Frontend freedom

To do this we wrote a PHP wrapper that the frontend uses to fetch the database data at any point, not just when the themeing system allows you to. This means we can choose to include WordPress functionality where it’s needed, rather than blanketing the entire site.

An example of this can be seen in our own site, check out the source code for the team page and try to work out where WordPress comes in. It’s the timeline section, but you’d never know. We’ve used WordPress there to manage our company’s history, but we don’t need it anywhere else, meaning we aren’t shackled to WordPress for the rest of the site. As a result we have the freedom to do some really cool things.

A more extreme example of us using this technique is Raconteur. The entire backend is controlled by WordPress, even the interactive pages such as Infographics. Often you can immediately tell if a site is built with WordPress by looking at all the junk it pollutes the header with, but with this method you’re in full control.