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6 4 25 Rebuild Update

2025-06-04 – 22:55 PT – Full Site Status Rebase & Comprehensive Project Recap

This log captures the full journey and current status of the Hole In One USA website rebuild project as of June 4, 2025. It includes every major decision, action, technical issue, and strategic objective tackled so far. The goal has been a pixel-perfect Elementor-based replication of the original WordPress site — but with a modern, cleaner backend, leaner plugin stack, and future-ready structure.

🔨 Phase 1: Initial Reset and Environment Setup

The project began by backing up the WP Engine development environment and initiating a full reset. Using FileZilla (SFTP) and WP Engine's chat support, all original WordPress files and the MySQL database were removed. This ensured a completely fresh slate with no legacy theme or plugin interference.

Key Tasks Completed:

  • Created a manual backup of the staging environment
  • Deleted all files via FileZilla (including wp-content, wp-includes, and root files)
  • Dropped all database tables via phpMyAdmin
  • Contacted WP Engine support when file permission issues blocked folder deletion
  • Confirmed a full environment reset by WP Engine support

Outcome: A clean WordPress install ready for rebuild, with no remnants of the old theme, plugins, or configurations.

🎨 Phase 2: Fonts, Global Setup, and Plugin Configuration

After resetting the environment, we uploaded the original media assets (\~300+ images and PDFs) directly to the WordPress media library.

A major challenge arose in restoring the site’s original font, Myriad Pro. The font is not freely available and normally requires a Creative Cloud subscription. However, through an inspection of the original site, we located a valid Adobe Fonts embed URL. By extracting the final segment of the CSS filename (e.g., fqf3yti.css) and using that string as the Project ID in the 'Custom Adobe Fonts (Typekit)' plugin, we successfully reconnected the original typeface.

Other Actions:

  • Installed Elementor and Ultimate Addons for Elementor (UAE)
  • Verified Elementor global settings (default content width, spacing units)
  • Ensured the Hello Elementor theme was used for maximum compatibility and performance

Key Takeaway: We were able to precisely restore typography without requiring access to Adobe’s backend account.

🧱 Phase 3: Core Page Rebuilds in Elementor

This was the largest and most time-consuming phase. Each core page was rebuilt from scratch in Elementor using containers, not sections, to match the exact visual layout of the original website. This includes margins, spacings, paddings, and button placement.

Pages rebuilt:

  • Home
  • Hole-In-One Insurance
  • Putting Contests
  • Million Dollar Shootout
  • Sponsor & Contest Signage
  • Other Contests
  • Contact Us
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Partners
  • Contest Insurance

Notable Observations:

  • The original site was not built with any consistent design system. Font sizes, line heights, button styles, and padding varied unpredictably. This made applying global styling extremely difficult.
  • Due to the lack of consistency, each section was rebuilt manually using visual comparisons instead of relying on templates.
  • Despite best efforts to rely solely on Elementor settings, a minimal amount of custom CSS was ultimately required to resolve layout quirks and edge case styling inconsistencies. This custom CSS was kept lightweight and was documented clearly.

Remaining Core Tasks:

  • Conduct a final internal link sweep to confirm all nav buttons, text links, and call-to-action buttons work as intended
  • Final pass on spacing, padding, and fonts for consistency
  • Optimize the entire site for mobile and tablet breakpoints once the desktop version is fully finalized

🔧 Global Styling Challenges

Efforts were made to standardize design through Elementor’s Site Settings, but the chaotic nature of the original site meant many rules had to be broken intentionally to preserve visual accuracy.

Progress:

  • Typography settings were loosely applied (H1–H4), but spacing and sizing were mostly handled manually
  • Button styles were created, but some pages required overrides due to inconsistent legacy formats
  • Global spacing tokens are inconsistent and will be refined during final QA

Next Step:

  • Finish global style finalization during the QA and mobile refinement phase

A desktop version of both the header and footer was successfully rebuilt using UAE’s Header & Footer Builder. Layout and visual fidelity match the original site almost exactly.

Outstanding Work:

  • Neither the header nor the footer is mobile responsive yet. Due to the non-standard nature of the original site, responsive behavior will need to be custom-adjusted
  • Mobile nav toggle needs to be added and tested

To Do:

  • Rebuild both header and footer for tablet and mobile breakpoints
  • Add menu toggles and stacking logic for mobile UX
  • Test all links and behaviors across screen sizes

🤝 Phase 5: Partner Pages (Upcoming)

The original site includes over 20 unique partner pages for PGA sections, Auto Dealer Associations, and special programs (e.g., Folds of Honor).

Current Status:

  • Partner pages have not yet been started
  • A base Elementor template layout will be created, then duplicated per partner
  • Each page will require manual configuration of the unique logo and corresponding quote form embed (each uses a unique API key)

Next Step:

  • Begin by identifying page groups (PGA, Dealers, Special Partners)
  • Build the first base layout and test content slotting

🧪 Forms, SEO, and Mobile QA (Still Pending)

Forms:

  • Contact form has been placed visually but not configured to deliver to an actual email inbox
  • Quote forms are visually embedded and appear functional, but each still needs to be assigned its own unique API key for full operation. Due to the static nature of the form embeds and the lack of sandboxed environments per page, functional testing has not yet been performed and will need to be verified manually after API assignment.

SEO + Accessibility:

  • Heading structure (H1–H3) is mostly respected, but alt tags, meta descriptions, and accessibility checks still need to be performed
  • Partner pages will need noindex tags or canonical structure if not meant for public indexing

Mobile Testing:

  • No responsive testing has been completed for tablet or phone screen sizes
  • Final adjustments will include spacing, column stacking, font resizing, and menu behavior across breakpoints

📌 Summary

The rebuild has progressed steadily through major foundational and visual milestones. A clean WordPress environment, matching visual design, and minimal custom code approach make the new build vastly more sustainable than the original. With all core pages now rebuilt and global structure nearly in place, the final phases (partner pages, QA, mobile, and SEO) will move the project into final delivery readiness.

Time estimates suggest we are roughly 85–90% complete overall. The next steps will focus on mobile adjustments, link verification, partner page population, and form functionality.