247drive

24/7 Drive offers a special service with the Online Driver Improvement Course in Virginia, USA.

After 3 years working together, we reached a successful website transformation: Migrating from Drupal 7 to WordPress 6.

Inception Phase

The client initially reached out to us to resolve several critical issues plaguing their website, which had begun to impact their business's reputation in 2020. Upon conducting a comprehensive review, we identified a range of tasks required to enhance the user experience and address the critical errors.

Performance optimization

When we undertook the project, it became evident that the website faced significant challenges, particularly in the areas of security and performance. At that point, we had already determined that migrating the eLearning platform to WordPress was the most suitable solution. This transition represented a substantial investment for the client. We initiated a long-term plan, first focusing on improving the Drupal platform to a level that would sustain the business. Afterward, we began to consider the migration.

Early in 2023, we started working on the new eLearning platform powered by WordPress. After five months of extensive web development, we released a new refreshed website with outstanding performance. We took on the challenge of enhancing the website's performance, and the results were nothing short of remarkable. Through meticulous optimization efforts, we successfully boosted the website's speed, achieving an impressive score of 98 on mobile devices according to the PageSpeed Insight tool and grade A on GTmetrix. This achievement marked a substantial improvement in user experience and page loading times, greatly enhancing the site's overall performance and competitiveness.

Here is an screenshot of both tests:

We combined our more than 15 years of experience working on CMS and performance with a unique configuration using a plugin that provides remarkable results. You can read more about our Wordpress Speed Optimization service

Securty improvements

We resolved issues that were hindering users from completing courses which was also related to bad practices into existing and previous source code.

One of the most crucial steps was the migration from Drupal 7 to WordPress 6. We recognized that the site was running on PHP 5.6, which posed security vulnerabilities. To rectify this, we upgraded the core of Drupal 7 and all its modules to the latest versions, ensuring proper functionality and enhanced security. We meticulously applied security patches to the core and continued to work through each module to guarantee a seamless transition.

Subsequently, we focused on updating the source code to support various custom modules and ensure compatibility with PHP 7.4 and later upgrading to PHP 8.1 into WP Engine environment.

UI/UX Improvements

Following the resolution of critical issues, our team embarked on a redesign phase. During this stage, we not only updated the theme but also collaborated closely with the client to implement design enhancements. These included the creation of a new header, footer, and several modifications aimed at achieving a responsive design. Our goal was to ensure that students could access the course from any device seamlessly.

Key Achievements and Integrations in the Wordpress migration

• Integration with LearnDash: We seamlessly integrated the website with LearnDash plugin, a widely-used system known for its robust eLearning capabilities.
  • Create and update courses
  • Edit courses content and manage assets (photos, videos and audios when necessary)
  • Enable coupons
  • Offer course bundles
  • Sell course access on a subscription plan
  • Automatically enroll users into courses after purchase
  • Automatically remove course access on a refund or cancelled subscription
  • And more...
• Stripe Payment Integration: To facilitate secure payment methods, we integrated Stripe, adding an extra layer of convenience for users. We've integrated the following Stripe's products
  
  • Stripe Payments: we enable WooCommerce to use "Stripe Card Processing".
  • Stripe Checkout: the Stripe checkout embed solution is shown during the payment step.
  • Apple Pay + Google Pay integration allowing users to pay easily.
• Custom Plugin Development: Our team developed a custom plugin tailored to extend LearnDash's functionality, addressing specific business challenges effectively.
• Website Optimization: We optimized the website's performance, significantly enhancing the user experience and page load times.
• ADA Compliance: To ensure inclusivity, we implemented ADA compliance measures, making the site accessible to all users.
• Technologies Utilized: In addition to WordPress 6, our project involved integrating WooCommerce, implementing user registration functionalities, and utilizing the Astra theme to create a seamless and visually appealing user experience. We also installed and configured the following plugins:
  
  • WP Online Active Users: tracking real time logged in users
  • Automatic time-out for inactivity: we implemented a plugin to logout user after 10 minutes of inactivity
  • Identity Validation: a simple implementation to prompt security questions time to time during course.

DevOps & Ongoing Maintenance

Beyond mentioned achievements, we also focused on further improving website architecture. To achieve this, we made the strategic decision to migrate the site from a shared hosting environment to a dedicated Virtual Private Server (VPS) in 2020. This move not only enhanced performance but also provided scalability options for growing business. We set up a new server from scratch, deploying the Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack, and configured the necessary security settings to maintain optimal website performance.

Even this move was a significant improvement for the old Drupal website, we had already identified the next step to migrate to WordPress, and clearly, the new site would be even faster using WP Engine. That's why when we launched the new site in 2023, we migrated to this new hosting. The managed hosting services provided by WP Engine not only improved site speed and performance but also enhanced security and reliability. With WP Engine's advanced caching and content delivery network (CDN), we experienced faster load times, resulting in a seamless user experience. The robust security features and automatic updates ensured that the website remained protected against potential threats, while the scalability of WP Engine's hosting allowed us to easily accommodate increased traffic and growth.

Today, the website stands as a testament to successful transformation. All critical errors have been resolved, and it now operates smoothly. We continue to work closely with the client, addressing new requirements and tasks as they arise.