Data Architecture and Migration Plan (Phase B/C)

This document defines data ownership in Phase B and the full migration strategy for Phase C.

Phase B: Data Ownership & Flow (No Content Migration)

WordPress remains the single source of truth for content
Laravel database introduced for new data only:
- Analytics (post views, unique views)
- User activities (views, bookmarks, shares)
- Device tokens (push notifications)
- User preferences
- Recommendations cache
No duplication of WordPress content; Laravel references WordPress post IDs

Data Flow

Publish in WordPress → Webhook → Laravel: clear caches, trigger revalidate/build → Frontends fetch from Laravel API → Laravel caches & enriches → Return JSON to clients

Phase C: Full Migration Strategy

Scope

Content migration: posts, pages, CPTs, taxonomies, users, comments, media, meta
URL preservation with 301 redirects
Editorial workflow migration and training

Phased Cutover (Zero Downtime)

1) Parallel Running (2-4 weeks)
   - Laravel CMS up; editors test in real workflows
2) Dark Launch (1-2 weeks)
   - 10% traffic to Laravel → monitor errors/SEO
3) Gradual Rollout (2-4 weeks)
   - 25% → 50% → 75% → 100% traffic
4) Decommission WP (after 30 days stable)
   - Final sync, keep backup for 90 days

Data Mapping: WordPress → Laravel

WordPress	Laravel	Notes
`wp_posts`	`posts`	type mapping, status mapping
`wp_postmeta`	`post_meta`/JSON cols	normalize repeated meta
`wp_users`	`users`	password rehash/migration strategy
`wp_terms`/`wp_term_taxonomy`	`categories`, `tags`	maintain slugs and hierarchies
`wp_comments`	`comments`	preserve threading and statuses
uploads/	object storage (S3) + `media` table	update URLs and sizes

Example Laravel Adjunct Schema (Phase B)

CREATE TABLE user_activities (
  id BIGINT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  user_id BIGINT UNSIGNED NULL,
  post_id BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  activity_type ENUM('view','bookmark','share','comment') NOT NULL,
  metadata JSON NULL,
  ip_address VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  user_agent TEXT NULL,
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  INDEX idx_user_post (user_id, post_id),
  INDEX idx_post_activity (post_id, activity_type),
  INDEX idx_created_at (created_at)
);

CREATE TABLE post_analytics (
  id BIGINT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  post_id BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL UNIQUE,
  view_count INT UNSIGNED DEFAULT 0,
  unique_views INT UNSIGNED DEFAULT 0,
  avg_read_time INT UNSIGNED NULL,
  bounce_rate DECIMAL(5,2) NULL,
  updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  INDEX idx_view_count (view_count),
  INDEX idx_updated_at (updated_at)
);

CREATE TABLE bookmarks (
  id BIGINT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  user_id BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  post_id BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  UNIQUE KEY unique_user_post (user_id, post_id)
);

Migration Tooling & Runbooks (Phase C)

Artisan commands for orchestrated migrations with checkpointing
Queue-based processing for large datasets
Validation scripts to compare counts/hashes pre/post-migration
Rollback procedures with DNS TTL set to 300s and verified backups

Example Commands

php artisan migrate:wordpress --type=posts --batch=1000 --dry-run
php artisan migrate:wordpress --type=posts --batch=1000 --validate
php artisan migrate:wordpress --type=posts --batch=1000 --execute

Rollback Plan

Immediate: point DNS back to WordPress (low TTL)
1 hour: restore WP DB snapshot if needed
24 hours: post-mortem and remediation plan