20 S Forty Road, Alabaster, AL 35007
briandichiara.com
205.910.7676
[email protected]
Summary
More than 22 years of experience in web/graphic design and web application development. Specializing in WordPress and WooCommerce development, but also experience using custom CMSs, Drupal, and Magento. Ton of experience with HTML, SASS/CSS, Javascript/jQuery and MySQL. I’m married and we have 2 boys and 2 girls.
A Bit of History
Self-taught, doing it my own way from about 2001 – 2008 when I began learning PHP Frameworks and Object Oriented Programming. I messed with CakePHP and Symfony a little but really used CodeIgniter as my main “go-to” MVC. Close to the same time I was also digging heavily into jQuery. It wasn’t until late 2010 when I began to play around with WordPress. I found that keeping up with my own CMS was exhausting and slowed me down tremendously when producing new work. There were some content management systems available using CodeIgniter, but they too were much in their infancy, so WordPress just made sense. There was a huge community behind it, several years under its belt, just about any plugin you could ever need, with a great API for writing your own. This decision sparked a lot of additional interests that expanded my skills as a developer and helped me get more involved with a community for open-source software.
Plugins
Gravity Forms Eloqua
briandichiara.com/product/gravityforms-eloqua/
Integrate Eloqua with the popular WordPress plugin Gravity Forms.
WP Multiple Passwords
github.com/solepixel/wp-multiple-passwords
Use multiple passwords to protect pages in WordPress. Easily integrates with Advanced Custom Fields.
ACF Modules
github.com/solepixel/acf-modules
Easily build custom content with reusable modules and Advanced Custom Fields (ACF).
Ultimate CSV Importer
github.com/solepixel/bmoney-ultimate-csv-importer
Import anything into WordPress via CSV.
WooCommerce LightSpeed Cloud
github.com/solepixel/woocommerce-lightspeed-cloud
LightSpeed Cloud integration with WooCommerce.
Custom Meta Boxes
github.com/solepixel/bmoney-custom-metaboxes
Allows developers to easily add meta boxes with custom fields into their posts or pages.
Content Tabs
github.com/solepixel/bmoney-content-tabs
Add tabs in your content with simple markup and fails cleanly.
Portfolio
Magenta Creative
- Custom WordPress website for a design agency.
Peerlytics
- Custom WordPress microsite.
Hill Murray
hill-murray.org | goboldly.hill-murray.org
- Custom-built WordPress theme with custom functionality and custom Gutenberg blocks.
Sonex Health
- Basic Landing page with a custom modal for Lead Form
Jair Lynch
- Custom WordPress site with tons of custom functionality.
COCM
- Custom-built WordPress theme with custom functionality and custom Gutenberg blocks.
- Combined blog and main website into a seamless, but separate website experience.
Cornerstone Schools of Alabama
- Completely custom-built WordPress theme.
- Custom multi-Stripe extended functionality for Gravity Forms and Stripe.
Tri-State Vegetation Management
- Designed custom theme.
- Completely custom-built WordPress site.
Student Housing Calculator
- WordPress-based housing calculator application.
Highlands Worship
- Completely custom-built WordPress theme.
- Discography custom functionality.
Employment
Developer/Owner
08/2013 – Present
Self-Employed (Briantics, Inc.)
Full-time freelance developer, taking on projects of all shapes and sizes.
Software Engineer
09/2020 – 03/2021
Rocketgenius (Gravity Forms)
Primarily focusing on bug fixes, enhancements, and creating new features for Gravity Forms Add-ons, with some work on Gravity Forms Core sprinkled in. Worked with a great team of developers in an agile development environment. Integrated several add-ons with 3rd-party APIs and custom functionality for Gravity Forms.
Lead Developer
04/2018 – 03/2021
iThemes (LiquidWeb)
Project lead for BackupBuddy, a popular WordPress backup plugin solution. Involved with maintenance and implementing new features, working with the support team and designer to create solutions for problems and enhancements in order to keep the current customer base and add new customers.
Senior Developer
11/2010 – 08/2013
Infomedia
Responsible for setting up systems used day-to-day, direction of workflow process, new production, maintenance, and server administration. Wore many hats. Got deeply involved with WordPress, wrote several plugins and many custom pieces for WordPress including a dynamic custom meta box plugin and a very robust CSV Importer plugin. Also responsible for a few migrations from custom CMSs to WordPress.
Web Developer
02/2009 – 10/2010
Diamond Studios
Responsible for website and web application development, following the SDLC. Working with PHP/CodeIgniter and MySQL as well as CSS/XHTML/Javascript/jQuery to developer client websites and web applications. Largest project (responsible for 80% of code) is an online medical/health profile to streamline the process of visits between patients and their doctors, reducing necessary forms to be filled out as well as simplifying the information presented to physicians and staff. Several other projects include mobile web application development, content management systems and Facebook application development.
ASP.NET Developer Intern
01/2009 – 05/2009
ProAssurance
Completed various portions of company external website, proassurance.com. Working with SQL and ASP.NET C# to create a file upload utility, user survey, and helped developers debug several CSS/Javascript issues throughout the site.
Designer/Developer/Owner
04/2008 – 02/2009
Sole Pixel
Self-employed, completing freelance work on a contract basis. Partial work history detailed above in portfolio.
Web Developer
01/2007 – 04/2008
Alabama Telco Credit Union
Hired as an employee after working 3 months on contract with Telco; Intro project was to completely remodel Intranet site using PHP and MySQL. I designed and coded entire Intranet application, including a content management system, allowing company employees easy access to important everyday information, documents, forms, procedures, and training materials. Content manager was restricted by username/password as well as specific permissions to certain areas. Successfully integrated with LDAP/Active Directory; Other aspects of Intranet include online form submissions, polls, charity donation tracker, AJAX enabled goals demonstration, user history tracking, database search tool, DHTML flyout menus, and javascript enabled PDF reports to calculate expenses and other financials.
Second major project was to redesign Internet website using ASP.NET (VB) 2.0/MySQL; I was also designed this from Photoshop to XHTML with direction from Marketing. Website is database driven, allowing the content to be searchable and managed through a CMS admin system available strictly on intranet site. The site features online application requests, an amazing drop-down navigation tool, the occasional flash promotion on the homepage, and a repossessions photo gallery.
Other projects include designing a mockup for new home banking platform interface, a sales number tracking tool, employee dashboard, training and online testing tracking, and a Halloween contest voting system.
Designer/Web Developer
08/2005 – 08/2006
High Ground Solutions, Inc.
Began High Ground as a graphic designer; Solely responsible for creating corporate marketing materials from concept to completion; Including flash presentations, posters, flyers, brochures, signage, logos, and email newsletters. Major projects included 11×8.5 Hanging Wall Calendars, customized for several public and private schools and churches; Tri-fold brochures for clients; and full size fold-out brochures for organization.
Position changed once the development of their company website began. Handled design from start to finish using Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Admin for site included managing content, user email accounts and auto-forwarders, MySQL databases, and an online calendar creation tool.
Additionally, began the development of two web based products known as SchoolCast and TestPoint using PHP/MySQL; includes layout, design, programming and graphical elements.
Education
Westwood College of Technology (Online)
01/2004 – 12/2005
Denver, Colorado
Graphic Design Major – Completed all but three courses in the Graphic Design curriculum!
Graphic/Web Design Intern
11/2004 – 08/2005
al.com
Primary responsibilities were to design creative elements for banners, web ads, and splash pages, while following strict style guidelines for fast load time, small file size and versatility among common browsers. Designing involved work in Photoshop, Flash/Actionscript, and HTML/programming. Also provided creative copy for advertising purposes and occasionally created websites and splash pages using HTML/PHP.