Sustainability Science Network: Airtable to WordPress Multisite Sync Plugin

From sign-up to live profile, the loop keeps the scientist directory current. Staff check, complete and approve each entry, and the site picks up approved scientists at the next sync.

Our plugin brings approved scientists, plus team and supervisory board profiles and photos, across from Airtable every six hours, and staff can start a sync for each list with one button.

The sync runs in our own plugin, installed once for the whole network of sites. Besides the Airtable sync, it adds five custom widgets to the page builder: two headers, latest news, the single scientist page and an animated title.

We set up links between scientists, team members and the networks, programs and publications they work on. Special projects also have links to their pages and news. Editors add or remove a link straight from the profile.

Behind those links sit eight relations. Special projects link to their pages and news, and each team member to their programs, networks and publications. Scientists link to networks, publications and programs both ways, so one scientist can sit in many programs and one program can hold many scientists.

Every scientist sits in one list with their photo, with a theme filter above it. Profiles link to the projects each scientist worked on.

Special projects run as their own sites inside the network, with their own menus and layouts. Staff start a new project site by copying an existing one, then give it its own branding, all from the same dashboard.

A site copier runs across the network. It clones an existing project site with its theme, plugins and settings in place, so a new project starts ready and staff only change the branding and content.