Social platform with open marketplace and own crypto-currency (B-coins)
- service-oriented, RESTful, Web API architecture;
- high performance: scalability + high speed;
- safe data migration & performant 3rd-party integrations.
Technologies
Node.js, Web API Architecture, OrienteDB, Web Sockets, Braintree API, PayPal API, Amazon Web Services, MySQL, jQuery, CSS3, HTML5
THE CONTEXT
Our Client
Our client is a renowned "globetrotter" with a great experience in understanding specific markets in various countries, constantly seeking opportunities to launch start-ups and monetize their online businesses ideas.
First interaction with Roweb
We had been working with the client since 2012 on the first version of a social commerce application. Our client approached us with a business idea that relied on social networking to create an open, free marketplace for micro-businesses all over the world.
Client’s needs/goals
The client asked us to transition to Node.js to improve Ezebee’s performance, primarily on mobile devices, given its constantly increasing traffic and need for scalability and higher speed. The transition was to be made seamlessly through data migration, and it would also involve a simplified user interface.
The solution
The project Ezebee (social platform & marketplace) was developed in 2 versions (V01 - in 2012 | V02 in 2016).
Version 1
They wanted to develop a self-marketing platform where members create their own product showrooms, buy or sell products, join specific communities and interact seamlessly.
Version 2
The client asked us to transition to Node.js to improve Ezebee’s performance, primarily on mobile devices, given its constantly increasing traffic and need for scalability and higher speed.
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Ezebee - V01
We combined a robust social network with a responsive online selling platform to deliver a set of intuitive, useful tools to vendors around the world:
- Full integration of Facebook APl with the following possible actions: sign up, login, post products, and Facebook page tab application;
- Twitter signup and login;
- Integrated tools to increase brands' SEO visibility and social networking website link sharing for brand marketing;
- Possibility to join discussions within the community or establish connections with other business owners;
- Implementation of Ezebee's own payment system - the beecoin.
Ezebee - V02
For the first Ezebee version, we used an MVC architecture based on Zend framework, with a relational SQL database.
To achieve the client's improvements needed for version 2, we adopted a service-oriented, RESTful, Web API architecture based on a Sails.js framework, in Node.js and the back-end relied on OrientDB (a NoSQL graph database) which enabled the use of Elastic Search. The UI was implemented in Knockout.js and we used Web Sockets to support real-time chat.
We used Braintree and PayPal APIs to allow money transfers, directly through the chat application.
We created a dynamic search system using tags’ popularity scores, preloading results, suggesting criteria to refine the search and loading the results at a very high speed. The graph database and the tag weighting system - depending on how many products are associated with that tag - enabled faster and more flexible categorisation of products.
Both v1 and v2 used MySQL, jQuery, CSS3, and HTML5, as well as Amazon Web Services hosting.
Features and functionalities:
For the second version of the application we developed the following features:
- Guided smart search: autocomplete option & results are listed by trend factors, popularity, and trustworthiness of the seller;
- Popularity search ranking algorithm and tag system;
- 4 basic offer types: Products, Rentals, Services, and Courses
- Prices are converted in real-time into any selected currency for easy price comparison.
- "Chat-to-buy" system instead of "shopping carts" make transactions faster, more transparent and doesn't require Terms and Conditions or other legal information;
- Possibility to transfer files or money directly through the chat application;
- B-Coins serve as gift and discount points on ezebee.com. Sellers can purchase, transfer or cash out B-coins to a PayPal account, from which they can transfer it for free to any bank account or CC;
- Automated translation for offers, chats, and comments.
- Possibility to import offers directly from other websites like Etsy, DaWanda, ArtFire, Amazon, Airbnb by just entering their product link;
- The seller can choose to either link to another shop or to his "chat-to-buy" messenger;
- Presentation options: in addition to the image gallery, users can now upload PDFs, videos, and sound files;
- Sellers' pages and all their offers and content are highly SEO optimized;
- Offers, events, and blog posts can be simultaneously shared with one click to Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and Twitter.
Technologies
Project team
For the second version, we used Scrum with 3 weeks' Sprints, based on priorities set by the
Product Owner (for project management) and our team included 8 specialists:
Scrum master
Developers
UX Designers
PROJECT EVOLUTION
Comparison: V01 vs V02
We had been working with the client since 2012 on the first version of a social commerce application. In 2016, the client asked us to transition to Node.js to improve Ezebee’s performance, primarily on mobile devices, given its constantly increasing traffic and need for scalability and higher speed.
Team size
We adapted the team structure as the project grew and became more complex. While for the initial version the development relied on 3 developers, for version 02 we used 1 scrum master, 1 UX designer and 6 developers.
Technologies
For Ezebee version 1 we had used an MVC architecture based on a Zend framework with a relational SQL database. To achieve the improvements that the client needed for version 2, we adopted a service-oriented, RESTful, Web API architecture based on a Sails.js framework, in Node.js and the back-end relied on a NoSQL, graph database, OrientDB, which enabled ElasticSearch.
We first approached Roweb with a broad description of the social commerce platform we had envisioned and we were happy to find that they quickly grasped the concept and were as excited about it as we were. What we liked best about working with them is the fact that they delivered a tight-knit team that’s used to working together efficiently, instead of individual developers, as it is the case with many staff augmentation services providers.Read more
Ossian Vogel
Co-founder, CEO