Brand Reviews WordPress (Interview Challenge Source)

Self-contained, reproducible WordPress site used as the source for a WP → Django migration challenge.

The site is a small consumer-reviews directory: brands with profile pages plus user-submitted reviews linked to each brand. Two custom post types, one taxonomy, ACF fields, Yoast SEO metadata.

Quick start

cp .env.example .env
make up

After ~20 seconds:

• Public site: http://localhost:8080
• WP admin: http://localhost:8080/wp-admin (admin / admin)
• phpMyAdmin: http://localhost:8081
• REST root: http://localhost:8080/wp-json/wp/v2/

The DB is auto-imported from db/dump.sql on first boot. No manual setup required for candidates.

Stack

Service	Image	Port	Purpose
db	mariadb:11	-	Database; auto-imports db/dump.sql
wordpress	wordpress:6.9-php8.3-apache	8080	WP + Apache + PHP
wpcli	wordpress:cli-php8.3	-	Helper for re-seeding / dumping
phpmyadmin	phpmyadmin:5	8081	Optional DB browser

What's committed

docker-compose.yml # the stack
.env.example # config defaults
Makefile # make targets
db/dump.sql # seeded database snapshot
scripts/seed.sh # bootstrap script (install + plugins + seed)
wp-content/plugins/ # WP default plugins + ACF + Yoast (committed for offline reproducibility)
wp-content/mu-plugins/
cpt.php # registers `brand` and `review` CPTs and `industry` taxonomy
acf-fields.php # registers ACF field groups in code
wp-content/themes/
consumer-reviews/ # custom theme used by the site

WP core files and the default themes (e.g. twentytwentyfour) live inside the wp_files named volume and are recreated from the image on first boot. Only the custom consumer-reviews theme is committed to the repo.

Make targets

make up # start db + wordpress + phpmyadmin
make down # stop containers (keeps volumes)
make reset # stop AND wipe volumes (next 'up' re-imports dump.sql)
make logs # tail wordpress + db
make wp ARGS="plugin list" # run wp-cli inside the stack
make bootstrap # full re-seed: WP core install + plugin install + content seed
make dump # export the current DB to db/dump.sql
make status # show running services

Rebuilding the dump from scratch

If you change the schema or seed data:

make reset
make up
make bootstrap
make dump
git add db/dump.sql wp-content/plugins
git commit -m "Refresh seed data"

make bootstrap is idempotent enough to re-run, but the cleanest path is reset → up → bootstrap → dump.

Content model

brand CPT at /brand/<slug>/

• Standard fields: title, content (body), featured image (optional)
• ACF fields: website_url, founded_year, headquarters, average_rating
• Taxonomy: industry
• Yoast: _yoast_wpseo_title, _yoast_wpseo_metadesc in postmeta

review CPT at /review/<slug>/

• Standard fields: title, content (review body), post_author (mapped to a real WP user)
• ACF fields: rating (1-5), reviewer_name, reviewer_location, brand (post object → brand id)

Seeded volume: 5 brands (one per industry), 60 reviews (12 per brand) authored by 8 reviewer users, 3 static pages (Home/About/Contact), 1 admin user.

Theme

The active theme is a custom one at wp-content/themes/consumer-reviews/ (committed to the repo). It renders:

• Homepage with featured brands and recent reviews
• Brand archive (/brand/) — card grid
• Single brand page (/brand/<slug>/) — hero with industry badge, star rating, website / founded / HQ metadata, body content, and full list of customer reviews
• Review archive (/review/) — paginated list
• Single review (/review/<slug>/) — back-link to brand, star rating, reviewer name/location, body
• Page template for About / Contact / Home pages

The theme is intentionally small (~10 PHP files + one stylesheet) and is meant to show candidates what the data renders as. They are not expected to clone the theme — just to migrate the underlying data.

Endpoints worth knowing

• /wp-json/wp/v2/brands — list brands (note: rest_base is brands even though post type is brand)
• /wp-json/wp/v2/brands/<id> — single brand with ACF fields under acf
• /wp-json/wp/v2/reviews — list reviews
• /wp-json/wp/v2/industry — taxonomy terms
• /wp-json/wp/v2/users — reviewer users
• /wp-json/wp/v2/pages — static pages

ACF fields are exposed natively via show_in_rest: true set in wp-content/mu-plugins/acf-fields.php.

Notes for the maintainer

• The wp-content/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/ and wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/ plugin code is GPL and committed to the repo so candidates don't need internet on first boot.
• wp-content/plugins/akismet/ and hello.php are WP defaults — left in place but inactive.
• The site URL is hardcoded as http://localhost:8080 in the dump (in wp_options.siteurl and home). Changing the port requires a search/replace in db/dump.sql before commit, or just override via WP_HOME / WP_SITEURL constants.
• _yoast_wpseo_* postmeta is seeded for brand posts only.