Meet Dionisio Fernandez: Debugging, optimisation and an enduring love of Drupal

We’re delighted to welcome Dionisio Fernandez to the Annertech team as a Backend Developer working within our Managed Services team. Alison Visser caught up with Dioni to chat about Drupal, debugging, astronomy and life in southern Spain.

Alison: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Dioni: I’m Dionisio Fernandez, but everybody calls me Dioni because it’s much easier!

I started my career working in Computer Science at a university, where I worked on internal projects using CodeIgniter and Yii Framework, alongside some sysadmin work. Around 2011, I started exploring new technologies in my free time and that’s when I discovered Drupal. From then on, Drupal has been part of my life, although I have worked on a few WordPress sites too!

Alison: Where are you from?

Dioni: I’m from Jerez de la Frontera in Cádiz, in the south of Spain.

It’s a city with a warm Mediterranean climate, sunny summers and mild winters, so outdoor life is possible almost all year round. Jerez is famous for its sherry wine, flamenco culture and equestrian traditions, which are all deeply connected to Andalusian heritage.

Some of the biggest events in the city are the Feria del Caballo (Festival of the Horse) and the MotoGP Grand Prix race, which brings an incredible atmosphere to the city every year.

Alison: How many languages do you speak?

Dioni: Spanish is my native language, but after working as a Drupal developer across Europe for the last 10 years, I’m very comfortable working in English as well.

Working internationally has allowed me to meet amazing people and connect with incredibly talented professionals from all over the world.

Alison: What will you be doing at Annertech?

Dioni: I joined Annertech as a Backend Developer as part of the Managed Services team.

My day-to-day work involves supporting Annertech’s clients, helping to keep websites running smoothly and solving technical issues when they arise.

Alison: How long have you been working with Drupal?

Dioni: Professionally, I started working with Drupal in early 2012 when I joined a Drupal agency in Jerez de la Frontera.

I worked on Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 projects initially, with some exposure to Drupal 4.7 as well. During that time I had the opportunity to contribute to projects for organisations including STEM Learning Centre UK, Waste and Resource Programme (WRAP) and several LocalGov Drupal sites.

Alison: Is there a particular area you specialise in?

Dioni: I’m very passionate about website optimisation. There’s something really satisfying about taking a slow website and turning it into a fast, responsive experience.

I also really enjoy debugging complicated problems. That’s probably where I feel most comfortable technically.

Most of my career has focused on backend development, but I’m also very interested in learning more about decoupled Drupal architectures.

Alison: Any favourite Drupal project or module?

Dioni: I’m a big fan of Drupal’s Migrate module. These days, it makes moving content from other systems into Drupal far more straightforward than it used to be, especially with the wide range of contributed modules available to support different migration scenarios.

One of the most interesting migration challenges I’ve worked on recently involved migrating content from Microsoft Dynamics into a new LocalGov Drupal site using Workspaces, which was a really rewarding project to be part of.

Alison: Have you contributed to any Drupal modules?

Dioni: I am currently the maintainer of 3 projects in drupal org:

• BigQuery Integration

• Integrate Help Scout's Beacon

• Node Access Rebuild Progressive

And I have some credits too.

Alison: Is there a Drupal module or tool you can’t live without?

Dioni: Honestly, I can’t live without Xdebug anymore. It’s become an essential part of my daily workflow.

Being able to step through code, inspect variables in real time and trace execution paths has completely changed the way I debug and understand complex Drupal logic. Going back to using var_dump() or dpm() alone now feels a bit like coding in the Stone Age.

Alison: Any hobbies outside of Drupal?

Dioni: With two children at home, finding time for hobbies is a little difficult these days!

But astronomy is definitely my main hobby. I have a large Dobsonian telescope that can take some really nice photographs. 

The tricky part is that astronomy tends to happen at midnight when the sky is clear, which doesn’t always fit neatly around family life. I’m hoping that once the kids are older, I’ll be able to spend more time getting back into it properly.

Here’s one of my favourite astronomy facts: Saturn is actually less dense than water. So, scientifically speaking, if you could find a body of water large enough, Saturn would float in it.

It’s also the least dense planet in the entire solar system, which feels slightly ridiculous when you look at the size of it.

But although astronomy is one of my great loves, most of my day-to-day attention is focused much closer to home – particularly on family life, including a very energetic dog.

Lala is a six-year-old chocolate Labrador. She's been with us since she was three months old.

She keeps us very busy. She loves the beach and water, including the swimming pool. And she's always hungry.

My youngest daughter is a year old, and she follows her around all day. She would quite happily take food from her hands.

Alison: What are you most looking forward to about joining Annertech?

Dioni: I’m excited about the opportunity to work with great professionals and interesting clients while being part of a company that’s so involved in the Drupal community.

I’m especially looking forward to contributing more to open source alongside such a talented team.