Recovering and Rebuilding a Broken Content System
WordReference’s Word of the Day site experienced a critical failure due to an outdated custom WordPress theme. The client needed a complete theme switch and a custom-coded solution to restore the dynamic content structure used for daily vocabulary posts.
Challenge: Theme Switch Without Losing Functionality
The original theme heavily relied on hardcoded queries and layouts. Once replaced, essential content such as “Word of the Day”, “Intermediate Word of the Day”, and “Basic Word of the Day” sections stopped working. To solve this, a lightweight plugin was developed to hook into the standard WordPress query and retrieve the appropriate posts by category, restoring the content via custom shortcodes.
The Problem
A theme change broke critical dynamic sections of the site. The previous solution relied on custom template code that wasn’t portable or future-proof.
Tech Solution
Rebuilt logic via a mini plugin using standard WordPress functions and custom shortcodes for easy insertion of dynamic category-based post listings.
Legacy content functionality restored after theme switch
Plugin-based logic replaces fragile theme-dependent code
Shortcode system allows dynamic content across multiple pages
Key Implementations
- Identified and removed outdated theme dependencies
- Developed a custom plugin to handle daily post output
- Hooked into standard WordPress query to retrieve categorized posts
- Created shortcodes for Intermediate, and Basic sections
- Ensured plugin works independently of any theme
Features in Action
- Dynamic display of daily vocabulary posts grouped by level
- Content injected using clean shortcodes on relevant pages
- Future-proof: theme-agnostic plugin functionality
- Easy maintenance for editors, no code interaction required
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