Athena Centre: Headless Rebuild

Overview

Athena Centre (athenacentre.org) is a policy and research institution. I rebuilt the entire site as a headless platform: a custom Next.js (App Router) front end that reads from WordPress over the REST API, with WordPress kept purely as the content source. Editors keep the CMS they know; visitors get a fast, fully custom front end, the two hosted independently on cPanel.

Challenges

Move a content-heavy institutional site off a monolithic WordPress theme without disrupting the editorial team, then run a Node/Next.js front end and the WordPress CMS as separate services on cPanel. Beyond pages it needed a members area, a custom dashboard with real analytics, and a dependable newsletter pipeline, none of which ship with WordPress out of the box.

Architecture

• Headless front end: Next.js App Router (Node 20) consuming the WordPress REST API as its content source, with on-demand cache invalidation so edits go live without a full rebuild.
• Decoupled CMS: WordPress repurposed as a pure headless backend, with content and presentation fully separated.

Custom WordPress suite

• Editorial Suite: A custom plugin exposing the dashboard API: engagement, analytics, moderation, team/profile controls, and the newsletter/subscriber bridge.
• Meta Fields: REST-visible fields for publications, events, initiatives, taxonomies, and the homepage so the front end can render structured content.
• Accounts: JWT auth for dashboard sessions, with Paid Memberships Pro mapped to member accounts.

Newsletter & integrations

• Pipeline: One internal endpoint: newsletter form → /api/newsletter → a Google Sheets backup → Zoho Campaigns.
• Email: SMTP wired for reliable magic-link and verification emails.

Deployment

• cPanel standalone: Packaged as a Next.js standalone bundle and released to cPanel through a scripted build/sync workflow, front end and CMS deployed separately.
• Quality gates: Typecheck, build, and frontend QA/CI scripts run before every release.

Results / Conclusion

Athena Centre now runs on a fast, fully custom Next.js front end while editors keep WordPress, with a members area, a custom analytics dashboard, and an automated newsletter pipeline layered on top, all shippable to cPanel with one release command.