Migrated 37 WordPress Websites to Liferay DXP Efficiently to Centralize Website Management for a US-Based Legal Education Business

A US-based legal education business managed 37 regional groups, each with a separate WordPress website that followed the same design and page structure. Maintaining these individual websites required repeated updates, created security concerns, and made content management increasingly difficult.

The organization wanted to move all 37 websites to Liferay DXP while preserving their existing look and functionality. The objective was to manage every website from one platform, simplify maintenance, and make it easier to launch additional regional websites. We migrated all 37 websites to Liferay DXP using reusable site templates, master pages, and fragments, centralized shared events, and configured regional information for each website.

Project Brief

The project focused on consolidating 37 regional WordPress websites into a single Liferay DXP environment without changing the experience familiar to existing visitors. We developed reusable page structures, centralized shared content, configured regional website information, and rebuilt the existing event calendar functionality to support centralized administration and easier website creation.

Business Needs & Challenges

Repetitive Website Maintenance Across 37 Installations

Each regional website required individual attention for routine updates, menu changes, design fixes, and plugin maintenance. Even publishing the same event across multiple websites involved repetitive work, increasing administrative effort, and the likelihood of inconsistencies.

Security Concerns Across WordPress Websites

The organization relied on multiple WordPress themes and plugins across its 37 installations. Keeping every component updated and secure required continuous effort, while recurring security weaknesses and hacker attacks created additional concerns around website maintenance.

Maintaining Regional Identity Without Duplicating Websites

Although the websites shared a common design, each required different logos, images, contact details, discount codes, membership information, and analytics IDs. The challenge was to accommodate these regional differences without creating separate versions of the same website components.

Preserving the Existing Website Experience

The migration needed to retain the familiar appearance of all regional websites. Fonts, colors, buttons, spacing, and mobile navigation had to be recreated accurately in Liferay to ensure visitors continued experiencing the websites as they did before.

Recreating the Existing Event Calendar

The existing WordPress calendar offered search functionality, six viewing options, past events, time zone support, and Google and Outlook calendar subscriptions. Rebuilding these capabilities in Liferay while supporting events shared across regions required a dedicated implementation approach.

Addressing Regional and Technical Dependencies

The new platform needed to handle different membership prices and links while exposing only public event information to website visitors. Long CDN caching periods also required consideration so that CSS and JavaScript updates became available after deployments.

Technology Stack & Tools

Implementation Overview

Building a Reusable Website Architecture with Site Templates

We created a Liferay site template containing six standard pages: Home, Membership, Board, Events, Sponsors, and Contact Us. The template also included the website theme and global JavaScript, providing a common starting point for all 37 regional websites.

Centralizing Common Elements Through Master Pages

We developed a master page to manage shared website elements, including headers and footers. The header incorporated contact details, regional logos, navigation menus, and mobile navigation, while the footer contained copyright information, the main association website link, and social media icons.

Creating Reusable Page Components with Liferay Fragments

We developed a fragment collection containing approximately 15 reusable components for different website sections. These included hero banners, content cards, membership promotions, pricing cards, contact forms, board member cards, sponsor logos, and event details. Editors could configure and update these components without modifying code.

Configuring Regional Website Information Through Custom Fields

We implemented site-level custom fields to manage regional information such as website names, phone numbers, email addresses, discount codes, HubSpot form IDs, and analytics IDs. FreeMarker enabled fragments to retrieve the relevant values, while regional logos and banner images were stored in Documents and Media.

Centralizing Events and Board Member Information

We established a shared asset library to manage event information through structured web content. Event details included dates, times, venues, formats, images, and descriptions. Categories controlled which regional websites displayed each event, allowing shared events to be created once rather than repeatedly.

Rebuilding Event Pages with Display Page Templates

We created display page templates to generate individual event detail pages using the shared master page and an event detail fragment. Each page displayed event information and a registration button, with support for directing visitors to an external booking website when required.

Replacing the WordPress Calendar with a React Client Extension

We developed a React-based custom element client extension to replace the existing WordPress calendar plugin. It supported search, list, month, day, photo, week, and map views, along with past events and calendar subscriptions. A compact version also displayed upcoming events on website homepages.

Implementing REST Integration and Client Extensions

We developed a read-only REST endpoint through an OSGi module to provide visitors with public event information for the relevant website. Additional client extensions managed theme styling through CSS and analytics through Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics on live domains.

Business Impact

Centralized Management of All 37 Regional Websites

The organization now manages all 37 websites through a shared site template, master page, and fragment collection. Common changes to website components and themes can be applied across regional websites without repeating the same updates individually.

Reduced Website Maintenance and Security Complexity

Consolidating the websites into one Liferay DXP platform eliminated the need to maintain separate WordPress themes and plugin installations. The organization now has a centralized environment for platform updates and ongoing maintenance.

Quicker Setup of Additional Regional Websites

New regional websites can be created using the existing site template. Teams only need to configure their regional information through custom fields and upload the required logo and banner images, without requiring additional code changes.

4. Centralized Content Management for Events and Board Members

Events and board member information are now maintained through a shared asset library. Content relevant to multiple regional websites can be added once and displayed across the appropriate websites through categories and collections.

Greater Independence for Content Authors

Content authors can manage website text, images, and event information using Liferay's page editor and web content tools. This reduces repetitive administrative work while retaining the existing website layouts and functionality.

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