WP link ... Read More

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Well Water Testing Regulations Module

For this special php programming project, a custom WordPress plugin was developed for a local, residential well water testing firm. The firm has a WordPress website that is maintained in-house. A two-pronged solution was provided in the single WordPress plugin. The plugin works in the WordPress admin area (Dashboard) as well as on several public-facing web pages. The admin area has functionality for staff to keep the on-line information up to date, and the public facing area has functionality for website visitors to learn what they need to do to meet 'code' for their well - whether they already own ... Read More

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Contest Tracking and Reporting Module

This special project involved developing a custom PHP module for a local, CrossFit box. The password-protected module enabled each member to track his/her progress while participating in the current challenge. This CrossFit box (no longer exists) had a WordPress website that was maintained by a member. This CrossFit challenge was named 100 Push Ups for 100 Days. Business Requirements: Allow participating members to enter the number of push ups he/she completed each day Allow members to access their own push up tallies and not anyone else's Display cumulative tally of participants' progress on the public-facing website Solution: Create a password-protected data entry ... Read More

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Auto-Add Customers’ Stories to the WordPress Database

Your Gift Certificate (YGC) of Southborough, MA requested that recipients of their housewarming gift box be able to tell the story of how valuable the offers and coupons enclosed in the gift box were to them as recent home buyers. Requirements included: Allow unregistered users to easily enter their stories and submit them for publication Do not allow the story to be public without YGC's approval Notify YGC when there is a new story to publish Ready the story for publishing so that all that YGC needs to do is hit the Publish button Thank the homebuyers for entering their ... Read More

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Custom Mailing Labels via PHP Programming

One of the quick side projects I worked on in the past two weeks was a contract PHP programming job for a clubhouse in Marlborough, MA. The business requirements: User to enter a cut-off date Print pages of labels for all members who Had been in attendance since the cut-off date, AND Belonged to a "certain" subset of members Labels need to be formatted for Avery 5160 The clubhouse data is stored in MySQL tables in a database on their Intranet. There are over 1,000 members listed in the members table. Some are active and some are no longer active. ... Read More

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Dynamic Site Plan for new Real Estate Development

Adventures Online was hired by Steve McKenna & The Home Advantage Team of Arlington MA, the exclusive real estate sales team for Prescott Farms in Bedford MA. for this special project. Adventures Online was hired to bring life to the online site plan as houses were being built. Although the plan is a simple drawing, there are highly complex, multi-tiered PHP programs running behind the scenes that make the site plan respond differently depending on the phase of the build, the clicking actions of the current viewer, and the status of the lot that is clicked. Business Requirements Website visitors ... Read More

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PHP Programming Helps the Chamber Streamline Processing

An interesting PHP programming project that I recently completed was for the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce. The business goals were to: Consolidate the steps required to upload membership information to the website Provide mechanisms for Chamber staff to be able to Upload the membership information themselves (without technical intervention) Do the upload on demand, whenever they wanted The Importance of the Membership Upload The Membership Upload not only updates the list of members, but also populates the table that holds the list of members' discounts and another table that stores valid business codes. Information uploaded during the process is ... Read More

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Other custom PHP programming projects…

National Custom Job Board for Northborough, MA Design and Build Recruiting firm: Programs that prompted for standard info from job candidates, and included filters like full-time, part-time, or contract work; selection of the U.S. region(s) and states() in which they wanted to work, and the prioritization of job titles they were seeking. Info would be emailed to all the recruiters who specialized in the selected geography:job title combinations. Recruiters had a back-end admin area to monitor progress with candidate contacts and progress.
Mortgage Pre-Qualification Program for Braintree, MA headquartered mortgage firm: Primarily for lenders to pre-qualify home buyers. Captured standard pre-qualification info and searched through multiple tables for the mortgage programs that were available to each applicant, and printed a “Certificate of Qualification” for a certain dollar amount. If client was not eligible for amount requested, the program would suggest the amount for which the applicant might be eligible.

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