A store that has been online since 1999
The problem
A site old enough to have outlived several generations of platform, hosting and payment technology, which still has to behave like a current storefront.
Running the same domain since 1999 teaches you things a greenfield build never will, mostly about what breaks when you move it.
What it involves now
- A WooCommerce storefront with its own object cache instance, isolated by database and key prefix from the neighbouring sites.
- A self-hosted URL shortener with a WordPress plugin around it — automatic short link generation, a dashboard, bulk generation, and handling for multiple domains.
- Repeated host and platform migrations across the years, each one carrying serialised data and redirects intact.
It is also the site where I test things before they go anywhere near a client’s.
The outcome
A WooCommerce store carried through repeated migrations and platform upgrades, with its own caching, link infrastructure and admin tooling.