Snapshots the project at the end of session 2, just before resetting to a
Bricks-first orthodox architecture. RESTART-PLAN.md at the root explains
why this approach is being abandoned and what the next session will look like.
Why we restart
- Three architectures got stacked: Custom PHP Templates → Gutenberg blocks
in post_content → Bricks data in post meta. Each layer fights the next.
- Bricks Builder UI does not load because our header.php / footer.php /
page.php emit chrome that conflicts with Bricks' own template-parts.
- CSS overrides multiplied (Gutenberg + Bricks variants) and still don't
pixel-match the original PHP-rendered visual.
- 8+ one-shot mu-plugins live in LocalWP to patch over inconsistencies.
What survives the restart (preserved here on main)
- BRIEF, both PDFs, .txt extracts (sources of truth)
- assets/css/tokens.css (full design system, untouched)
- assets/fonts/Inter-Variable*.woff2 (RGPD self-hosted)
- inc/<section>-data.php files (text copy from PDF strategie, will become
/content-source/ on next session for reuse as translation dictionary
and as input to programmatic page generation)
- The Git repo, remote, branch main
- LocalWP site, Bricks v2.3.4, WPML 4.9.3 with active licenses
- WPML EN + FR setup with directory URL strategy
What gets wiped at the start of next session
- wp-content/themes/asterion-bricks/header.php / footer.php / page.php /
index.php / front-page.php / template-parts/ / templates/
- inc/render-blocks.php, inc/render-blocks-native.php, inc/render-bricks.php
- inc/shortcodes.php, inc/i18n.php, inc/form-handler.php
- 35+ WP pages created over the session
- All one-shot mu-plugins in LocalWP/wp-content/mu-plugins/
Restart approach (detailed in RESTART-PLAN.md)
- Minimalist child theme: style.css, functions.php, theme.json, tokens.css,
trimmed utilities.css, fonts, inc/cpt.php — that's it.
- No header.php / footer.php / page.php in child theme — Bricks Templates
(Header / Footer / Single — Page) take over via Bricks' Conditions.
- User builds 5-7 archetype Bricks templates visually (~1-2h each) then
programmatic generation fills the variants from inc/*-data.php sources.
- WPML duplication after EN is validated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit makes the site editable from WP admin (Gutenberg or Bricks
"Edit with Bricks") and translatable via WPML Translation Editor by
shifting page rendering away from Custom Templates and into post_content.
Architecture change
-------------------
Before: Custom Templates assigned to each page (page-solution-detail.php
etc.) generated the page HTML at runtime by reading from inc/*-data.php
arrays. WPML had nothing to translate, Bricks Builder had nothing to
edit, the client could only modify content by editing PHP.
After:
- Pages now hold their full Gutenberg HTML inside post_content
- The default page.php template renders the_content() — no Custom
Templates assigned anymore
- Bricks Builder picks up post_content and converts it to its element
tree when "Edit with Bricks" is clicked
- WPML Translation Editor exposes every block for translation
- The client can edit pages directly in WP admin
What this commit ships
----------------------
- inc/render-blocks.php: data array → Gutenberg HTML payload generator
with helpers per section type (prose / cards / list / cta) and per
page archetype (solution / industry / technology / editorial / form
/ overview hub).
- inc/shortcodes.php: [av_form slug="request-demo"] for dynamic form
blocks (forms can't live as static HTML — they need nonces and
per-request state).
- inc/i18n.php: av_lang() / av_t() helpers for inline string translation
in header.php and footer.php (covers ~80 UI strings); switches based
on WPML's wpml_current_language filter.
- page.php: minimal default template — get_header() + the_content() +
get_footer().
- header.php: real WPML language switcher driven by
wpml_active_languages filter (replaces the placeholder EN · FR
toggle); UI strings now route through av_t().
- footer.php: same UI string treatment.
- Custom Templates retained but no longer assigned (pages were stripped
by the migration mu-plugin); they remain available if a page wants
to opt back into the data-file pattern.
Operational migrations (one-shot mu-plugins, not versioned)
-----------------------------------------------------------
1. asterion-migrate-to-blocks.php walked all 26 PHP-templated pages,
pre-rendered them via the new render-blocks helpers, wrote the
result to post_content, and stripped _wp_page_template.
2. asterion-duplicate-fr.php cloned all 35 pages into French via WPML
API, preserved parent/child hierarchy, linked translations through
the trid table, marked them as duplicates pending refinement.
3. asterion-fix-fr-slugs.php aligned French slugs with English ones
(WP's wp_unique_post_slug() had appended -2 suffixes; we bypass
via $wpdb->update so /fr/solutions/ resolves correctly).
Verified
--------
- All 35 EN URLs return HTTP 200
- All 35 FR URLs return HTTP 200 under /fr/<slug>/
- Language switcher in header outputs correct hreflang links
- WPML emits hreflang en / fr / x-default in <head>
- Body class confirms wp-child-theme-asterion-bricks active
- Bricks frontend CSS still enqueued
- Inter Variable still preloaded
Next steps
----------
- French content is currently the duplicated EN copy. Translate via
WP admin → WPML → Translation Editor (per-block UI), or edit pages
directly in /fr/<slug>/ via Gutenberg / Bricks
- WPML String Translation can scan the theme to surface av_t() / __()
strings for UI-level translation overrides
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
