Mikołów municipal website

Context

The Mikołów Municipality portal is an advanced WordPress installation built on a multisite architecture. The main municipal site plus several topical sub-sites, including waste management. Each sub-site has its own plugin set and custom extensions, which means maintaining a portal like this demands more attention than a standard site.

I started the cooperation more than two years ago, and we are now entering the third year of regular care.

Scope of care

Monitoring and updates

• Continuous availability monitoring of the portal and its sub-sites
• Updates of the WordPress core, plugins and the custom theme
• Adapting the site code to newer PHP versions (currently preparing for PHP 8.5): reviewing theme and plugin code for compatibility with modern standards

Security

• Protection against infections and bots: detecting threats and removing them
• Caring for the fundamentals: strong passwords, two-factor login, admin panel protection
• Regular security scans

In today's world, where every public institution lives in the digital space, security is not an add-on. It is the foundation.

WCAG 2.1 AA compliance

A municipal portal must meet the requirements of the Polish Digital Accessibility Act. As part of the care package I run periodic WCAG audits and implement the necessary corrections to keep compliance at the AA level.

Support for the editorial team

Fast email and phone response to editorial requests, from simple questions like "how do I add a news post" through to urgent incidents that require immediate intervention.

Technical challenges of multisite

A multisite portal is not a single website. It is several connected instances running under one installation. Each one has its own plugins, its own content, often its own editors. The challenges:

• Compatibility across sub-sites: updating the main installation must not break any of the sub-sites
• Custom theme: an individual design needs constant adjustment whenever the WP core changes
• More plugins: a larger attack surface and more points to monitor
• More responsibility: the portal is public, the trust of the municipality's residents is at stake

Relationship with the client

Working with Mikołów Municipal Office is always at a high level: polite, substantive and genuinely collaborative. This is one of those partnerships where both sides understand that security and stability of the portal are an investment, not a cost.

I hope the third year will be equally fruitful, and that the portal will keep running stably and securely, just as it has for the previous two.