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Ratko Solaja, WordPress Developer in Novi Sad, Serbia
Ratko Solaja

WordPress Developer in Novi Sad, Serbia

Member since July 17, 2015
Ratko likes to help clients build websites that will excite people. His philosophy is that it doesn't matter what medium is used; what's crucial is the idea and message. What Ratko offers to clients is the best mix of creative and strategic thinking with practical and memorable solutions. He's also a regular WordCamp and WordPress Meetup speaker.
Ratko is now available for hire
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Portfolio

Experience

Location

Novi Sad, Serbia

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Command-line Interface (CLI), WordPress, PHP, MacOS

The most amazing...

...project I've done was creating from scratch a women's SaaS platform.

Employment

  • Senior WordPress Developer

    2016 - PRESENT
    Simplicity, LLC
    • Developed plugins on my own that were published in the WP Repository and were then purchased by my employer.
    • Built a booking plugin for our clients.
    • Created new modules for the BuddyPress platform.
    • Built a number of WooCommerce extensions for our clients: a wishlist with an email Cron job, a gift card generator available to non-registered users, quantity rules, PDF invoices, and delivery slots.
    • Used the Facebook API to enable registration via Facebook.
    • Created custom tables for the WordPress database.
    Technologies: WordPress, PHP, jQuery, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5

  • Front-end and WordPress Developer

    2014 - 2015
    MediaNovak
    • Created themes for ThemeForest.
    • Developed plugins for our clients.
    • Integrated the ThemeForest API into our support system made on WordPress.
    • Worked with WooCommerce (extending it), Visual Composer (creating shortcodes for our themes), and with BuddyPress.
    • Created fully dynamic one-page video background websites that were mobile-ready.
    • Co-created our own fields for WordPress with the Settings API.
    Technologies: PHP, WordPress, jQuery, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5

Experience

  • CityLeaf
    https://cityleaf.com/

    I created a new WordPress theme for CityLeaf that enables them to show all of their products as well as services.

    Client Testimonial: "Ratko was great! He was very responsive, executed well our vision for our website, always available, solved our issues quickly—we now have a great looking website! Highly recommend Ratko and will continue to use him going forward."

  • Magnolia Market Website and Emails for the Riess Group

    For the Riess Group, I've worked on two projects: the Magnolia Market website and Magnolia Market emails.

    When it came to the website, I worked on implementing new features, fixing bugs, and more. Even though the WordPress site is powered by PHP, the most amazing thing I did was the implementation of an Algolia search engine via JavaScript.

    When it came to the emails, it was my first time to really do some work on them and it was a love-hate relationship. I've managed to learn some basic principles—testing with Litmus and how to use foundation Inky.

  • Digest MD

    On this project, I worked for Digest MD to create a WordPress theme based on the storefront as well as implemented some improvements to the server for optimization.

    Technologies: Nginx, PHP 7.1, Percona MySQL, Redis, WordPress Rocket Plugin

  • InstaVid

    Here, I developed a WordPress plugin that creates and updates content from IVA via a Cron job. I also built a PHP app/widget that allows users to easily create their own video bars.

  • Svi uz Šampione

    I created this website for a local ice cream manufacturer and a frozen food distributor. This website was done to showcase its new ice cream made for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

    My main goal was for the ice cream customers to interact with the Olympic games. They would find a code on the purchased ice cream, enter a code on the website, and then leave a message to support the Serbian Olympic teams or individuals competing in Rio.

    I created this project as an employee of Simplicity, LLC.

  • The Ultimate Guide to Building a WordPress Plugin (Publication)
    https://www.toptal.com/wordpress/ultimate-guide-building-wordpress-plugin
    WordPress plugins can be both a blessing and a curse. With more than 45,000 plugins available in its official repository, WordPress users can customize their website to their heart’s content. However, not all plugins follow the standards necessary to keep the platform performant and secure while also delivering a solid user experience. In this tutorial, Toptal Software Engineer Ratko Solaja shows us how to build a robust WordPress plugin, following all the necessary best practices.

Skills

  • Languages

    SCSS, CSS3, HTML5, PHP, JavaScript

  • Frameworks

    ZURB Foundation, Redux, Bootstrap 3+, Tailwind CSS

  • Libraries/APIs

    REST APIs, Animate.css, jQuery UI, jQuery, BuddyPress

  • Tools

    Terminal, Sublime Text 3, Git, Oh My Zsh, ITerm, Sketch 3, Nginx

  • Paradigms

    Functional Programming, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Object-oriented Programming (OOP)

  • Platforms

    WordPress, WordPress Theme Design, WooCommerce, MacOS, Shopify

  • Other

    WordPress Multisite, Ajax, WordPress Plugins, CSS3 Animation, ACF, Machine Learning, Email, Command-line Interface (CLI), DNS, Ubuntu Server

  • Storage

    MySQL, MySQL/MariaDB, JSON, Redis Cache

Education

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
    2012 - 2016
    Univerzitet PIM - Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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