Table of Contents
Gleckler Olga
Introduction
Independent WordPress developer from St. Petersburg, Russia with love to code and actions, contributor to The Global WordPress Marketing Team.
Q. How did you come into your current field? Share a bit of the background?
A. I liked to make things by myself when I was little. I made rough doll furniture with chisel from wood when I was about 6.
I liked to see how things works and fix them, even if it was just a door lock. If would my parents were carpenters or locksmiths life could be very different.
But they were engineers, and I was one of the first children with a computer in my neighborhood even if I had nothing else to boasting about. All this computer stuff was attractive but vague.
I was presented with HTML tags on a napkin by friend with flaming eyes in cheap student’s cafe when I was in technical school. I tried to study PHP and was fascinated by it when I worked in customer service in software company.
But only when I was lucky to get a full working website to support I understood how it works and was able to start writing from scratch by myself. Years after I made a conscious decision to work further only with WordPress. The best CMS that is 🙂
Q. What’s the most interesting project you have done to date in WordPress?
A. Each time the most interesting project is one I’m working on. Most complicated project was e-shop with a lot of third part connections.
Right now projects require more and more interactive frontend and high performance. It’s challenging to apply new features and make each project better than the last one.
Q. Have you ever been to any WordPress meetups or WordCamps? If yes did you learn anything useful?
A. I started to attend local Meetups and WordCamps about three years ago and it made the big difference.
It’s opportunity not only to catch up on hot topics but also to meet people with the same passion. The last year I was on WC Nordic in Helsinki, WCEU in Berlin and WC in own St. Petersburg and they were great.
Q. What does your workstation look like?
A. I work at home last 6-7 years and I like it!
Q. What kind of tools/software do you currently use for your creations?
A. I use Local by Flywheel and completely satisfied with it, I wanted to try Docker but still don’t have real need.
I prefer Visual Studio Code to any other editors, it isn’t so complicated like PHPStorm and also free, Bitbucket to keep repositories, Bash like a console, Gulp to make bundles, sprites and other tasks. For prototypes and design I use Adobe XD and like it better than Figma which I’m also use if I have to.
Q. What interesting feature do you think you would like to see in WordPress and is currently missing?
A. Wizards in Dashboard will be helpful for users.
I wonder if can be a better way to make permalinks without need to rebuild them continuously and get more flexibility with paths, archives to custom post types can have own pages like Posts Page and also I’m waiting very much for Gutenberg Phase 4 with Multilingual Solutions.
Q. Out of the current plugins and themes which one do you like the most and why?
A. I like to write code and still have this desire to do all by myself but there is no need to reinvent a wheel and essentials plugins, behind whom are big and great teams, are must have.
Mostly I use WooCommerce for e-shops with YITH Wishlist, Advanced Custom Fields to structure addition information and make connection between post types, Cyr-to-Lat plugin to make sure that in file names and url will be only Latin symbols, Yoast SEO and Regenerate thumbnails.
Also iThemes Security to make site more secure and to fight against brute force, WebP Express to optimize images.
Q. Which WordPress hosting do you use and would you recommend for your clients and others?
A. Right now I’m not very satisfied with hostings I use and with some I had huge troubles. In Russia we need to choose a hosting company with servers inside our country.
I think to try GoDaddy, they are only one company I found from hostings with special features to WordPress with location in Moscow, and I’m also looking in direction of Seravo, Pantheon, SiteGround and Kingsta.
They have very promising special features. Mostly clients have some hosting already and it needs to have serious arguments to switch to another one.
Q. Do you like/love what you currently do in WordPress?
A. I like what I’m doing and how, I like freedom and control I have.
Q. What would you like to do in the future in the current field or somewhere else?
A. I want to evolve like a developer further, this field is so deep, it’s impossible to know it all. Some day I will be ready to speak on events 🙂
Q. Can you give us some reference for whom we should conduct an interview next and why?
A. Linnea Nordström from Norway, Agnieszka Palmowska and Maciek Palmowski from Poland are very active community members.
I cannot not mention Sergey Biryukov from Russia and Dmitri Don from Estonia even if this guys unlikely to give an interview.
Sonl Sinha is a passionate writer as well as WordPress and WooCommerce rockstar who loves to share insights on various topics through his engaging blog posts. He runs a successful website design and digital marketing company. With 15+ years of experience in WordPress theme development, he strives to inform and inspire readers with his thought-provoking content. He helps thousands of small and medium businesses and startups create a unique online presence. Follow Sonl Sinha for your regular dose of knowledge and inspiration.
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