OpenLampTech - Developer Interview With Andrii Toniievych
OpenLampTech - Developer Interview With Andrii Toniievych
Senior WordPress and WooCommerce developer Andrii Toniievych shares a great developer interview with the OpenLampTech newsletter audience.
Welcome to this OpenLampTech text-based developer interview.
Andrii Toniievych provides services for complex WooCommerce projects in the e-commerce space including development, optimization, and tool configurations/integrations among others.
Andrii also develops a custom WordPress theme framework, Twee.
Needless to say, I am super-excited Andrii shared insightful information and knowledge with the OpenLampTech newsletter readers and community.
And now without any further ado, on to the interview.
Q: Please introduce yourself and tell us what you currently do for a living.
I’m a senior WordPress and WooCommerce developer in Absolute Web. Also, I collaborate with a few other companies on a part-time basis.
Most of the time, I develop and support complex e-commerce projects based on WooCommerce. It includes the initial development, performance optimization, marketing tools configuration, integration with different services, etc.
Q: What PHP framework(s) and/or CMS(s) are you interested in the most or currently using (if any) and why?
I started my career in 2009 with custom Joomla and OpenCart development but switched to WordPress in 2012. I’ve been working on my custom theme framework called Twee. It’s available on GitHub: https://github.com/TwistedAndy/wp-theme
I have been working with other frameworks like Sage, Timber, etc., but they bring unnecessary complexity. They may be useful when a team is familiar with Symphony, for example, but in other cases, they are not cost-effective.
Q: Do you think it is important for developers to know some SQL and not rely solely on an ORM? Why or why not?
It’s essential for a developer to know SQL and how it works. It’s a good idea to use ORM or WordPress API to access the data, but in some cases, it’s way more efficient to query the data directly.
A good example here is building the term maps or pulling the array with some metadata. Here are some examples of how it might work: https://github.com/TwistedAndy/wptheme/blob/master/theme/includes/theme/term.php
Q: What is one piece of software that you just cannot live without and why?
My main piece of software is PHPStorm from JetBrains. I use it because of the good autocompletion, code inspections, refactoring tools, and integration with Git, Xdebug, and many others.
IDE is not essential for development, but it significantly speeds it up and helps avoid possible errors.
Q: You type all of your code in which IDE/Text Editor/Software?
I use mostly PHPStorm and sometimes Visual Studio Code to open some random files.
Q: How has working as a web developer/designer/professional benefited you other than the obvious paycheck and monetary value?
I’m excited about creating projects, helping entrepreneurs to develop their businesses, and making their customers happy.
Aside from that, I’m passionate about mastering the existing tools. For example, I am still experimenting with CSS custom properties to find the best way to implement the ideas behind them. There's beauty in simplicity and minimalism.
Q: Do you have a book, newsletter, blog, podcast, or other resource you would recommend to other developers?
My main source of knowledge is reading the existing code. It’s extremely useful to understand why some code was written this way.
Also, there is much useful information on Medium and dev.to. Also, I read the documentation on WordPress, WooCommerce, and other resources. In the case of WooCommerce, a lot of docs are located in their GitHub repository.
Q: What hobbies or activities do you do for fun?
I like traveling across different countries. Sometimes, it’s very useful.
Q: Where can readers go to learn more about you and any projects you may have going?
You can find more about me on my LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toniievych/. I try to publish some articles there.
Also, I’m pretty active on Twitter: https://twitter.com/toniievych
Q: Anything else you'd like to add or share with the OpenLampTech readers?
There are two main things that can make you a good developer:
There are no silver bullets. Every tool has its pros and cons.
Keep things simple. It’s never too late to make the code complex. The real challenge is to make it simple and beautiful.
Thank you, Andrii Toniievych, for sharing your knowledge and insights with the OpenLampTech newsletter readers and community!
Thank you for reading. I hope you have a great rest of your week.
Take care.
Josh Otwell