Case study · Full-stack / headless
Vii Dohtem
Vii Dohtem is Method7's own venture, designed and built end to end, and a working proof of what a well-built WordPress can do. One Bedrock WordPress and WooCommerce install is the single engine for content, catalogue and checkout across a family of brands, each published as its own fast front-end (most of them static). The heavy, dynamic work lives once in a version-controlled install; the individual sites stay lightweight, secure and close to zero-maintenance, on a self-managed Ubuntu VPS with automated CI/CD and TLS.
- Roots Bedrock (WordPress)
- WooCommerce
- WP REST API
- ACF Pro
- JWT
- Next.js 15
- React 19
- Static export (SSG)
- GSAP
- Stripe
- nginx
- PHP 8.3-FPM
- MariaDB
- GitHub Actions
- Let's Encrypt
- Docker
The platform
One engine, several brands
A single Bedrock WordPress and WooCommerce install is the whole content and commerce engine. Each brand is then published as its own front-end, most of them statically exported, so they load fast, have almost no attack surface and are close to zero-maintenance. That's the quiet power of a well-built WordPress: one place to manage everything, many sites out front, without a pile of plugins or a fragile server behind each one.
The flagship brand site
viidohtem.co.ukThe umbrella site for the Vii Dohtem brand, pulling the smoked-food range and the wider venture together.
- A Next.js 15 / React 19 front-end, statically exported, so the live site is just fast, secure static files with no per-site server or database to patch.
- Draws its pages, posts and menus from the shared WordPress over the REST API (a tested API-client layer with JWT auth), modelled in ACF Pro.
- Same content engine as the shop and Cutting Edge: one place to manage everything, distinct brands out front.
Headless WooCommerce storefront
shop.viidohtem.co.ukThe e-commerce store for the smoked-food range. "Smoked to Seduce. Cured to Keep." Smoked fish, meats and cheeses crafted with salt, time, wood and nothing else.
- Cold-smoked Scottish salmon (oak-smoked 24h), oak-smoked British cheeses and small-batch pâtés.
- Built on Roots Bedrock (12-factor WordPress) with WooCommerce, Stripe payments, pre-orders (YITH) and scheduled delivery dates, tailored to a perishable, made-to-order product.
- Runs headless: content, products and menus served over the WP REST API, secured with JWT auth and CORS, and modelled in ACF Pro.
"Cutting Edge" sharpening service
cuttingedge.viidohtem.co.ukA distinct brand site for Vii Dohtem's Wiltshire-based knife and tool sharpening service. "Tools deserve care, not replacement."
- A Next.js 15 / React 19 application with GSAP motion design: a services showcase ("Why We Sharpen", "Services for Creatives"), location content, and its own shop driven from a generated catalogue.
- Custom touches include a build-time catalogue generator and a shared "smoke" brand-motif animation layer.
HACCP compliance, made simple
haccp.viidohtem.co.ukA purpose-built food-safety compliance product for modern food producers: real-time production tracking, automatic documentation and complete traceability to stay audit-ready. A separate React and Supabase application, with its own case study.
- Production-run tracking with real-time monitoring of critical process steps.
- Temperature and humidity logging at each stage, with sensor-data import and interactive trend charts.
- Document management: attach certificates, lab reports, photos and sensor data to any batch, with smart scoping.
- Supplier traceability: track supplier lots across production runs with automatic document sharing.
- Role-based team collaboration, plus batch lookup and history with complete audit trails.
- Recipe calculator (define once, auto-calculate ingredients by batch weight) and duration validation (enforce min/max process times, auto-flag deviations).
Under the hood
Custom development & infrastructure
Vii Smoke Effect
A bespoke WordPress plugin providing a configurable floating "smoke puff" visual effect (ACF-driven settings, optimised WebP assets) that reinforces the smoked-food brand identity across the estate.
- Single-VPS multi-site hosting: an nginx reverse proxy fronting PHP 8.3-FPM and MariaDB, with an isolated server block and TLS certificate per subdomain.
- Automated TLS: Let's Encrypt (ECDSA) certificates with certbot auto-renewal and an A-rated SSL configuration.
- CI/CD via GitHub Actions: push-to-deploy pipelines for staging and production (Composer install, SSH deploy, post-deploy autoloader optimisation).
- Three-environment workflow (local → staging → production) with environment-specific config and safe database/media sync tooling (automatic backups and URL rewriting).
- Dockerised local development: a reproducible MariaDB and phpMyAdmin stack.
Recent work · Aug 2026
Production TLS incident
Diagnosed and resolved a certificate outage on the primary domain. The root cause was a missing apex DNS record silently blocking Let's Encrypt validation; I reissued the certificate to an A rating and added a canonical apex → www redirect.
Platforms & hosting
Need the whole thing looked after?
One Bedrock install runs content, catalogue and checkout for a family of brands, each published as its own fast front-end, on a self-managed VPS with automated deployment and TLS. If that is the shape of what you need, tell me where yours is now.