Nathan Finch, Developer in Madison, WI, United States

Nathan Finch

WordPress Plugins Developer

Location
Madison, WI, United States
Toptal Member Since
October 25, 2016

Nathan’s been building websites since 2011. He loves development—it's the perfect mix of problem-solving, building, and lifelong learning. Currently, Nathan is the VP of development at TheDigitalRing.com, building websites and mentoring developers. Prior to joining TDR, he freelanced, working with several clients through Toptal and other agencies with a brief stint as a web engineer at 10up.

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Portfolio

The Digital Ring
Amazon Web Services (AWS), MySQL, Vue, APIs, JavaScript, PHP, WordPress
Finch Professional Services
jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, WooCommerce, WordPress
10up
JavaScript, PHP, WordPress

Location

Madison, WI, United States

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

MacOS, WordPress, Terminal, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

The most amazing...

...project was when I developed an entirely custom web app, database, view, etc. (built on WordPress and set up to interact with multiple third-party APIs.

Work Experience

2018 - PRESENT

VP of Development

The Digital Ring
  • Built custom web applications using WordPress and other PHP frameworks specific to the client's needs.
  • Developed custom APIs to "sit" on top of a custom client SQL database.
  • Collaborated with clients to map out project and delegate to our team of developers, designers, and accounts personnel.
  • Worked hand-in-hand with the developer team to grow and strengthen their skills.
  • Established the direction and led the development team to foster growth, depth, and competence in our field.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), MySQL, Vue, APIs, JavaScript, PHP, WordPress
2011 - PRESENT

Front-end Web Developer | Consultant

Finch Professional Services
  • Built custom and customized WordPress sites—primarily with the Genesis Framework.
  • Studied and kept up to date with emerging tools and trends in web development, especially around WordPress and the front-end.
  • Consulted with small/medium size businesses, non-profits, government organizations, and others about their online needs.
  • Developed custom functionalities and plugins for clients.
  • Managed teams of contractors for larger projects, interfaced with clients to manage expectations and relationships.
Technologies: jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, WooCommerce, WordPress
2018 - 2018

Web Engineer

10up
  • Built completely custom experiences using WordPress, PHP, and JavaScript.
  • Integrated services like Elasticsearch and the WordPress REST API.
  • Worked on a team of more senior level devs.
  • Performed code reviews and worked with Gitflow.
  • Worked in a fully remote/distributed environment.
Technologies: JavaScript, PHP, WordPress

Experience

Custom Website Design and Functionality Including a Migration to WordPress

http://jungsik.kr
Live Site: Jungsik.kr
GitHub: https://github.com/n8finch/jungsik-theme, https://github.com/n8finch/jungsik-theme-seoul

• This site has neat grids, Sass and Grunt for styling; jQuery/JavaScript for some interactivity. The website is not my design, but I built the code for it. It is a custom child theme on the Genesis Framework, built from the ground up with my Genesis starter theme. ACF was used to build in a customized experience for loading menu Items (lunch and dinner), bar menu items, bios, and press releases.
• The previous site had the same front-end design but was all PHP—so there was no way for the client to change anything without FTP. After moving this to WordPress and training them on how to use the CMS, they breathed a sigh of relief: “Oh, this is MUCH easier!” they said.

It’s a multisite, as the New York and Seoul restaurants are slightly different with different needs. I developed it as a local site, pushed it to a development site, then migrated it to production, so single and multisite migrations are not a problem for me.

WordPress Quick Draft or Post WordPress REST API Plugin

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-quick-post-or-draft/
Have you ever wanted to stay on the front-end of your website and write a quick post or draft from there? This plugin will allow you to do just that!

Please note: this plugin currently requires the WordPress REST API (Version 2) plugin (which you can download here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/rest-api/).

The idea of this plugin is that it is quick to post from the front end and only gives you three fields to fill out: post title, post content, and category. From there, you can save it as a draft, or post it immediately. The plugin uses the WP REST API to post the data.

Please refer to installation and screenshots to see how to install, how to set this plugin up, and how to use it.

Instructions for use:
1. Click on the blue slide out button to pull up the popup.
2. Fill out the Title, Content, and Category (though you don't need a category filled out).
3. Click on the button to save as a draft or immediately post.
4. Upon successful posting, you'll see a confirmation box, then you can close the popup or it will close in five seconds.

Yet Another Social Share Plugin

Automatically display selected social network(s) sharing buttons in posts and/or on pages.

Support for the following social networks is required: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Whatsapp (for mobile browsers only).

The plugin options page include the following configurable items:
• There is a choice to display on posts, pages, and other registered custom post types.
• Options to activate or deactivate the buttons for different social networks.
• Three different button sizes to choose from small, medium, and large.
• The choice to display the icons in their original colors (default) or all in a selected color.
• An option to determine in which order the icons will appear (e.g., FB, TW, G+, or more).
• Opportunities to place the social share bar (one or more of these can be selected):
a) Below the post title.
b) Floating on the left side.
c) After the post content.
d) Inside the featured image.

The plugin also enables a shortcode to include a sharing bar inside a post.

Custom Author/Book Websites

I built this site to be consistent with WalterDanley.com branding.

Work Done:
• Migrated the site to the Genesis Framework.
• Built a custom widgetized homepage.
• Performed social media integration.
• Developed a layer slider.
• Installed SSL.
• Implemented a Gumroad Integration.

Artisan Kraft Genesis Child Theme and Customizations

Project details: eCommerce, home goods

This project was a redesign of the AKGoods website. They wanted to move to the Genesis Framework, and after heavily customizing the Jessica theme, including added extra functionality, wrapped this project up.

Notes:
• Built responsive multiple page layouts on the site.
• Developed custom categories, single product, and multi-column pages.
• Developed single product pages including custom features: accordion, pair with a query (you can also like a query), a custom cart, wishlist, and search layouts.
• Wrote custom Contact Form 7 layouts and actions.
Image of Don't Repeat Yourself: Automating Repetitive Tasks with WP-CLI publication
Publication

Don't Repeat Yourself: Automating Repetitive Tasks with WP-CLI

https://www.toptal.com/wordpress/automating-with-wp-cli

Skills

Frameworks

Genesis Framework, Laravel

Languages

JavaScript, CSS, CSS3, HTML, Sass, PHP, HTML5

Libraries/APIs

jQuery UI, jQuery, WordPress API, jQuery Plugins, GitHub API, Vue, React

Tools

Grunt, GitHub, Git, Gulp, WP-CLI, Terminal

Platforms

WordPress, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, WooCommerce, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Craft CMS

Other

WordPress Rescue, WordPress Themes, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Multisite, HTML to WordPress, APIs

Paradigms

Agile

Storage

MySQL

Education

2016 - 2016

Nanodegree in Front-End Development, JavaScript

Udacity - Online (https://www.udacity.com)

2009 - 2012

Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Business, International Business, Finance

North Park University - Chicago, IL, USA

Certifications

JUNE 2016 - PRESENT

Front-end Nano Degree

Udacity