Essential Web Skills for Urban Planners
Jing Zhang, FAICP
Sarah Vitale, AICP
Jing Zhang, FAICP
Sarah Vitale, AICP
Wix
Website: UrbanPlanningPost.org
Urban Planning Post is a volunteer-driven platform developed by the APA International Division. Launched in April 2025 and built on Wix, the project aims to share ideas, projects, and perspectives from planners around the world. It demonstrates how no-code platforms like Wix can support dynamic, content-rich websites even with limited budgets and technical support.
Unlike basic static websites, Urban Planning Post relies heavily on dynamic pages. Dynamic pages are built using databases that store structured content (e.g., articles, definitions, project summaries) separately from the layout. This structure allows new content to be added via a backend dashboard, automatically populating the correct webpage without manually creating a new page each time. Dynamic pages make websites easier to scale and manage while ensuring consistency across content types.
Key Sections of Urban Planning Post:
The blog is constructed using Wix’s built-in blogging functionality. It allows developers and editors to:
Create blog posts and assign authors
Add categories and tags for filtering and sorting
Edit content directly in the backend dashboard
The blog layout can be customized to some extent. It’s a practical option for small teams or projects with limited resources that still want to maintain a full-featured blog.
This section showcases exemplary planning projects from around the globe, highlighting inclusive, innovative, and impactful approaches to urban challenges. Here is the way how it is handled on Wix:
Backend Structure: Managed using Wix’s Content Management System (CMS), specifically through a feature called Collections, which act as structured databases.
Dynamic Front-End: Each project entry is automatically displayed on the site through dynamic page elements (in Wix, it is called “repeater"). When new items are added or edited in the database, the changes are reflected on the site instantly—no need to manually update individual pages.