Case study 01 · Custom platform · WordPress rebuild · AI search
SalsaPal
- brief to launch-ready
- 3 wks
- automated tests
- 177
- database migrations
- 37
- lines of code
- 31,700+
The challenge
A salsa community site on WordPress looked dated, couldn't do what dancers actually needed (hear the beat, see the steps, find a night out) and was slow and hard to change.
What we built
- Beat trainer: real songs counted 1–8 live, with per-song tempo and beat maps (Web Audio)
- Animated On1 footwork for leader and follower that follows the music
- London salsa scene: 31 venues on one live map, with every night, time and price
- Plain-English AI search (Claude API) that understands day, style, level and place
- Community calendar, venue ratings and a mobile-first design
- 177 automated tests on every deploy, 37 database migrations, Cloudflare with a strict CSP
The result
A custom, mobile-first platform with interactive learning tools and a live venue map, shipped in three weeks with an automated test suite guarding every release.
Stack
- PHP 8.3
- MySQL
- Claude API
- Web Audio
- Leaflet
- Cloudflare
- Resend
- GA4
- GitHub Actions
Before and after
The same home page, before and after: WordPress at salsapal.com, and the rebuild at test.salsapal.com.




