Welcome to ElectroNovelty, the web development and customization service of Phil Glatz.

What I do

I'm a professional Drupal developer. I have been working as an independent contractor and consultant, specializing in Internet and Web development and administration since 1995. My career as a developer started before the web was invented, and I have been present through the various phases of evolution it has taken, and have a good historical perspective of what works (and doesn't).

I have a well-equipped studio with high-speed connectivity, various development machines running MacOS, Windows, Linux, and a production Unix server colocated at a high-speed network center. My specialties include

  • Drupal design, architecture, and customization, including module development and theming.
  • Best practices for SEO.
  • Working with front-end designers and converting their page comps to validated and semantically correct XHTML and CSS.
  • Javascript/jquery for seamless DOM and Ajax integration.
  • Use of SASS/COMPASS for efficent and flexible style sheets.
  • Create and maintain revision control, using git and other revision control systems.
  • Familar with Amazon Web Services, have built sites with Lightsail.
  • Full-stack web development. including web server administration, maintenance, and reporting.
  • Project documentation and design specifications.
  • Integration with other web servers via REST and API calls.
  • Agile development techniques.
  • Responsive/mobile-first design for excellent usability on desktop and mobile platforms.
  • Server-side scripting with PHP, Perl, and bash.
  • SQL database-backed CMS systems.
  • Usability and human factors integration with technical issues
  • HTML design and review.

To Recruiters

Please carefully read this page. Although I am skilled in a number of areas, I am looking for work on Drupal projects only. And please note that I work very well remotely, and am not interested in relocating or working from somebody else's office.

Collaboration

Although much of my work is as a solo creator, I also have a number of collaborative relationships I have developed over the years with designers, software developers, system administration and security experts, and project managers. I can assemble a team to tackle most projects very quickly, using world-class developers with extensive experience.

Most of the work I have done in the last 15 years has been remote, as members of virtual teams. I work well remotely, keeping in touch with email, phone, Zoom, Skype, and other collaboration tools. I am a member of the Sacramento Drupal Users Group and help mentor new members.

How I Do It

Most of my work is on small to medium scale sites. I create a local version of a new site on my Mac, and create a new project for it at github. I advise clients on where to host their site, and will put up a protected version of the site on their preferred host, or on a server of my own. When it is time to deploy the live site, all files are transferred via git. The databases is set up to perform automated backups at regular intervals. Once the site has been signed off, I can perform routine maintenance and add new features, via git, on a staging site.

Work Philosophy

Things change, often very fast, so try to keep on top of where they are headed. Avoid getting locked down into a single source solution. Be agile, but not necessarily worshipping at the altar of Agile. Never hack core; you probably haven't figured the problem out if you do. Embrace Open Source products. Contribute back. Don't lie. Competition is good.

Portfolio

Please visit my portfolio page to see some of the sites I have designed, contributed to, or maintain.

Resume

View my resume.