Project Execution

1. Design and Discovery Process

• Conducted a comprehensive technical audit of the existing Drupal website.
• Evaluated content types (nodes), taxonomies, custom modules, multilingual configurations, and views.
• Documented content relationships and dependencies.
• Created a one-to-one content mapping plan to align Drupal structures with WordPress custom post types and taxonomies.

2. Development and Customization

• Included custom theme development to align UI/UX precisely with client branding and content needs.
  Built a fully custom WordPress theme from scratch for performance, flexibility, and responsiveness.
• Used Elementor for building and editing static pages, enabling easy updates without requiring technical expertise. 
• Implemented Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) to manage dynamic content using structured field groups, enabling flexible and consistent content rendering across the site. 
• Designed mobile-first, fully responsive layouts to ensure seamless viewing across all devices. 
• Developed dynamic templates for various content types, allowing consistent layout and styling for posts like Daily reports, Military reports and News. 
• Implemented RTL compatibility with conditional CSS and layout mirroring.
• Used the WPML plugin to make the site multilingual and to support additional future languages. 
• Developed a secure donation form integrated with PayPal, supporting multiple currencies and all essential security features. 
• Customized the WordPress admin dashboard to improve UX: grouped menu items, improved accessibility, and tailored the structure to match user roles (technical and non-technical). 
• Enabled automatic language redirection based on user browser settings for a better multilingual experience. 
• Added fallback handling for untranslated content — such as showing English if Hebrew translation is missing and vice versa. 
• Integrated Amazon S3 for cloud-based media storage to improve performance, ensure scalability, and serve media assets more efficiently. 
• Integrated a newsletter subscription system to keep users updated with the latest reports and news via email. 
• Implemented a map-based filtering system using a map API to display report checkpoint locations. Users can explore and filter reports based on selected checkpoints for a more interactive experience. 

3. Content Migration to WordPress

• Developed a custom migration engine using PHP and WP-CLI.
• Automated the transfer of content from Drupal 7 to WordPress.
• Preserved media attachments, taxonomy relationships, internal links, and parent/child hierarchies.
• Ensured formatting and metadata integrity during mapping to WordPress custom post types.
• Developed a custom plugin with PHP and WP-CLI to migrate complex data such as paragraph fields, repeaters, and nested structures. 
• Migrated all core Drupal 7 content including pages, media, users, custom content types, menus, and static blocks, ensuring data integrity. 
• Mapped Drupal categories to WordPress categories and custom categories, maintaining accurate relationships and consistent counts in both Hebrew and English. 
• Preserved content relationships, including linked news summaries and their parent types, ensuring proper display and structure. 
• Migrated and linked all media files (images, PDFs, videos) to their correct posts and structured them in appropriate WordPress directories 
• Converted Drupal fields into ACF fields in WordPress, preserving formatting, metadata, and multilingual values. 
• Rewrote all internal links to follow WordPress’s permalink structure using a custom script and implemented redirects for any legacy or unmatched URLs to prevent broken links. 
• Maintained SEO integrity by preserving slugs, titles, meta descriptions, and canonical tags. 
• Performed multiple dry runs and live syncs to verify content accuracy and ensure a smooth final migration. 

4. Thorough Testing and Quality Assurance

• Conducted responsive testing across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.
• Ensured cross-browser compatibility (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge).
• Validated accessibility compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
• Performed screen reader testing and backend usability checks for role-based content management.
• Tested all backend functionality and cross-checked frontend output against the original Drupal site for consistency and accuracy

5. URL Redirection and SEO Preservation

• Implemented 301 redirects from legacy Drupal URLs to new WordPress permalinks.
• Preserved meta tags, alt attributes, structured data, and internal links.
• Configured canonical tags and submitted updated sitemaps to search engines.
• Ensured proper indexing and performance monitoring via Google Search Console.

6. Launch and Ongoing Support

• Deployed the site using a Git-managed staging-to-production pipeline.
• Enabled server-side caching, compression, and regular backups for optimal performance and security.
• Trained the client’s editorial team on content management.
• Provided ongoing support for plugin updates, feature enhancements, and uptime monitoring.