These scenarios reflect the challenges of running WordPress at enterprise scale, moving beyond simple theme development into full-stack engineering.
Marketing needs a custom block to showcase products fetched from an external API (NocoDB). The block must be built using Native Gutenberg (React) for the editor experience, but render using Twig/Timber on the frontend for consistency.
- Block allows selecting a "Product Category" via a React InspectorControl.
- Fetches live data from NocoDB API.
- Uses `block.json` for metadata.
- Renders using `views/blocks/product-showcase.twig` on the frontend (Dynamic Block).
👨💻 Senior Developer Solution
Strategy: Create a Dynamic Block. Use React (`edit.js`) for the admin interface to select categories, and PHP (`render_callback`) to fetch data and render Twig on the frontend.
// block.json
{
"apiVersion": 3,
"name": "my-theme/product-showcase",
"title": "Product Showcase",
"category": "widgets",
"icon": "cart",
"attributes": {
"categoryId": { "type": "string", "default": "" }
},
"editorScript": "file:./build/index.min.js",
"render": "file:./render.php"
}// src/edit.js (React)
import { useSelect } from '@wordpress/data';
import { InspectorControls } from '@wordpress/block-editor';
import { PanelBody, SelectControl } from '@wordpress/components';
export default function Edit({ attributes, setAttributes }) {
// Fetch categories from NocoDB (mocked here or via custom REST endpoint)
const categories = [ { label: 'Shoes', value: '1' }, { label: 'Hats', value: '2' } ];
return (
<>
setAttributes({ categoryId: val })}
/>
Product Showcase: Category ID {attributes.categoryId}
);
}// render.php (Frontend)
$context = Timber::context();
$context['attributes'] = $attributes; // passed automatically by WP
// Fetch from NocoDB (cached)
$cat_id = $attributes['categoryId'];
$context['products'] = Cache::remember("products_{$cat_id}", 3600, function() use ($cat_id) {
return Http::get("https://noco.db/api/v1/products?cat={$cat_id}")->json();
});
Timber::render('views/blocks/product-showcase.twig', $context);We are migrating from a VPS to AWS Fargate for auto-scaling. We need a Dockerfile that handles Nginx, PHP-FPM, and ensures assets are served correctly.
- Multi-stage Docker build.
- Nginx + PHP-FPM in a single container (or sidecar pattern).
- Uploads must be offloaded to S3 (stateless container).
- GitLab CI pipeline to build and push to ECR.
👨💻 Senior Developer Solution
Strategy: Use a multi-stage build to keep the image light. Use `s3-uploads` plugin for stateless media handling.
# Dockerfile
FROM composer:2 as vendor
COPY composer.json composer.lock ./
RUN composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
FROM php:8.2-fpm-alpine
# Install extensions (Redis, Postgres, GD)
RUN apk add --no-cache postgresql-dev \
&& docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_pgsql bcmath opcache
# Copy Nginx config
COPY .docker/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
# Copy App Code
WORKDIR /var/www/html
COPY . .
COPY --from=vendor /app/vendor ./vendor
# Start Nginx & PHP-FPM
CMD ["sh", "-c", "php-fpm -D && nginx -g 'daemon off;'"]Key Takeaway: Fargate requires stateless containers. All user uploads must go to S3, and sessions/cache must go to Redis.
The site is experiencing high latency under load. We are moving from MySQL to PostgreSQL (for enterprise compliance) and need to implement aggressive Redis caching.
- Configure `pg4wp` for PostgreSQL support.
- Implement Redis Object Cache.
- Cache complex Twig fragments.
👨💻 Senior Developer Solution
Strategy: Use `pg4wp` drop-in driver. Wrap expensive Timber renders in cache keys.
// config/application.php (Bedrock)
$env_config = [
'DB_TYPE' => 'pgsql',
'CACHE_DRIVER' => 'redis',
'REDIS_HOST' => env('REDIS_HOST'),
];
// views/index.twig
{% cache 'home_hero_section' 600 %}
{% for item in expensive_query %}
{{ item.title }}
{% endfor %}
{% endcache %}