Portfolio

Torin O'Leary

Welcome to my NWTC Portfolio!

I am a Web Developer, Programmer, and Designer, graduating from NWTC on December 17, 2025. Learn more about each of my classes below, or navigate to the Projects page for a summary of my final projects.

Website Coding
Web Front-End Design 1
Web Front-End Design 2
JavaScript
PHP
Web Content Management
Web Emerging Technologies
ASP.NET
WordPress Theme Development
Additional Classes

Website Coding

In my first web development class, I learned the basics of how to read and write HTML and CSS code, and how to use them to create simple yet functional websites.

Topics and Concepts

  • HTML and CSS Basics - Syntax, structure, and valid usage
  • FTP and Hierarchical Folder Structure - Uploading, managing, and organizing server files
  • Box Model and Structured Layouts - Learning how to work with the box model and build multi-column site layouts
  • Forms and Tables - Creating and validating input
  • Media Queries, Responsive Design, and Progressive Enhancement - Focusing on mobile-first development utilizing media breakpoints and ensuring most crucial content remains visible and accessible
  • Images, Multimedia, and Publishing - Implementing pictures, videos, and other media into sites

Class Links

Web Front-End Design 1

My second web development class focused on front-end design, introducing visual styling effects and techniques to create engaging and visually appealing web pages. Each week, new design elements were introduced to be applied to a continuing project, culminating in a final project utilizing all the new concepts.

Topics and Concepts

  • User Interface & User Experience - Styling web page elements to look visually appealing and interesting, and ensure users have a positive experience interacting with sites
  • Design Elements - Creating buttons, cards, forms, and custom navigation menus to enhance user experience
  • Accessibility (A11Y) - Focusing on maintaining web accessibility standards, including valid contrast ratios on page elements, proper mobile-first design, and use of descriptive text in image elements
  • CSS Specificity - Understanding how specificity of page elements affects styling and using proper syntax to target desired elements
  • CSS Flexbox - Basics of styling using "display: flex;" to create responsive layouts that are easier to maintain

Class Links

Web Front-End Design 2

This class introduced more visual design and functional design concepts, including using CSS to create page animations, grid layout, and responsive images.

Topics and Concepts

  • CSS Flex - Introduced and explained more functionality to flex display
  • CSS Grid - Using grid layout to take more control over page displays and organization
  • CSS Animations - Using keyframes to create simple animated elements on web pages
  • Line Length - Enhancing readability of page text by implementing ideal line length of 45 to 90 characters
  • Can I Use - Utilizing Can I Use to determine support of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other web design features across a variety of browser types, versions, and devices

Class Links

JavaScript

JavaScript Client-Side Scripting introduced me to the basics of JavaScript language, syntax, and functionality, and taught me methods of implementing JavaScript to further enhance a website's design and user experience using progressive enhancement.

Topics and Concepts

  • Objects, Functions, Logic, and Loops - Basics of JavaScript notation, creating objects, using programming logic, and creating simple loops to accomplish tasks
  • Document Object Model - Using JavaScript to interact with the structure of an HTML document within a web browser
  • Events - Creating event listeners to perform activities and manipulate HTML content during user-directed or browser-directed events
  • jQuery & Frameworks - Basics of JavaScript frameworks to enhance JavaScript's functionality in web applications
  • AJAX, JSON, & APIs - Loading dynamic content on screen using Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, filtering and displaying content based on JavaScript Object Notation data, and successfully implementing and using Application Programming Interfaces

Class Links

PHP

PHP Server-Side Scripting introduced me to another language to streamline the web development process by breaking down pages into components that can be implemented as often as necessary, rather than hard-coding every static page of a site (such as this portfolio itself).

Topics and Concepts

  • Includes - Partial PHP files containing a portion of a webpage that can be loaded anywhere it's needed (headers, footers, etc.)
  • Mail Functionality - Create working email forms using PHP and data validation to prevent malicious code injection
  • SQL & Database Connection - Connecting to a database to retrieve data to be displayed on a website using a combination of PHP and SQL code
  • CMS Creation - Creating a simple Content Management System to create, read, update, and delete blog posts from a website

Class Links

Web Content Management

This class was my introduction to using WordPress, a very popular Content Management System used by bloggers, developers, and major websites around the world.

Topics and Concepts

  • Themes - Selecting a theme to change the appearance and layout of a WordPress site
  • Plugins - Using 3rd-party plugins to add functionality to sites or enhance existing functionality
  • Social Media Integration - Integrating social media feeds into WordPress pages
  • Mail Campaigns - Creating and managing email campaigns using MailChimp and similar platforms

Class Links

Web Emerging Technologies

This class built upon my existing development knowledge and introduced new and interesting web technology concepts.

Topics and Concepts

  • GitHub & Repositories - Using distributed version control systems to host repositories containing a website's code that can be copied by every team member working on a project
  • SASS - Styling websites with Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets, allowing simplification and compartmentalization of CSS stylesheet elements for ease of use
  • Netlify Hosting - Building, hosting, and modifying websites for free using services like Netlify which allow GitHub integration
  • CDN Node Packages - Adding effects to web pages using Node.js and allowing implementation via script tags rather than having to install packages locally

Class Links

ASP.NET

ASP.NET MVC introduced a way to integrate C# functionality into HTML web pages using Model-View-Controller structure.

Topics and Concepts

  • MVC - Using MVC architecture to separate an application's data between models (data and logic), views (UI display and page layout), and controllers (user input and interaction)
  • Database Connection - Dynamically loading and displaying data from a database in a web page, and using loops to create page content based on database data

Class Links

WordPress Theme Development

My final web development class covers creating and updating themes to be used on WordPress website using PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Topics and Concepts

  • Template Hierarchy - Determines which files WordPress searches for to display on a website, based on what kind of page or post is being accessed
  • Code Reference - Finding information, usage, and user comments of various WordPress-specific code functions on the WordPress Code Reference site for developers

Class Links

Additional Classes

Theses classes didn't involve creating a home page or a web application as a final project, but covered important topics related to web development.

  • Online Search Strategies - Covered basics of Search Engine Optimization, search engine indexing, and digital marketing campaigns
  • SQL Programming - Learned how to write SQL code to manipulate and display information from a database
  • Programming in C# Part 1 - Used Visual Studio to create interactive and functional Windows Forms with C#