Ryan Kinal
100 E. St. Clair St.
Warren, PA 16365
716.581.1000
ryan.kinal@gmail.com
Ryan Kinal is a programmer and web developer, specializing in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS,
with experience in PHP, SQL, ASP.NET, and graphic design. But beyond being technologically inclined, he is also artistically motivated, through music, lindy hop, and drawing in various media. Combining these interests and talents, he is a skilled developer with an eye for aesthetic design.
Content Management
Tuesday, February 9th 7:10 pm
My last post was a personal development post. It related mostly to things I'd like to do that won't get me (immediately?) paid, but would be good portfolio builders and potential business opportunities.
This week, I'd like to talk about something I believe would have immediate effects on my suitability for a large amounts of jobs. If you read the title of this post, then you probably know what that item is, or rather, what those items are: Content Management Systems.
There are a lot of job opportunities on freelancing websites for people who know how to use and modify various CMS's, and I think this is an area where I'm severely lacking. I know a couple CMS's - Expression Engine and CMSMS - but those are hardly the popular choices. There are a few that I've heard mentioned several times, and I feel like I should get into.
Wordpress
Arguably the king of all content management systems, this is really a blogging engine that acts as a CMS for a lot of sites. But in any case, it's used by a disproportionate percentage of the web population, and it's for this reason that any developer should learn and know it. I need to get on this.
Joomla!
I know very little about Joomla!, but again, I've seen it mentioned a few times on freelancing sites, and it's something I need to get into.
Drupal
Again, I've never worked with Drupal, but it's something I've seen mentioned, and something I need to learn
Now, why are CMS's so high on my list? Well, the web has recently become absolutley flooded with them. And for good reason. Using a CMS for your site is the best way to make sure you're able to easily update content. For many CMS's you don't need to touch code at all. This separates code (my job) from content (my client's job).
It also puts the focus on front-end coding. All the back-end stuff is managed for you, through a simple interface that connects HTML templates with content, and links it all together. The interfaces vary, and some are better than others, but they all have them. (Often times, you trade flexible functionality for a simple interface - you rarely have both at once.)
This way, designers and front-end developers can focus on what they do best - design and development - rather than worrying about database interactions and how the content fits into their templates.
So, I'll be installing at least the three CMS's listed above, simply to gain experience working with them. It will expand the range of jobs I can apply for, and hopefully get me hired to more of them.
I know there are a lot of CMS's out there. Which ones do you, my theoretical readers, use?