Australian Geomechanics Society

In late 2017, I was hired by the Australian Geomechanics Society to help them with their WordPress website. The website had a number of problems. There were server configuration issues, errors in the WordPress theme, none of the plugins had been updated for months and the software running on the server was out of date. As a result, the site login was broken and administrators were unable to make updates and members were unable to access content.

I migrated the site hosting to a new VPS and restored login access within 24 hours. An SSL certificate was issued and security updates were made, removing old admin accounts and applying some WordPress best practice to the security of the site.

After fixing the main issues I conducted an audit of the code, rewriting slow queries, finding and fixing PHP errors, integrating with a messaging API to send system emails, and performed some general site optimisation. This process included the creation of several custom post types, each with custom fields, and the creation of multiple new WordPress templates.

Development continued throughout 2018; the WordPress theme was rebuilt making the site responsive, a new CSS design system was created, and all the site customisations are managed by a single WordPress plugin.

New features were added to the site, including an auto-expiry feature for calendar events, a custom RSVP system to manage meeting attendees, improved listing of technical papers and members-only content, improved user-managed profiles, and a widget to add meeting times to calendars.

With the advent of COVID-19 the RSVP system was integrated with the Demio live streaming platform and WooCommerce was installed to allow for online ticket sales for events.

I continue to provide hosting and development services for the Australian Geomechanics Society, working with the national committee to create a roadmap of new features that will improve the user experience and provide more value for members. I also maintain the website and manage content updates.