Web and frontend development has felt like a good fit for me, and I also have previous experience with online stores, so I took a closer look at the WordPress platform. I did a test project where I used the same ready-made material as in the Taitotalo demo work in the spring. This is how the online store for a fast food restaurant was created.
Project Implementation
In the project, I followed as closely as possible the specifications and details that need to be taken into account if a similar project were to be carried out in a real environment. The online store has been installed with, among other things, payment and delivery method modules and a plugin containing cookie policies. I also gained experience in updating products via an Excel spreadsheet, downloadable products, discount campaigns, and custom CSS definitions. In addition, in connection with security issues and database handling, it was also necessary to delve into the PHP programming language, on which the entire WordPress environment rests.
Plugins Used in the Project and Their Purposes
- Woocommerce – WordPress online store plugin
- Advanced Dynamic Pricing for WooCommerce – Discount campaigns such as BOGOF (Buy One, Get One For Free)
- Banner Management For WooCommerce – Banner carousels
- Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR – Cookie policies
- All In One WP Migration – Migration from the development environment to the web server.
- Essential Blocks – Styling blocks and product sliders
- lks Menu – Customizing menus for WooCommerce
- Loco Translate – Translation of the core, plugins, and theme.
- Popup Maker – Pop-up windows
- WowStore – Product grids and product comparisons
- WPForms Lite – Creating & handling forms
- Advanced Woo Search – Visualizing the search function
- Solid Security Basic – Security & optimization
- Rank Math SEO – Optimizing metadata & search engine optimization
Results
When publishing this project, I first tried various free hosting providers with little or no success before deciding to pay for slightly higher quality hosting. In addition to speed, I got a bunch of other useful features, such as 300 databases and ssh access to the server.
A fun and educational project that I hope will be useful in the future.