Michael Glesenkamp - Web Developer

About Michael Glesenkamp

I'm a blessed husband of 14 years years to my wife Kimberly. We have one adorably crazy cat, Gracie. When I'm not working, you'll find me enjoying the great outdoors. My wife and I love to hike and explore parks and wildlife.

I have been working as a web developer for 14 years. My enjoyment and desire to learn grows along with the ever-evolving field of web development. I primarily develop in/with WordPress but also have experience with MODx Revolution. I've worked with Laravel applications and have started getting into ADA compliance.

I appreciate the benefits of working in both frontend and backend development as each presents itself with its own unique set of challenges. In my opinion, it's very helpful to know both sides because though they are different fields, they go hand-in-hand. Providing HTML/CSS/JS that's geared toward the chosen framework makes for an efficient integration for the backend developer. Likewise, having frontend skills allows for the ability to tweak any code that might make the backend integration quicker, smoother or both.

My experience in client support is both vast and valued. Whether the client needs assistance via in-person, virtual, phone or email, I am honored to help empower them to grow in their knowledge and work through any issues that may arise.

I love being part of a servantile team that focuses on and strives for clear and open communication, structure, integrity, excellence and quality. Finding the best solution to a project as a team or individually is a welcomed part of what I do. At the end of the day, it's a joy to help a company improve and achieve good work in the world.

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men ..."

Col 3: 23

Skills

PHP
HTML
CSS
JS
Git
WordPress
Sketch
Photoshop
APIs
ADA

Teamwork
Determination
Honesty
Problem Solving
Communication
Quality
Motivation
Quick Learner
Efficiency/Optimization
Leadership

Portfolio

Contact

Name *

First

Last *

Last

Contact Preference *

Phone

Message *

reCAPTCHA

If you are human, leave this field blank.

ECS - Web Revamp

This project was an overhaul of the existing design and functionality created from an older WordPress build. My goal was to integrate the updated frontend code into WordPress while planning around existing functionality that needed to stay or be updated. This required some custom database queries to manipulate existing data values whether it was from a custom field or to regex in the content.

A challenge of this project was to provide a single template to function like Gutenberg- but well before Gutenberg was ready! This was achieved through Advanced Custom Fields Pro (ACF Pro) and the use of flexible content where the client could select the type of layout they wanted.

There was a need to use the RSS hooks to manipulate the data that gets output so that the MailChimp RSS Template could be setup to handle the customized data.

Skills Used

WordPress
PHP
Database
Bootstrap
HTML
CSS
JavaScript

Hillcrest Ravens - Website Revamp

This project was to develop a custom WordPress theme. I provided a solid starting point for the frontend developer to work with. A lot of the communication was handled through GitHub where we utilized issues and pull requests to stay on the same page.

This was the first site I built utilizing custom Gutenberg blocks that were built utilizing ACF Pro functionality. There were a few custom post types and taxonomies that were created for their Staff, Athletics, and Stories archives.

I built a custom navigation item that I called “column” that allowed Hillcrest to add this column element to the appearance menu and dynamically add the .mega-menu class necessary to apply the styles. This can currently be seen by hovering over the Activities menu.

Skills Used

WordPress
PHP
Bootstrap
HTML
CSS
JavaScript

ADA Compliance

There were a couple of client projects that I worked on to improve their ADA compliance. I worked within the SiteImprove platform to check in on the status of the issues on the given site. I worked solely on the scores for Alamance Community College, Gaston College Foundation, Gaston's Radio station site WSGE and roadmapped ADA for Coker College. Each site needed to be brought up to ADA level AA.

Documentation was provided for the client to be aware of how to format the content to stay within ADA standards. There was a custom plugin that was written and maintained for any code such as clearing out empty heading or paragraph tags to converting inline attributes to inline styles. This allowed for easy use of applying code to many sites.

Skills Used

HTML
CSS
JavaScript
PHP

Google Drive - Google Apps Scripts

The lack of ability to run multiple Find/Replace at one time isn’t as efficient as it could be. For example, if you have a large template and need to replace several templated items like, Client Name, Project Title, Date, Total Price, Created/Prepared by etc., you will have to run a Find/Replace for each item. The default way requires you to remember each term that needs to be replaced on that template which can be harder for newer employees.

I used Google Doc’s default functionality to open a sidebar and display input fields for each term that needed to be replaced on the template. The benefit of doing this provides a preview of everything that will be replaced all at once. This eliminates the need to remember each term for both new and existing employees.

Spreadsheets are a powerful tool. However, getting data into them isn’t always fun and usually involves a manual process. Thanks to Google’s API, data can now be automated! I worked on an integration with a third party’s CRM API to pull in information into a reporting sheet. This allowed for the data from the third party to be compared using different functions to see if certain leads came from a particular platform. I also utilized Google’s daily and hourly scheduler services which is comparable to a cron job that allows the API integration to happen automagically!

For notable reasons, you cannot apply any updates to existing files created from Google Drive templates. However, there are use cases, especially in spreadsheets where this functionality is something you need. An example being the need to update a formula that will always be in cell A2 or O33. With Google Drive Templates, you aren’t able to update older sheets from that template, so I wrote a script that will do just that! This script had two phases.

Phase 1
Dynamically created 50+ spreadsheets based off of the type of template that data set needed to be. After looping through and creating the new scorecard from the appropriate template, I stored that new spreadsheet ID so that the editing of existing spreadsheets using that template could be made.

Phase 2
Wrote the functions to reference the stored spreadsheet IDs and loop through them. This allowed for formulas to be updated on the existing files of that template.

Skills Used

Javascript
API
HTML
CSS

LPHOH - Web Revamp

This project involved revamping their event platform from their existing Wordpress site. I utilized The Events Calendar plugin to create custom frontend templates while using the provided functionality of the plugin.

There were several custom post types created so the client could manage content that would be reused across the site. This was achieved through the provided shortcode that allowed them to manage the content in one location but have it update anywhere within the site.

There was also a unique need to have forms that users submit to create a post that the client would then approve to display on the website. This was accomplished through Gravity Forms.

Skills Used

WordPress
PHP
HTML
CSS
JavaScript

Bellin College - Web Revamp

This was a project that has sensitive data and can’t be publicly seen. It required a lot of custom components, post types, taxonomies and mySQL queries to display the necessary information.

Skills Used

WordPress
PHP
Database
HTML
CSS
JavaScript

If Then Move - Square eCommerce Integration

This project involved an API integration with Square. The product, image, description and price all get pulled in through the API to be displayed on the site. After adding products to the cart, customers are then directed to the Square Checkout page hosted by Square to minimize the PCI compliance needs for the client.

Skills Used

MODx
PHP
API
Bootstrap
HTML
CSS
JavaScript

North Carolina Christian School Association - Square eCommerce Integration

This project involved a basic integration of their site into WordPress. The complexity was in the custom Gravity Forms integration that required stopping the calculation of a specified quantity field at a specific number. For example, the user could have an unlimited number of entries for a competition, but they only want to charge the first 15 entries. This was handled pretty easily through Gravity Form’s javascript hooks. The complexity comes in when sending that data to PayPal where the limitation gets removed and all entries are charged. Another custom hook was used to prevent charging after the first 15 entries.

Skills Used

WordPress
PHP
JavaScript
CSS
HTML

Rotary Club of Alamance County - Custom Plugin

I provided a custom plugin for the Rotary Club to manage their directory of Members. This involved implementing several settings in the backend that allowed them to have a default member photo that can be easily customized, a permalink and a few sorting options. For this project I chose to use Carbon Fields as the framework for adding the custom meta fields to the Members post type.

Skills Used

WordPress
PHP
Bootstrap
HTML
CSS
JavaScript

Personal Snippets - Efficiency

These snippets are quality of life enhancements. They are my personal projects that I have worked on to help make what I do more efficient with the tools that I use. For example, I saved time and work by switching from a clipboard manager to editor snippets. I can now just type in a simple key command and output that snippet of code.

I like using “dump and die” when troubleshooting code. I wrote a snippet where I type the ddpv command and the necessary code gets output, condensing 20 + characters down to just four. Repeated over several times in a day or week, this saves a lot of time.

One of my favorites is the snippet for adding a new version to the repositories changelog.md. I created a VS code snippet that allowed me to copy the new version number (when updating the necessary file) then type the clv command on the changelog. It would then output the version number and the date, then start me in the content to type what changes were made. It’s crazy to think, but that little snippet of code saved a lot of time and potentially wrongfully manually typed data.

If I see an opportunity to save time and stay accurate, I write a snippet.

Skills Used

Tools