# LAFF Super System — Research Hub

> The "Super System" is the in-house platform that will **replace** the current
> WordPress + Thrive + ThriveCart stack for *Love at First Fight* (LAFF).
> This `research/` folder is the single source of truth for everything we learn
> **before** we write production code.

**Status:** 🟡 Research phase — no production code yet.
**Last updated:** 2026-06-12
**Owner:** Berner le Grange (berner@le-grand.co.za)

---

## What we are building (one paragraph)

Today LAFF runs on **two WordPress sites** glued together by paid plugins:
a marketing/quiz funnel site and a courses/membership site. Payments go through
**ThriveCart**, course delivery through **Thrive Apprentice**, and automation
through **Uncanny Automator** + **Thrive Automator**. We want to retire the
plugin stack and build **one owned platform** — likely a Laravel backend with
a customer-facing front end and a separate staff/admin front end — that we
fully control, can extend, and don't pay per-seat for.

This is **not a greenfield toy**. It is a live business:

| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Customers (course site users) | **41,113** | `laff_data.wp_users` |
| Paid ThriveCart orders | **33,445** | `laff_data.wp_tva_orders` (status=1) |
| Gross revenue (recorded, USD) | **~$7.92M** | sum of `price_gross` on paid orders |
| Total order rows (incl. manual grants) | **165,378** | `laff_data.wp_tva_orders` |
| Marketing-site users | 6 | `laff_website.wp_users` |
| Website traffic | **~100,000 clicks/month** | Berner, 2026-06-13 |

➡️ Migration safety and "don't break the money" matter **more** than elegance.

---

## How to use this folder

| Folder | What lives here |
|---|---|
| [00-index/](00-index/) | Visual maps, glossaries, decision log, open questions |
| [01-current-systems/](01-current-systems/) | What exists today: the 2 WP sites, plugins, what each does |
| [02-data-model/](02-data-model/) | Current databases, tables that matter, the target data model |
| [03-architecture/](03-architecture/) | Proposed Super System architecture & the big decisions |
| [04-features/](04-features/) | Feature-by-feature: what to rebuild and how |
| [05-migration/](05-migration/) | The plan to move data + customers off WordPress safely |
| [assets/](assets/) | Diagrams, screenshots, exports |

### Reading order for a newcomer
1. This file
2. [00-index/system-map.md](00-index/system-map.md) — the picture
3. [01-current-systems/overview.md](01-current-systems/overview.md) — what we're replacing
4. [03-architecture/proposed-architecture.md](03-architecture/proposed-architecture.md) — where we're going
5. [00-index/open-questions.md](00-index/open-questions.md) — what we still need to decide

---

## The three folders on disk (sibling to this one)

| Folder | Database | Role |
|---|---|---|
| `Love at First Fight` | `laff_website` | Marketing + quiz funnel site |
| `Love at First Fight Courses` | `laff_data` | Courses / membership / payments |
| `Love at First Fight Courses 2` | `laff_data` (working copy) | Second checkout of the courses site |

> `Courses 2` is a duplicate working copy, **not** a third system. There is also
> a `laff_data_courses2` database on the server — flagged as an open question.

---

## 🖥️ Visual dashboard
Open **[index.html](index.html)** in a browser for a one-page visual command
center: overview, current vs target architecture, decisions, capacity/bottleneck,
features, roadmap, and the open-questions checklist. Static HTML, no build step.
Regenerate it as planning evolves.

## Quick links
- 🗺️ [System Map](00-index/system-map.md)
- 📖 [Glossary](00-index/glossary.md)
- ❓ [Open Questions](00-index/open-questions.md)
- 🧭 [Decision Log](00-index/decision-log.md)
- 🤝 [Reconciliation with Bruce's KB](03-architecture/reconciliation-with-bruce-kb.md)
- 📋 [Business Requirements (Bruce KB)](04-features/business-requirements-from-bruce-kb.md)
- 💳 [Payments (Stripe + PayPal)](04-features/payments.md)
- 🧱 [Proposed Architecture](03-architecture/proposed-architecture.md)
- 🌐 [Deployment Topology (domains)](03-architecture/deployment-topology.md)
- 🗄️ [Data Stores & Logging](03-architecture/data-stores-and-logging.md)
- ⚙️ [Queues, Horizon & Redis](03-architecture/queues-and-redis.md)
- ☁️ [Hosting & Capacity (AWS, bottleneck)](03-architecture/hosting-and-capacity.md)
- 📈 [EC2 Sizing & Scaling Tiers](03-architecture/ec2-sizing-and-scaling.md)
- 🚚 [Migration Strategy](05-migration/strategy.md)