TripAdvisor needed a rock solid WordPress theme built to meet a highly specific set of corporate requirements. Using a headless WordPress backend, and a modern Angular powered frontend, I developed a unique theme that served specific content to 12 different localized domains: tripadvisor.es, tripadvisor.it, tripadvisor.de and more. By avoiding a traditional multi-site network we were able to drastically reduce the complexity and overhead of managing multiple sites using a single WordPress installation and a simple nginx reverse proxy. The site was a major success, and remained online for just over 10 years before being pulled into their in-house Java stack for internal reasons. The custom theme supported 3 separate rebrands, directly connected to tripadvisor.com APIs, and had a 99.98% uptime during the course of its life. It was a great project to be a part of.
Lean & Minimal Build
Custom functionality plugins provided highly specific features with minimal amounts of code, resulting in a highly stable platform for over 10 years. It supported three major rebrands with ease, a direct result of the simple custom build approach. Using WordPress in minimal ways rather than relying on heavy, one-size-fits-all plugins allowed this site to be extremely performant and secure. My approach allowed TripAdvisor to have a stable WordPress website that supported evolving brand and technical needs with minimal overhead.
SSO Integration
Custom authentication to connect with tripadvisor.com accounts was configured with SAML 2.0 authentication using a custom Single Sign-On (SSO) plugin, linking WordPress with their corporate authentication system.
Onsite Work
Working onsite with both IT and marketing teams, I was able to meet all of the platform’s technical and branding requirements. Clear communication and collaboration with both teams allowed for very good coordination and an ideal outcome that met the needs of both SEO and security.
Enterprise WordPress
My work with TripAdvisor is a great example of the advantages to building custom WordPress sites tailored to specific requirements. Unlike heavy plugins that add unnecessary complexity, a purpose-built stack makes for a stable, fast, and adaptable enterprise WordPress website.