The Digital Front

A student-led tech publication built with WordPress for INFO 3602 — Web Programming II (Sem II 2025/2026).

Team: Terrence Murray, Jeremiah Clinton, Robyn-Catherine Khan

Local Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Local by Flywheel (recommended) or any local WordPress environment

Getting Started

1. Create a new site in Local by Flywheel (use default settings)

2. Clone the repo into the site's app/public/ directory:

   cd ~/Local\ Sites/your-site-name/app/public
   git clone https://github.com/TheDigitalFront/Project.git .

3. Configure wp-config.php:

   • Copy wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php
   • Update database credentials to match your Local site (usually root/root/local)
   • Generate fresh salt keys at https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/

4. Import the seed database:

   • Go to WP Admin > Tools > WP Migrate DB
   • Import database/seed.sql
   • Search-replace the old site URL with your local domain

5. Visit WP Admin once — the theme auto-configures everything:

   • Activates all 9 required plugins
   • Creates pages (Home, About Us, Team, Mission)
   • Sets static front page
   • Seeds categories (Mobile Devices, Apple, Google, Samsung)
   • Builds the nav menu with correct hierarchy
   • Enables Yoast breadcrumbs
   • Enables front-end registration and comments
   • Flushes rewrite rules

6. Verify setup:

   • Child theme "The Digital Front Child" should be active
   • "My Articles" should appear in the admin sidebar
   • Nav menu should show: Home | About (Team, Mission dropdown)
   • Category filter on the home page should show tabs

Project Structure

wp-content/
├── themes/the-digital-front-child/
│   ├── style.css              # Theme header + all custom CSS
│   ├── functions.php          # Slim loader — enqueues styles, includes inc/
│   ├── inc/
│   │   ├── article-cpt.php            # Article CPT registration (R1)
│   │   ├── acf-fields.php             # ACF JSON sync + Article fields (R2)
│   │   ├── shortcode-category-filter.php  # [tdf_category_filter] / Query 2 (R5/R6)
│   │   └── setup.php                  # One-time environment setup
│   ├── front-page.php         # Home page template
│   ├── single.php             # Single article/post template
│   ├── page.php               # Generic page template
│   ├── archive-article.php    # Article archive with filter + pagination
│   ├── header.php             # Site header + nav + breaking news banner
│   ├── footer.php             # Site footer
│   └── acf-json/              # ACF field group sync (auto-generated)
├── plugins/
│   ├── tdf-breaking-news/     # Plugin 1: Breaking News Banner (Terrence)
│   ├── advanced-custom-fields/
│   ├── custom-post-type-ui/
│   ├── members/
│   ├── query-monitor/
│   ├── wordpress-seo/
│   ├── wp-migrate-db/
│   ├── wp-pagenavi/
│   └── wpforms-lite/
└── database/
    └── seed.sql               # Baseline database for onboarding

Custom Post Types

CPT	Slug	Description	Owner
Article	article	Main content type — tech posts, news, tutorials	Terrence
Review	review	Product reviews with star ratings + image gallery	Jeremiah
Opinion	opinion	Opinion pieces with author bio + related articles	Robyn

ACF Fields (Article)

Field	Type	Description
video_embed	Text	Video embed URL (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
reading_time	Number	Estimated reading time in minutes
source_url	URL	Link to the original source

Custom Queries (Phase 4)

Query	Description	Location	Owner
Q1 — Trending by view count	WP_Query ordered by _post_views_count	page-trending.php	Jeremiah
Q2 — Category + date range	tax_query + date_query with sanitized URL params	inc/shortcode-category-filter.php	Terrence
Q3 — Related posts by tag	tag__in + post__not_in on single post view	single.php	Robyn

Custom Plugins (Phase 5)

Plugin	Description	Owner
TDF Breaking News Banner	Scrolling headline ticker with admin settings	Terrence
TDF AJAX Category Filter	AJAX-powered post filtering by category	Jeremiah
TDF Reading Progress Bar	Scroll progress indicator on single posts	Robyn

Shortcodes

Shortcode	Description
[tdf_breaking_news]	Renders the breaking news ticker (placed in header.php)
[tdf_category_filter per_page="6"]	Filterable article grid with category tabs, date range, and pagination

Pages & Navigation

• Home — Static front page with hero, articles grid, topics, newsletter, stats
• About Us — Team intro and site overview
  • Team (child) — Individual bios for all 3 team members
  • Mission (child) — Editorial mission and values
• Trending in Tech — Posts ordered by view count (Jeremiah)
• Nav menu: Home | Trending (optional) | About > Team, Mission

Requirements Mapping

#	Requirement	How It's Met
R1	3 CPTs with custom fields	Article, Review, Opinion via CPTUI + ACF
R2	Digital content per CPT	Article: video + image. Review: gallery + rating. Opinion: bio + quote
R3	User roles + permissions	Members plugin: Subscriber, Contributor, Editor
R4	Pages, child pages, menus, breadcrumbs	5 pages, 2-level hierarchy, dynamic menu, Yoast breadcrumbs
R5	Pagination + curation	WP-PageNavi on Home, Trending, Article archive
R6	3 custom queries (documented)	Q1: trending, Q2: category+date, Q3: related posts
R7	3 custom plugins	Breaking News, AJAX Filter, Progress Bar
R8	Comments + registration	Native WP comments + front-end registration enabled

What's Tracked in Git

• Custom child theme (wp-content/themes/the-digital-front-child/)
• Required plugins (wp-content/plugins/)
• Custom plugin: TDF Breaking News (wp-content/plugins/tdf-breaking-news/)
• Seed database (database/seed.sql)
• Project docs and config samples

What's NOT Tracked

• WordPress core files (wp-admin/, wp-includes/, etc.)
• wp-config.php (local credentials — use wp-config-sample.php as template)
• wp-content/uploads/ (media files)
• Default themes (twenty*)
• wp-content/mu-plugins/ (Local by Flywheel auto-generated)
• Query Monitor drop-in symlink (wp-content/db.php)

Team Ownership

Member	Responsibilities
Terrence Murray	Project setup, GitHub, child theme, Query 2 (category + date), Home page template, Breaking News plugin, deployment
Jeremiah Clinton	Reviews CPT + ACF, user roles (Members), Query 1 (trending), Trending page, AJAX Category Filter plugin
Robyn-Catherine Khan	Opinions CPT + ACF, About pages, breadcrumbs, Query 3 (related posts), content seeding, Reading Progress Bar plugin

Contributing

1. Pull latest from main
2. Create or switch to your feature branch
3. Make changes in the child theme (inc/ for PHP, style.css for styles) or plugins
4. If you add/change ACF field groups, they auto-sync to acf-json/ — commit those files
5. If you add a new CPT, register it in inc/ (not just CPT UI) so it's in code
6. To re-run setup after changes, bump TDF_SETUP_VERSION in inc/setup.php
7. Push to your branch, open a PR to main