Hailing from Cali, Colombia, Charles Cifuentes is a software engineer and fullstack web developer with more than seven years of experience developing web applications and websites. Join us as this Codeable expert takes us through his WordPress career, his experience with Codeable, and what he thinks of the future of WordPress Headless!
Farhan: Hi Charles, thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us how you started your career with WordPress? Any insights you’d like to share about your professional career?
Charles: I started developing web applications with CodeIgniter Framework and websites with Joomla. Then in 2015 a client asked me to develop a website using WordPress. I found this to be a great CMS and decided to dig deeper. I read the documentation, then I joined an official WordPress group in my city. Now I can be considered an expert WordPress developer and I love the whole world of WordPress.
Farhan: Since you’re currently working at Codeable as a freelance WordPress developer, what type of projects do you usually like to work on? How do you manage those projects?
Charles: I like to work on full site development. Sometimes I also do design tweaks and plugin customizations. I manage my projects with Trello, and I usually like to use Scrum methodology. When necessary I upload my repositories to Github. I have regular meetings with my clients where I can show progress.
Farhan: Headless CMS is a hot topic these days, and you have experience in creating static sites with WordPress Headless and React.js/Gatsby.js. In your opinion, what is the future of WordPress Headless?
Charles: I think this is a great technology for companies looking for fast websites. It works great for static websites where they don’t have constant interaction with the backend. But as Gatsby.js and other frontend frameworks and libraries keep improving their features continuously, it is getting easier and easier to interact with plugins like WooCommerce. So we will see more websites that use these tools commonly.
Farhan: You’ve done numerous projects since you joined Codeable in 2020. Where did you first hear about Codeable, and what makes it stand out from the other freelancing platforms?
Charles: A friend of mine told me about Codeable, then I visited the website and didn’t hesitate to apply. Codeable is a place with a large community of developers and company staff. We are all friends willing to help each other. This creates a healthy environment, with clear rules and a support team that is always there 24/7 to support us and the customers as well.
Farhan: You have overall full ratings on Codeable. What is the development workflow that helps you work smoothly and efficiently?
Charles: I always apply to projects where I feel that I have enough experience. I try to deliver the work with the best quality, and I keep constant communication with clients. In this way, I make sure that they will receive what they expect.
Farhan: You started your web development journey with Framework CodeIgniter and have good command on other web technologies like Node.js. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of WordPress? What makes WordPress different from other web technologies?
Charles: I think that the strengths of WordPress are the flexibility that the themes and plugins give, as well as the hooks. This makes it possible to do almost anything and encourages a large number of companies and people to develop plugins and themes for WordPress every day.
Farhan: There are thousands of free and premium WordPress themes and plugins available on the Internet. Would you like to share your favorite themes and plugins?
Charles: When I need to create a theme from scratch I like to use Understrap to make a child theme, and combine it with the Advanced Custom Field plugin. But if I need to work with a page builder, I prefer to use the Astra theme and Elementor page builder. I also like working with WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, Paid Memberships Pro, and LearnDash.
Farhan: You have expertise in building WooCommerce stores, LMS, and membership sites. Given their site requirements, which type of hosting would you prefer for these types of projects?
Charles: If it is a starting or small project, I suggest the client start with shared hosting and follow up on how the website is growing to decide if it is necessary to migrate to a VPS or dedicated hosting.
Farhan: Could you share an image of your workstation for our readers?
Charles: I’m still working at home (Pandemic time – LOL)
Farhan Ayub
Farhan is a community manager at Cloudways. He loves to work with WordPress and has a passion for web development. Mostly, he spends his time interacting with the people in the WordPress community. Apart from his work life, Farhan spends his time gaming and playing sports. Feel free to contact him at [email protected]
