Marketplace and logistics platforms · Build

Every kind of user in one marketplace codebase

Q: Is hiding a screen enough to protect it?

No. Hiding a route in the client only organizes the interface, and anyone who calls the API directly goes around it. That is why the API checks every request on its own.

Q: Can a call center act for other users?

Yes. On the truck-services marketplace the call center was a user type of its own, with its own roles, and its operators worked on behalf of other users.

If each new type of user has meant another app, we give each its own screens and permissions. On a US truck-services marketplace, five types share one codebase.

Tell us about your project See the proof

EngagementHourly · remote

Hours9–18 CET · 4 h overlap

StackReact · Redux · Next.js

Proof4 case studies

The service in 4 parts

01 · Who it’s for

A marketplace or directory where people on different sides do different jobs: some sell, some buy, and some act on behalf of others. Often it is already running, and each new type of user has so far meant another app or another pile of conditions in the code.

02 · What we’ve built

Subscriptions and consumer payments on that marketplace went through Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay. A successful, a failed and an upcoming charge each sent the customer a different message.

03 · How we work

01 · PERMISSIONSEach user type has its own set of routes, so what a type may do can be read in one place instead of being pieced together from conditions across the interface.

02 · PERMISSION MODELWe write it down as one table of user types against actions. On the truck-services marketplace the model lived only in the routes and the API, so every new developer had it explained out loud.

04 · Stack

ReactReduxNext.jsNode.jsExpressMySQLInfluxDBAWS LambdaSQS

Proof

Where we’ve done this before

All 18 case studies

Case study 08 · Marketplace506 routesA US marketplace for truck services, where each user type has its own routes and what a user may do depends on both their type and their role. The 506 API routes are split into two separate sets, public and admin.Read the case study →Case study 07 · Marketplace6 jobsSix daily jobs handle renewal, downgrades, dunning and re-engagement for the marketplace’s annual advertising, and apply the same rules to every account.Read the case study →Case study 06 · Marketplace~180 typesAround 180 event types that track what an advertiser pays for, from the position where a listing appeared to the phone call it brought in.Read the case study →Case study 04 · MarketplaceZero outagesThrough four years and four phases of work, the same marketplace never went offline.Read the case study →

FAQ

Questions about this service

Should each user type get its own app?

We keep one codebase and give each user type its own set of routes. Separate apps look tidier for about six months. After that, every shared change has to be made five times, and sooner or later one copy gets missed.

Is hiding a screen enough to protect it?

Can a call center act for other users?

All services47 services, most of them backed by a case study.Back to services →How we decideEach option’s five-year cost and the point where the recommendation changes.See how we decide →

Next step

Describe the problem and we’ll come back with three options.

The first call takes 30 minutes, and you’re under no obligation.

Tell us about your project contact@microtech.consulting