Contact person: Business Client

Phone:Show

Email:Show

Location: Seelze, Germany

Budget: Recommended by industry experts

Time to start: As soon as possible

Project description:
"The aim of this project is to migrate and rebuild the existing “Schiedsrichterbörse” at [login to view URL] from Joomla to WordPress while preserving its core functionality and improving usability, maintainability and security. The referee exchange is used within the Handballregion Hannover-Weser-Leine to offer and take over referee appointments between clubs. Currently, registered club representatives such as referee coordinators or department heads can publish matches from their own club in the exchange and can also take over matches that other clubs have offered, while referees themselves mainly read the list of available fixtures and coordinate any potential takeover internally with their club’s referee coordinator. The new WordPress-based implementation should reproduce this workflow as closely as possible, while providing a modern, responsive interface and a clearer rights and roles system on a technically up-to-date, GDPR-compliant foundation.

The central element in WordPress will be a “referee exchange” section that lists all offered games in a table view, similar to the current site, with columns such as date, time, match number, league, home team, away team, the club originally responsible for the referees according to NuLiga and the club that has taken over the match, plus an internal status (offered, taken, cancelled). Technically, this will most likely be implemented using a custom post type (for example “Games” or “Matches”) with custom fields for all relevant attributes such as date, kick-off time, match number, league, home and away club, original referee club, hall or venue, comments and the club that takes over. These games are displayed in the front end in a sortable and filterable table, with the default order being chronological by date. Ideally, users can filter by date range, league, club or status so that, for instance, only free games or only games involving a specific club are shown. Clicking on an entry can optionally open a detail view with further information, but the main use case is an at-a-glance overview in the list. The layout must be responsive and usable on smartphones and tablets, even if that means switching to card views or allowing horizontal scrolling for the table.

The workflow for offering games will be handled through a front-end form accessible only to logged-in, authorised club users. These users, hereafter called “club managers”, log into WordPress and are presented with a form to create a new game entry. They fill in match number, date, time, league, home and away teams, select their own club as “referee club according to NuLiga” from a predefined list of clubs and can add optional information such as hall and comments. When saving the form, the system validates certain business rules, most importantly the existing rule that games may only be posted to the exchange starting three weeks before the match date; if a user attempts to offer a game earlier than three weeks in advance, the system should refuse to save the entry and display an appropriate error message. Once a game has been successfully created, it appears in the public game list with status “offered”. The takeover process will also be implemented via the front end: authorised club managers browse the list of offered games while logged in and can click a “Take over” button on a free game. A short confirmation dialogue then asks whether this match should really be taken over by their club. After confirmation, the system records the club as the “taking” club in the respective field, changes the status to “taken” and optionally sends email notifications to the offering club and to a regional admin. Each game can only be taken over once; for taken games, the takeover button is disabled or removed, and only authorised admin users can reset the status if needed.

User management and access control are important parts of the project. The public part of the site may remain visible to everyone, but functions for offering and taking over games are reserved for a limited group of registered users. In the new WordPress system, at least three roles are defined: standard WordPress administrators with full technical control, a regional “HR admin” role with permission to manage all game entries and user accounts, and “club manager” roles who can create and edit game entries for their own club and take over games from other clubs but cannot change system-wide settings. Each club may have at most two such club manager accounts, in line with current practice. There should be a registration page “Referee Exchange Registration” where club representatives can request access by submitting information such as club name and number, their position in the club, email address and optionally a phone number. Submitting the form triggers an email to the HR admin, who checks the data and creates or activates a WordPress user with the appropriate role and a field indicating the associated club, making sure that each club does not exceed the maximum number of accounts. Alternatively, the system can automatically create a pending user that only becomes active after operator approval. Password guidelines should at least meet WordPress’ standard strong password recommendations and can additionally include hints similar to the current site, for example that passwords should not contain first or last names and should be at least six or eight characters long including upper- and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. The entire system must run over HTTPS and should be protected by established security plugins, login attempt limiting and spam protection on forms.

Beyond the core functionality, the WordPress implementation should also comply with non-functional requirements. All handling of personal data, which is limited mainly to names, roles, email addresses and possibly phone numbers of club representatives, must be described transparently in a GDPR-compliant privacy policy stating that the data are processed for the purpose of operating the referee exchange. Performance is important because in high-season there can be many ongoing matches, so the developer should set up suitable caching and efficient database queries for the game list, ensuring quick loading times even with filter options. The design should be modern but simple, matching the visual identity of the Handballregion and adapting well to different screen sizes. The system should also be easy to maintain: wherever possible, widely used, well-supported WordPress plugins should be used for forms, custom fields, roles and security, and the solution should be structured in such a way that future adjustments, such as adding additional fields or changing the three-week rule, can be made without major redevelopment. As part of the project, the contractor should therefore not only set up WordPress, implement the custom post type for games, create the list and detail templates, build the front-end forms for offering and taking games and configure roles, registration and security, but also provide concise documentation so that regional administrators can add and manage users and support club managers in their work with the system once it goes live." (client-provided description)