Our story
The Story of WP Brain
A client project, a shortcode that got out of hand, and the visual condition builder that came next.
The story of WP Brain began with a client project. I was building a WordPress site and the client wanted different content for mobile devices and tablets, plus different navigation links and widgets for logged-in users so they could reach their account page or log out.
By default, WordPress doesn't let you control content visibility by device or login status. I looked for existing plugins, but the ones I found were limited — I would have needed several to do the job — so I decided to write my own.
The first version introduced the IF shortcode, which controlled the visibility of anything inside it. It worked well for me because I wrote the code and knew the syntax. My client couldn't remember it. I wrote detailed documentation, but complex shortcodes were still hard for a non-technical user. That pushed me to build a visual interface for inserting them.
The shortcode gave my client control over page content, but menu items and widgets were out of reach. We were short on time, so we created two menu locations and two widget areas and switched between them with custom PHP — a solution the client couldn't change himself.
It's simply the brain of WordPress.
Since then, I've worked on making conditions and filters easier to manage through a modern interface. The result is WP Brain.
Today WP Brain filters content by device, login status, location, date and much more, with the flexibility my old client needed. It gives any site owner control over the visibility of every element.