Problem

One of our company's biggest web products is a custom ordering site with an included CRM. These are usually very laborious to set up due to the custom requirements set by each client.

Solution

I created a customizable template for bootstrapping these projects that uses a configuration table in the database to toggle features on or off. This gives us the ability to initialize a new project in an afternoon rather than 2-3 weeks. It's not perfect, but is actively developed and improved every day.

Features

I built a custom, dynamic, MSSQL-based faceted filter system for the items. It uses an EAV -type system, which some consider to be an anti-pattern, but our clients generally don't have a high quantity of items. The performance really doesn't begin to suffer until there are tens of thousands of items in the database.

The item details page has many features - a slideshow will appear when multiple images or videos are added, attached documents and external links, child items or item variants will show when present, etc.

Different payment and shipping options can be configured easily in the database. There is also an option to customize shipping rates based on items, quantities, shipping locations, etc. Sales tax is handled by Taxjar.

The back-end of the CRM, or Business Center, as we call it, has a lot going on: user/item/filter setup, customer search and management, lead entry/follow-up, Tableau report access, among many other features.

I built a user impersonation system that allows administrative users to log in as other users. This is helpful for debugging issues and placing orders for customers.

I added a convenience page for configuring each site. The highlight here is the build-a-bear style rights system. The template has many pre-configured abilities that can be grouped together into rights and then assigned to users. This solves a big problem we had with each site having such unique user right requirements.

Stack

• Node
• MSSQL
• Express
• Handlebars
• jQuery
• SCSS

Links

• Website Link - Although this is just a demo site, it is mostly behind a login wall and I can't let you in. Sorry!