A new publishing home for the dairy community
Cowsmo serves the dairy community with news, show coverage, photography and its magazine. I developed a new WordPress platform to bring these different parts of the publication together, combining a custom editing system with gallery support, member access and a connection to the existing subscription service.
The challenge
This was a publishing site with several distinct types of content: daily news, shows and sales, event calendars, magazine editions and extensive photography. The new platform needed to organise that variety while retaining the ability to display older galleries.
Subscriptions added another requirement. Readers’ access to member content needed to reflect the subscriptions managed through Zoho Billing.
The solution
I built a custom WordPress block theme using PorterWP, with reusable templates and editor components. Dedicated content types organise events, magazines, catalogues, coverage and advertising, supported by classifications such as breed, region and magazine year.
Photography has its own place in the system. The theme supports existing gallery data and images hosted on a separate media server, alongside a custom SmugMug gallery integration. Related-content functionality connects readers with other material in the publication.
A custom integration synchronises active Zoho Billing subscriptions with Restrict Content Pro memberships. The theme uses membership-aware content controls to support free and paid readers, keeping the subscription service connected to access on the website.
The outcome
The new site went live on 23 March 2026, alongside the move to its new hosting setup. Launch checks included confirming that the live URLs resolved correctly and testing outgoing website email.
Cowsmo now has a WordPress platform that accommodates both its ongoing publishing and its established image archive. News, event coverage and magazine content share a consistent theme, while the custom gallery and subscription integrations support the practical needs of a specialist publication.
