Handover: Onboard a New Developer in 60 Minutes

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

• [ ] Git access to the repository
• [ ] A local development environment (macOS with Homebrew recommended)
• [ ] A database dump (sanitised production backup)
• [ ] This documentation

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Minute 0–10: Environment Setup

1. Clone the repo

git clone <repo-url> Dezeen.com
cd Dezeen.com

2. Choose a local server (pick one)

Option A — Laravel Valet (recommended for macOS):

composer global require laravel/valet
valet install
cd _project/_web
valet link dezeen
valet secure dezeen   # Optional: HTTPS

Option B — Docker:

docker-compose up -d
# WordPress: http://localhost:8000
# PHPMyAdmin: http://localhost:8080

3. Create wp-config.php

cp _project/_web/wp-config-sample.php _project/_web/wp-config.php

Edit database credentials to match your local setup.

4. Import the database

mysql -u root -p dezeen_local < backup.sql
# Update URLs
mysql -u root -p dezeen_local -e "UPDATE vetg_options SET option_value = 'https://dezeen.test' WHERE option_name IN ('siteurl', 'home');"

5. Install dependencies and build

cd _project/_web
npm install
npm run dev

6. Verify

Open https://dezeen.test (Valet) or http://localhost:8000 (Docker). You should see the Dezeen homepage.

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Minute 10–25: Architecture Overview

Read these in order:

1. overview.md — What is Dezeen.com (5 min)
2. architecture.md — How the pieces fit together (5 min)
3. project-structure.md — Where things live in the repo (5 min)

Key Concepts to Internalise

Concept	Location
Business logic	mu-plugins/dezeen/src/ — This is the core
Feature modules	plugins/dezeen-*/ — One plugin per feature
Frontend	themes/2016dezeen/ — Templates, SCSS, JS
Build	_project/_web/webpack.mix.js — Laravel Mix
Config	_project/_web/wp-config.php — All constants

The Big Three Systems

1. Articles — Standard WordPress posts with ACF fields, categories, tags
2. Awards — Custom post types (award_entry, shortlist_entry, longlist_entry, winner), Laravel Platform integration, PayPal payments
3. Events — dezeen_event CPT, REST API for filtering, ICS downloads, city guides

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Minute 25–40: Code Walkthrough

Theme entry point

Open _project/_web/wp-content/themes/2016dezeen/functions.php. It loads 11 modular files from functions/.

mu-plugin entry point

Open _project/_web/wp-content/mu-plugins/dezeen/dezeen.php. This initialises all the core business logic classes.

Make a safe change

1. Open _project/_web/wp-content/themes/2016dezeen/assets/sass/_variables.scss
2. Change a colour value
3. Run npm run dev from _project/_web/
4. Refresh — see the change

Explore the build

Look at _project/_web/webpack.mix.js to understand:

• Which JS files are bundled together
• Which SCSS files produce which CSS files
• How plugin assets are copied into the theme

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Minute 40–50: Operations

Deployment

Read deployment.md. Key points:

• DeployHQ watches the master branch
• Rolling deploys: one node at a time
• Maintenance mode via directory creation
• Assets compiled in the DeployHQ pipeline

Caching

Read caching-and-performance.md. Cache layers:

Browser → Cloudflare → Varnish → WP Rocket → WordPress

Key commands

# Build assets
cd _project/_web && npm run dev

# Watch for changes
cd _project/_web && npm run watch

# Production build
cd _project/_web && npm run production

# Run Cypress tests
npm run cypress:open

# WP-CLI (if available)
wp plugin list --status=active
wp cron event list
wp cache flush

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Minute 50–60: Troubleshooting & Next Steps

Quick reference

• troubleshooting.md — Common issues and fixes
• runbooks/cache-purge.md — How to purge caches
• runbooks/incident-checklist.md — What to do when things break

Explore the plugin index

Review plugins-and-themes.md for the complete list of custom and third-party plugins.

Known technical debt

Read technical-debt-and-roadmap.md:

• WordPress 6.2.2 needs upgrading
• Multiple Algolia plugins need consolidation
• ACF performance optimisation needed
• PHP 7.4 → 8.x migration planned

Credentials

Work through credentials-checklist.md to ensure you have access to:

• Jelastic Enscale (hosting)
• DeployHQ (deployment)
• Cloudflare (CDN)
• Algolia (search)
• Campaign Monitor (newsletters)
• WordPress admin (admin.dezeen.com)

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Week 1 Learning Path

Day	Focus	Resources
1	Local setup, run the site	This handover, local-development.md
2	Theme deep-dive	theme/2016dezeen.md, explore templates
3	mu-plugin core logic	mu-plugins/dezeen.md
4	Awards + Competitions systems	Plugin docs, Laravel Platform
5	Deployment practice (staging)	deployment.md, DeployHQ access

Week 2 Learning Path

Day	Focus	Resources
1	Caching and performance	caching-and-performance.md
2	Third-party integrations	integrations.md
3	Content model and ACF	admin-and-content-model.md
4	Security, compliance	security-and-compliance.md
5	Incident practice (mock incident)	runbooks/incident-checklist.md

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Questions for the Outgoing Team

These should be answered during the handover period (before October 2026):

1. What is the exact Redis status in production — active or planned?
2. What system crontab entries exist on production for WP-Cron?
3. What Cloudflare WAF rules are configured?
4. How is the database backup automated? What's the restore procedure?
5. Are there any manual processes that run periodically (e.g., Algolia re-index)?
6. What monitoring/alerting exists? (No config found in repo)
7. How do you handle WordPress core and plugin updates in production?
8. What is the process for provisioning new Jelastic nodes?