Nairametrics Platform Evolution - Roadmap Proposal

Phase C: Complete Laravel Migration

Status: Future phase (requires business validation) Timeline: 12-18 months Risk Level: 🔴 HIGH Budget: [Budget TBD] (freelance) or team composition based on client needs Prerequisites: Phase B successful for 6+ months

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Replace WordPress with a full Laravel platform featuring a Filament admin. Execute a staged cutover (parallel run → dark launch → gradual rollout) to ensure zero data loss and SEO preservation, achieving enterprise-grade security and observability with minimal editorial disruption.

Phase C Overview

Goal: Completely migrate away from WordPress to a full Laravel-based platform with a custom admin interface.

Why This Phase?

  • Complete control over all features
  • No WordPress limitations
  • Better performance at scale
  • Modern development practices
  • Custom editorial workflows
  • Reduced technical debt

What Changes

  • 🔄 Complete WordPress replacement
  • 🎛️ Custom admin panel (Filament)
  • 📦 All content migrated to Laravel
  • 🆕 New editorial interface
  • 🎯 Complete control over all features
  • 🗄️ New database schema (Laravel migrations)

What’s Challenging

  • Content migration: All posts, media, users, metadata
  • Editorial training: New admin interface to learn
  • Custom development: Build all WordPress features in Laravel
  • Feature parity: Ensure nothing is lost
  • Zero downtime: Migrate without service interruption
  • SEO preservation: Maintain all rankings and URLs

What Stays the Same

  • Frontend apps (React Native + Expo from Phase B)
  • Laravel API (enhanced from Phase B)
  • User-facing experience
  • Content (migrated, not recreated)

Success Metrics

Technical

  • Zero data loss during migration
  • SEO rankings maintained (no drops)
  • Error rate < 0.1%
  • Performance improved from Phase B
  • All WordPress features have parity

Editorial

  • Team comfortable with new system (80%+ satisfaction)
  • Publishing workflow faster or same speed
  • Training completion: 100%
  • Positive feedback from editors

Business

  • Revenue maintained or grown
  • Traffic maintained or grown
  • Editorial costs reduced (efficiency gains)
  • Technical debt reduced
  • Platform scalability improved

Timeline

Month 1-2:   Planning & Assessment
Month 2-3:   Database Design
Month 3-5:   Filament Admin Panel Development
Month 5-7:   Content Migration Strategy
Month 7-8:   SEO Preservation
Month 8-9:   Editorial Training
Month 9-10:  Launch & Monitoring

Technology Stack

See also: Migration Plan, Security, and Infrastructure

Budget & Cost Breakdown

Role Hours TBD Notes
Lead Architect 240 [TBD] [TBD]
Senior Backend Developers 1600 [TBD] [TBD]
Frontend Developer 320 [TBD] [TBD]
Mobile Developer 160 [TBD] [TBD]
DevOps Engineer 320 [TBD] [TBD]
QA Engineers 480 [TBD] [TBD]
Technical Writer 80 [TBD] [TBD]
Project Manager 480 [TBD] [TBD]
Total Budget [Budget TBD]

Additional monthly infrastructure: [Client-specific infrastructure cost]/mo

Training & one-time costs: [Client-specific training cost]

Backend

  • Laravel 11+
  • Filament 3.0+ (admin panel)
  • MySQL/MariaDB
  • Redis (cache & queues)
  • Laravel Horizon (queue management)
  • Elasticsearch or Algolia (search)

Admin Panel

  • Filament (primary admin interface)
  • Custom resource classes for posts, media, users
  • WYSIWYG editor integration
  • Media library management
  • User role management

Migration Strategy

  • Parallel running (1 month)
  • Read-only WordPress (1 month)
  • Full Laravel (1 month)
  • 301 redirects for all URLs
  • Gradual content migration

Dependencies & Assumptions

  • Phase B successful for ≥ 6 months
  • Business case validated and approved
  • Editorial team onboard and trained
  • Complete content inventory and mapping available

Out of Scope (Phase C)

  • Mobile/web frontends (remain as in Phase B with API adjustments)
  • Experimental features not required for parity

Risks & Mitigations (Phase C)

Risk Likelihood Impact Mitigation
Data loss during migration Low Critical Dry runs; backups; validation scripts
Editorial resistance Medium High Champions; training; parallel run
SEO ranking changes Medium High Redirects; structured data; gradual rollout
Feature parity gaps Medium High Detailed requirements; UAT sign-off

Acceptance Criteria (Definition of Done)

  • 100% content migrated and validated (counts and spot checks)
  • URL redirects in place; SEO baselines maintained
  • Editorial workflows validated with 80%+ satisfaction
  • Admin (Filament) supports required roles/permissions and key flows
  • System stable for ≥ 30 days without critical incidents

KPIs & Targets

  • Uptime: 99.95%
  • API p95 latency: < 150ms
  • Zero migration data loss
  • Editorial task time: same or faster vs WordPress

Milestones and Go/No-Go Gates

Timeline Snapshot (18 months)

Q1 : Requirements & Design           [########]
Q2-Q3 : Laravel CMS Dev              [########################]
Q3 : Migration Prep                  [##########]
Q4 : Parallel Run & Dark Launch      [########]
Q5 : Gradual Rollout                 [########]
Q6 : Decommission & Stabilization    [#####]

Go/No-Go Gates

  • End of Q1: Requirements freeze + data mapping complete
  • End of Q3: CMS core stable + migration rehearsal passes
  • End of Q4: Dark launch SLOs met (proceed to gradual rollout)

Roles & Responsibilities (RACI)

Deliverable Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed
CMS Models & Admin Backend Dev Tech Lead Editorial PM, Exec
Migration Tooling Backend Dev Tech Lead DevOps, QA PM
SEO & Redirects Backend/Frontend Tech Lead Marketing/SEO PM
Training & Change Mgmt PM Exec Sponsor Editorial Leads All
Decommission Plan DevOps Tech Lead Backend Exec

Document Updates

Date Version Changes Author
2025-10-09 1.1 Added risks, acceptance, KPIs sections AI Assistant
2025-10-09 1.0 Initial Phase C documentation AI Assistant

Detailed Implementation

C.1 Planning & Assessment (Month 1-2)

Content Requirements

  • Audit all WordPress content types
  • Document custom fields and meta data
  • List all media files and their usage
  • Review user roles and permissions
  • Document editorial workflows

Feature Requirements

  • List must-have WordPress features
  • Identify nice-to-have features
  • Document custom functionality
  • Review plugin dependencies
  • SEO requirements

Editorial Requirements

  • Interview editorial team
  • Understand pain points
  • Document desired features
  • Training requirements
  • Change management plan

Technology Decisions

CMS Admin Options:

Option Pros Cons Best For
Laravel Nova Beautiful UI, Laravel-native, Great UX Commercial ($99/site), Less customizable Teams wanting polished admin
Filament Free, Highly customizable, Modern More setup required, Smaller community Custom requirements
Laravel Backpack Feature-rich, CRUD generator Learning curve, UI not as modern Complex admin panels
Custom Admin Complete control Time-consuming, Maintenance Very specific needs

Recommended: Filament (free, flexible, modern)

Architecture Design

Full Laravel Platform Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    ADMIN LAYER                           │
│                                                          │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │          Filament Admin Panel                      │  │
│  │                                                    │  │
│  │  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────┐ │  │
│  │  │  Content     │  │    Media     │  │   Users   │ │  │
│  │  │  Management  │  │  Management  │  │ Management│ │  │
│  │  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └───────────┘ │  │
│  │                                                    │  │
│  │  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────┐ │  │
│  │  │ Analytics    │  │   Settings   │  │  Reports  │ │  │
│  │  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └───────────┘ │  │
│  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┘
                          │
┌─────────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────────┐
│                    APPLICATION LAYER                       │
│                                                            │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │              Laravel Backend                        │   │
│  │                                                     │   │
│  │  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────┐  │   │
│  │  │   Eloquent   │  │     Queue    │  │   Cache   │  │   │
│  │  │    Models    │  │   Workers    │  │   Layer   │  │   │
│  │  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └───────────┘  │   │
│  │                                                     │   │
│  │  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────┐  │   │
│  │  │   Business   │  │  Analytics   │  │  Search   │  │   │
│  │  │    Logic     │  │   Service    │  │  Engine   │  │   │
│  │  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └───────────┘  │   │
│  └──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┘
                          │ REST API
              ┌───────────┼───────────┬─────────────┐
              │           │           │             │
              ▼           ▼           ▼             ▼
      ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌────────┐  ┌─────────┐
      │   Next   │  │ Flutter  │  │  iOS   │  │ Android │
      │   Web    │  │  Mobile  │  │  App   │  │   App   │
      └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └────────┘  └─────────┘

C.2 Database Design (Month 2-3)

Core Content Tables

  • Posts table with fields for title, slug, content, status, type
  • Categories table with hierarchical relationships
  • Tags table for content tagging
  • Media table for file management
  • Relationship tables for post-category and post-tag

Eloquent Models

  • Post model with relationships to categories, tags, media
  • Scopes for published/scheduled content
  • Searchable configuration for full-text search

C.3 Admin Panel (Filament) (Month 3-5)

Install Filament

  • Install Filament via Composer
  • Set up admin panel scaffolding
  • Create admin user

Post Resource

  • Form with fields for title, slug, author, type, status
  • Rich text editor for content
  • File upload for featured images
  • Category/tag relationship management
  • Table view with sortable columns and filters

C.4 Content Migration (Month 5-7)

Migration Strategy

Phased Approach:

  1. Parallel Running (1 month)
  2. Read-Only WordPress (1 month)
  3. Full Migration (1 month)

Migration Command

  • Console command to migrate users, categories, posts, media
  • Batch processing for large datasets
  • Image downloading and attachment

C.5 SEO Preservation (Month 7-8)

URL Redirects

  • Middleware to handle WordPress URL patterns
  • Redirect to new Laravel routes
  • Slug-based matching for posts

C.6 Training & Change Management (Month 8-9)

Editorial Team Training

Training Plan:

Week 1-2: Introduction

  • Overview of new system
  • Comparison with WordPress
  • Benefits and improvements
  • Q&A session

Week 3-4: Hands-on Training

  • Creating articles
  • Using rich text editor
  • Managing media
  • Categories and tags
  • Publishing workflow

Week 5-6: Advanced Features

  • Scheduled publishing
  • Breaking news
  • SEO optimization
  • Analytics review
  • Troubleshooting

Week 7-8: Practice & Support

  • Parallel publishing (both systems)
  • One-on-one support sessions
  • Documentation review
  • Feedback collection

Documentation

Create User Guides:

  • Getting started guide
  • Article creation workflow
  • Media management
  • SEO best practices
  • Troubleshooting guide
  • FAQ

Video Tutorials:

  • System overview
  • Creating your first article
  • Managing media
  • Publishing workflow
  • Using analytics

C.7 Launch & Monitoring (Month 9-10)

Soft Launch

Phase 1: Limited Release (Week 1-2)

  • 10% of content published through Laravel
  • Monitor for issues
  • Collect feedback
  • Iterate quickly

Phase 2: Increased Release (Week 3-4)

  • 50% of content published through Laravel
  • All editors trained
  • WordPress in read-only mode
  • Monitor performance

Phase 3: Full Release (Week 5-6)

  • 100% of content published through Laravel
  • WordPress decommissioned (kept as backup)
  • All URLs redirected
  • Monitor closely

Monitoring

Metrics to Track:

  • Editorial efficiency (time to publish)
  • System performance (response times)
  • Error rates
  • User satisfaction (editorial team)
  • SEO rankings (ensure no drops)
  • Traffic levels
  • Revenue impact

Tools:

  • Laravel Telescope (development)
  • New Relic/Datadog (production)
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Search Console
  • Sentry (error tracking)

Decision Points

Before Starting Phase C

Must Have:

  • Phase B running successfully for 6+ months
  • Editorial team on board with major change
  • Budget approved ([Budget TBD])
  • ROI projections justify cost
  • Team comfortable with HIGH risk level
  • Backup & rollback plan in place

Nice to Have:

  • Content editors excited about new features
  • Technical team confident in Laravel/Filament
  • Beta test group identified
  • Training materials prepared

Go/No-Go Criteria

GREEN LIGHT if:

  • Phase B shows clear benefits (engagement, performance)
  • Editorial team frustrated with WordPress limitations
  • Business growth requires more flexibility
  • Technical debt in WordPress is significant
  • Budget and resources available

RED LIGHT if:

  • Phase B not performing well
  • Editorial team happy with WordPress
  • Budget constraints
  • Risk tolerance low
  • No clear business case

Risks & Mitigation

Risk Likelihood Impact Mitigation
Data loss during migration Low Critical Extensive testing, backups, parallel running
Editorial team resistance Medium High Early involvement, training, pilot program
SEO rankings drop Medium High URL redirects, schema markup, gradual rollout
Feature parity gaps Medium High Thorough requirements, UAT, feedback loops
Budget overruns Medium Medium Phase-based approach, MVP focus, contingency
Timeline delays High Medium Buffer time, prioritize must-haves

Why Phase C?

Benefits

  • Full Control: No WordPress limitations
  • Performance: Optimized for your use case
  • Scalability: Handle millions of articles
  • Modern Stack: Latest Laravel features
  • Custom Workflows: Tailored to your needs
  • Technical Debt: Fresh, clean codebase

Costs

  • High Investment: [Budget TBD] development
  • High Risk: Major system change
  • Training Time: Editorial team learning curve
  • Development Time: 12-18 months
  • Migration Complexity: Moving all content safely

Alternative: Stay on Phase B

If Phase C seems too risky or expensive, staying on Phase B (headless WordPress) is perfectly viable. Many successful platforms run on headless WordPress indefinitely.

📄 Master Roadmap | 📄 ← Phase B