Inside Bridge
14,000 pages migrated from legacy Joomla. 9,000+ interactive lessons. 70% faster performance. We rebuilt an entire e-learning platform from the ground up — and handed the keys to the founder.
One of Canada's Top Bridge Teachers Needed a Platform to Match
Inside Bridge had spent years building one of the largest bridge instruction libraries in the country — but it was buried in an outdated Joomla site with 14,000+ pages that was slow, hard to manage, and falling further behind. They needed a full platform migration that preserved every lesson, every user account, and every paid subscription — without a single day of downtime.
14,000+ Pages Trapped in Legacy Joomla
The existing site ran on Joomla — outdated, sluggish, and never designed for this scale. Over 14,000 pages of bridge instruction, user accounts, and paid memberships were locked inside a system that was increasingly difficult to maintain, slow to load, and impossible to modernize.
An Audience That Expects Simplicity
Bridge players skew older and expect things to just work. The platform needed to feel intuitive from the first click — no learning curve, no friction, no "tech" getting in the way of learning.
Subscription Revenue from Day One
The business model depended on recurring memberships with multiple tiers, trial periods, and flexible billing — with custom access rules that needed to work seamlessly from day one.
One Person Running Everything
There's no tech team. The founder needed to add lessons, manage subscribers, pull reports, and update content entirely on their own — without calling a developer every time something needed to change.
A Platform Built Around the Content
Rather than force-fitting an off-the-shelf LMS, we built a tailored WordPress platform around the content and the way members actually learn. We wrote custom PHP scripts to migrate 14,000+ pages from the legacy Joomla system — including user accounts and paid subscriptions — and delivered a platform that's 70% faster and designed so one person can run the entire operation.
Custom Learning Management System
We wrote custom PHP migration scripts that automated the transfer of 14,000+ pages from Joomla to WordPress — preserving content, formatting, user accounts, and paid subscriptions. What would have taken 80-90 hours of manual work was completed automatically with zero data loss. The new LMS organizes everything by skill level, topic, and series, with search and filtering that makes 9,000+ lessons easy to navigate.
- Automated 14,000+ page Joomla migration
- Zero-downtime content transfer
- Skill-level organization and filtering
- Smart search across 9,000+ lessons
Flexible Subscription Engine
We built the membership system on Paid Memberships Pro with custom logic that controls exactly who sees what. Members choose their tier, manage their own account, upgrade or downgrade, and access tier-appropriate content — all seamlessly. Automated renewals and payment reminders keep revenue flowing without manual intervention.
- Multiple membership tiers
- Automatic renewals and reminders
- Coupon and discount support
- Self-service account management
Interactive Hand Experience
Each hand is its own interactive lesson. Members see the deal layout, bidding sequence, and contract — then try to work out the play before revealing the expert analysis. A "Show Hands" toggle reveals the hidden East-West cards, and "Show Answer" walks through the expert's line of play move by move. It's the core of the platform — and it's designed to feel like sitting across the table from a pro.
- Interactive show/hide for hidden hands
- Expert analysis with step-by-step reasoning
- Previous/Next navigation between hands
- Question-first format that teaches, not just shows
Admin Dashboard Built for One
The founder runs this entire platform solo. We built a custom admin interface that makes it possible: add new lessons in minutes, organize content with drag-and-drop, manage subscribers, view revenue reports, and handle support — all from one screen, no developer needed. We included training videos so nothing was left to guesswork.
- One-click lesson publishing
- Drag-and-drop content organization
- Subscriber and revenue reports
- Built-in training videos
See It All Together
Built on WordPress. Built to Last.
A proven stack chosen for reliability, extensibility, and easy long-term management.
14 Weeks to a Full Platform
14,000+ pages migrated from Joomla, custom LMS built, subscription billing wired up, and a complete admin backend delivered — all while keeping the existing site running.
Discovery & Architecture
Joomla content audit, migration strategy, membership model design, WordPress architecture planning
Design & UX
Interface design focused on accessibility, lesson layouts, navigation patterns, mobile-first approach
Migration & Core LMS
Custom PHP migration scripts, 14,000+ page transfer, lesson system, search and filtering
Subscriptions & Progress
Membership tiers, user account migration, payment integration, progress tracking
Admin Tools & Launch
Admin dashboard, performance optimization, QA testing, training, go-live
From Passion Project to Thriving Business
Every page, lesson, user account, and paid subscription transferred from Joomla to WordPress — automated with custom PHP scripts, zero data loss.
Optimized site architecture and caching strategies delivered a 70% performance improvement over the legacy Joomla platform.
The full lesson library — organized, searchable, and growing. The founder adds new content regularly using the tools we built.
The founder manages all content, subscribers, and day-to-day operations without any developer involvement.
Have a Complex Platform in Mind?
From membership sites to e-learning platforms to custom web applications — we build solutions that scale with your business, not against it.