1. Project Overview

Phil Sifuent Liquidation Services runs a high-volume, competitive auction platform on WordPress using the Ultimate Auction Pro plugin. The client plans to list 300–500 auction products monthly, closing each auction in 1-minute intervals with 50-second recursive extensions, and expects 200–600 concurrent visitors at peak times.

Following the initial proposal, the client has provided additional requirements across three areas: enhancements to the auction category listing page, improvements to the category admin edit screen, and a flexible settings-controlled inline bidding feature for the My Account dashboard. This updated proposal covers the full revised scope.

  1. Customer Requirements
  2. Inline Bid Widget — Auction Listing & Category Pages

On all auction listing and category pages, each product thumbnail card must display the full bid widget inline:

  • Bid amount input field
  • Bid button
  • Set My Maximum Bid button
  • Buy Now button (where applicable)
  • Add to Watchlist button
  • 20 auction products per page (up to 25), with default sort set to Ending Soonest

Bidders can place bids directly from the listing view without opening the product page.

  1. Inline Bid Widget — My Account: Bids Active & Watchlist (with Admin Settings Toggle)

The client requires the inline bid widget to be available on both the Bids Active and Watchlist sections of the My Account → Auctions dashboard. Based on the client’s own recommendation for performance and stability, our recommendation is to implement this with an Admin Settings toggle so the feature can be independently enabled or disabled for each section without code changes.

  • Inline bid widget on My Account → Bids Active section
  • Inline bid widget on My Account → Watchlist section
  • Admin Settings panel with toggle: Enable/Disable bid widget on Bids Active
  • Admin Settings panel with toggle: Enable/Disable bid widget on Watchlist

Our Recommendation: We suggest enabling the inline widget on the Watchlist section by default, and leaving the Bids Active section optional via the toggle. This provides the best balance between bidding convenience and server performance under high concurrent load.

  1. Auction Category Edit Page — Rich Text Editor for Description

Currently, the category Description field in WooCommerce → Product Categories only supports plain text. The client requires a full rich text editor (matching the editor used in the Edit Auction Product page), allowing:

  • Formatted text — headings, bold, italic, lists
  • Images and media embeds
  • Hyperlinks
  • Any styled content needed to describe the auction category (e.g. pickup instructions, dates, terms)
  1. Auction Category — Thumbnail Display on Homepage

The client requires each auction category to be displayed as a clickable thumbnail card on the homepage. Each card should show:

  • The category’s featured image as the card thumbnail
  • A header/title text overlay or below the image
  • A clickable link that navigates to that category’s auction product listing page

This will allow visitors to browse and navigate to specific auction categories directly from the homepage, similar to the category thumbnail design shown on leftovertreasures.com referenced by the client.

Performance Note: The client acknowledges that displaying live bid widgets across listing pages and the My Account dashboard with 200–600 concurrent users will increase server load. We strongly recommend enabling a page/fragment caching solution and optimising AJAX call frequency to maintain stability.

  1. Technical Approach
    • 3.1 Inline Bid Widget — Listing & Category Pages
      • Override the WooCommerce product loop template to inject the full bid widget per auction card
      • Set default products-per-page to 20 (max 25) and default sort to Ending Soonest on category pages
      • Add to Watchlist button included per card
      • All bid submissions via existing plugin AJAX endpoint — no changes to core bidding logic
      • CSS scoped to auction products only — no impact on regular shop products
    • 3.2 Inline Bid Widget — My Account Dashboard with Admin Toggle
      • Override the My Account Auctions tab template to inject bid widget per card in Bids Active and Watchlist
      • Build a custom Admin Settings page (under WooCommerce → Settings or a dedicated menu item) with toggles:
      • Toggle 1: Enable / Disable inline bid widget on Bids Active
      • Toggle 2: Enable / Disable inline bid widget on Watchlist
      • Template rendering respects toggle state — widget loads only when enabled
      • Handle edge cases: auction expired, user is already highest bidder, reserve not met
    • 3.3 Category Description — Rich Text Editor
      • Use the WordPress wp_editor() function to replace the default plain-text category description field with a full TinyMCE/block editor
      • Ensure the rich text content is saved and rendered correctly on the category archive page
      • Allow upload and embedding of images via the WordPress media library
      • Ensure compatibility with the existing category template and page layout
    • 3.4 Category Thumbnail Cards on Homepage
      • Build a custom shortcode (e.g. [auction_category_thumbnails]) that renders category thumbnail cards
      • Each card pulls the category’s featured image, title, and link from WooCommerce category data
      • Shortcode can be placed on any page including the homepage via the page editor
      • Cards are responsive — adapt to 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns based on screen size
      • Optional: admin configurable number of categories to display and column layout
  1. Effort — Design & Development
    1. 4.1 Inline Bid Widget — Auction Listing & Category Pages
      • Audit existing auction loop template and plugin bid form output
      • Build custom template override to inject bid widget per product card
      • Set 20-per-page default and Ending Soonest default sort on category pages
      • Add to Watchlist button integration on listing cards
      • CSS scoping and responsive layout

Estimated effort: 10 hours

4.2 Inline Bid Widget — My Account: Bids Active & Watchlist with Admin Toggle

  • Override Bids Active and Watchlist tab templates in My Account
  • Inject bid widget into each auction card in both views
  • Build Admin Settings page with enable/disable toggles per section
  • Conditional template rendering based on toggle state
  • Edge case handling (expired auctions, highest bidder, reserve)

Estimated effort: 10 hours

4.3 Category Description — Rich Text Editor

  • Implement wp_editor() on the WooCommerce Edit Category admin page
  • Ensure content saves to the correct database field
  • Render rich text content correctly on the category archive/listing page
  • Test image uploads and styled content display

Estimated effort: 4 hours

4.4 Category Thumbnail Cards on Homepage

  • Build [auction_category_thumbnails] shortcode with configurable parameters
  • Pull featured image, title, and link per category from WooCommerce
  • Responsive card grid layout (1–4 columns)
  • Test shortcode placement on homepage and other pages

Estimated effort: 6 hours

4.5 Performance & Responsive Testing

  • Cross-browser and responsive testing across desktop, tablet, and mobile
  • Load and AJAX conflict testing with multiple simultaneous bid widgets on page
  • Verify all bid functions (bid, max bid, buy now, watchlist) work correctly from all new locations
  • Verify admin toggle correctly shows/hides widget on dashboard

Estimated effort: 3 hours

4.6 Auction Listing Page — Per-Page Count & Default Sort

  • Configure 20 products per page (max 25) on auction category pages
  • Set default sort order to “Ending Soonest” on all auction category pages

Estimated effort: 2 hours

  1. Effort Snapshot
Deliverable Hours
Inline Bid Widget — Auction Listing & Category Pages 10
Inline Bid Widget — My Account: Bids Active & Watchlist (with Admin Toggle) 10
Auction Listing Page — 20 per page, Default Sort: Ending Soonest 2
Category Edit Page — Rich Text Editor for Description 4
Category Thumbnail Display on Homepage (Featured Image + Header + Link) 6
Performance & Responsive Testing 3
TOTAL ESTIMATED HOURS 35

 

  1. Deliverables

The following deliverables will be provided as part of this task:

  • Full inline bid widget (bid input, Bid, Set My Maximum Bid, Buy Now, Add to Watchlist) on all auction listing and category pages
  • 20 auctions per page (max 25) with default sort set to Ending Soonest on category pages
  • Full inline bid widget on My Account → Bids Active section (toggle-controlled)
  • Full inline bid widget on My Account → Watchlist section (toggle-controlled)
  • Admin Settings panel with enable/disable toggle for bid widget on Bids Active and Watchlist independently
  • Rich text editor (TinyMCE) on WooCommerce Edit Category description field — supports images, styled text, links
  • Auction Category Thumbnail shortcode for homepage — pulls featured image, title, and link per category
  • Responsive layout across all new components — desktop, tablet, and mobile
  • All bid placements functional via AJAX — no page reload required
  • Tested and deployed on the client’s server
  1. Commercials & Payment

Project Cost

  • Total Estimated Effort: 35 hours
  • Hourly Rate: USD 45 / hour
  • Total Cost: USD 1,575