I was looking to use Medusa.js and supabase as an ecommerce backend. (https://medusajs.com/). Is this possible and if so would this be an optimal solution?
Is this Possible?
It looks like there is a store and Admin API, but there is also a seperate Medusa.js client (Medusa JS Client | Medusa) that can be installed via npm. Is the NPM compatible with WeWeb?
(It looks like the client allows one to make human readible requests using javascript, but that one can also make requests via cURL to their REST API. (Medusa Store API Reference) If the NPM pacakage doesn’t work I’m assuming I can just make the the requests via the REST API plugin, while installing the client wallow me to make multiple resquests quickly with a couple of lines of code in Javascript.)
Is it Optimal?
The advantage I see is that medusa comes with a nice product managment system with its own admin interface already built out and all the buisness logic you need to manage products, variants etc.
The other advantage would be that I wouldn’t have to build out a set of API’s to handle the integration between the store and out backend buisness logic since there is good integration between medusa and supbase (Medusa - medusa-file-supabase | Medusa)
If I use Xano with Medusa or anouther headless ecommerce platform I would need to create an API call from WeWeb to Xano then from Xano to Bigcommerce. This would require building and managing a ton of API endpoints, while having a JS client for WeWeb and then an integration into supabase would mean less code to write and manage.
The other advantage I see is speed. I believe that the integration with supabase is not through an API but a direct link (via websocket?) so it would be a lot quicker.
In general I see this as delivering a lot of functionality with a minimum amount of effort, the disadvanatge would be that it requires a lot of javascript since you would be writing the backend logic in Supabase and then using Javascript in workflows in WeWeb.
Can’t say much to your questions so far, but Medusa + WeWeb is something I also want to try. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
That sounds great. DM me your info. I’d love to connect so we can see the best may to approach this and learn from each others mistakes.
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Hi @benFortunato and @andreas!
I’m currently considering the development of a front-end from scratch for an e-commerce site.
I thought about using MedusaJS as the main CMS, along with their admin dashboard on a subdomain, and WeWeb with the MedusaJS API for the front-end. Another option would be to build the entire e-commerce platform and logic using Xano and WeWeb. However, I’m not 100% sure which route to take right now.
Do you have any updates regarding this?
I would not underestimate how much work goes into making an e-commerce system. We did some work on building out some of the logic just through the way we structured our relational database, but there are a ton of features that you will need in order to create a usable e-commerce site. You will need to have variants, size color etc and figure out how the pricing will work with these and how they interact. You’ll need support for an hierarchical categories and a way to organize all the product info if you want to search or filter by features. You might need inventory management and some sort of sales tracking.
You are better off looking at a e-commerce specific solution unless you have some unique customizations like we did since this is a procurement app for the construction industry. Anouther route would be to use Medusa.js and then work with a template from vercel. You will need to get a developer to work on any customizations.
We are in the process of hosting Medusa.js on AWS elastic beanstalk and either connecting it to WeWeb or retool. Our app in primarily a client portal for procurement. I would not use retool for consumer facing apps given their pricing model
Overall, we’ve been happy with We Web, but we need a more robust data grid that has support for hierarchical data and our team prefers to work in react. I’m gonna run some tests and see how Retool performs compared to WeWeb
I think this is one of the myths of the no code movement. By the time you build out everything you need to a no code you’re gonna have spent as much time as you would have doing this from a robust template and I’m not sure that the product is going to be any better.
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In my case, I’m also going to create an online store, I did it with Supabase and the structures went very smoothly. I created a good policy structure so that only those who have permission can edit the price, product, stock, etc. and I created a policy-free view of the products with only the columns necessary to appear to the customer. So I use just one table (view) that the customer can do everything (search for products, filter products).
But it is important to always think about the structure and security you are going to do because we have some points such as:
Several anonymous people will be accessing it, and there may be people with bad intentions, so make sure you create a good policy structure in the tables, and in the view you only leave information for customers and not just filter the columns you want, because the user can access the other columns via the api.
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and there are techniques to prevent many requests if the user keeps restarting the page too, if you want to know, tell me!!
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It’s less about the permissions and more about all the other features you need to create an e-commerce site. If it’s bare bones then this approach could work. Dealing with hierarchical data like categories or something like multiple variants will prove challenging, especially with no-code.
If you are trying to run a buisness you need to think about everything you need to operate. How do I handle returns? What about discounts? How do I track orders / fulfillment? How do I track COGS, fulfillment costs and margin to make sure I’m making money. How do I integrate with accounting? How can I export data?
Putting products on a page is the top of the iceberg.
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