The Sharetribe Web Template: Thoughts from a new DA

Hi 👋 I'm Amanda, and I'm the newest member of the Sharetribe Developer Advocacy team! For a bit of background on myself - I obtained my engineering degree from Metropolia UAS in 2021, specializing in Smart Systems. I have been working as a software developer since. Prior to moving to Finland, I worked many jobs ranging from manufacturing, to customer support in retail, to assisting nurses in hospitals. As you may have read in our introduction blog post, the DA role combines programming, problem solving, and support which align so well with the majority of my working experience - it felt serendipitous when I came across the DA opening ✨

So far, what I like most about working as a DA with Sharetribe is that I get to help people solve their problems. Nothing is better than seeing someone get the help they need, especially considering Sharetribe’s clientele has such a high number of small businesses. It’s so nice being able to use my programming experience in support, and knowing that eventually I can help contribute to the Sharetribe Web Template to give our clients an even better start to their marketplace journey.

Fast forward to today - I’ve just completed my third month here at Sharetribe, and I wanted to share my first impressions working with the Template. Particularly - useful tools, processes and procedures I found more straightforward/difficult, things to pay attention to, and just in general my overall experience jumping in and creating my own Sharetribe marketplace.

My development toolkit

First and foremost, the Sharetribe team does an excellent job at documentation. I had noticed this already during my interview exercises, but now after working more extensively with the Template, I truly appreciate the effort that has been put into creating and maintaining such a great repository of articles, guides and general documentation. I use the Docs site every day both in support and when making modifications on my own test marketplace. 

Specifically I want to shout out the Tutorials and How-to guides. I believe these are fantastic for learning, as they touch the most important areas of the code related to the most common customizations. I personally think it’s a good idea to go through the full tutorial, even if the features outlined aren’t ones you want to ultimately add to your marketplace - they set a good foundation for further development. The How-to guides (there are quite many of these) can be used more for targeted feature implementation.

Secondly, I can't stress enough the usefulness of browser developer tools to investigate Template elements, monitor network activity, and diagnose issues. Just like documentation, I use developer tools every day that I am working on my own marketplace, as well as pretty regularly when investigating tickets - especially for clients who have opted for using custom code.

✅Amanda’s recommendation: Going through the tutorial will serve as a good basis for understanding how everything in the Template works together, and will help when it comes time to add your own customizations. Use the How-to guides for more specific feature implementation assistance. Actively utilise browser developer tools.

Where friction was low

Overall the code structure is quite straightforward, and uses an easy-to-follow format. In the source directory you’ll find:

• The app.js file with tests and examples, as well an index file, and files for reducers/Redux store
• Directories for: analytics, assets, components, config, containers, context, ducks, routing, styles, transactions, translations and utils

The directory names are straightforward and do a good job of describing their respective contents, however I’d like to highlight a few that might not be as apparent from name alone:

• Components - contains reusable, stylised code components e.g. buttons, forms, icons, etc.
• Containers - mostly consists of specific pages e.g. checkout, listing, inbox pages, etc.
• Ducks - contains redux logic for various processes by tying together actions and reducers, see this Redux code structure article
  

Becoming familiar with the file structure can help you more easily diagnose issues, or know where best to place new features/make customizations. As mentioned above, using browser developer tools to inspect page elements in your marketplace can help solidify this knowledge. There is also a fair amount of in-code documentation that does a good job of explaining the more complex parts of the code, while offering guidance for customization.

Sharetribe’s CLI (Command-line interface) is another extremely useful tool. It is easy to get started with, and contains good in-line and reference documentation for ease of use. It helps you to customise your marketplace search schema, as well as allowing you to investigate events for more informative troubleshooting. This article is a great resource for learning how to use the CLI effectively as an analytical tool, and is one I refer back to regularly in my support work.

✅Amanda’s recommendation: Become familiar with where important elements of the Template live. Also, actively inspect elements using the browser developer tools against the Template file structure. Spend some time playing with the CLI to get used to setting search schemas and inspecting events.

The learning curve

There were a few things that I personally found a bit more difficult when getting started. Despite the codebase being structured nicely as mentioned, it is still quite a large repo with lots of code. This can be a little overwhelming at first, but gets much easier to navigate when pairing a better understanding of the code structure with utilizing browser development tools.

Additionally, I do not come from a marketplace background and had some trouble when it came to specific terminology - 👀 looking at you, Line Items - and understanding transaction processes, for example. It’s taken me some time to get to a point where I feel more comfortable addressing these types of support tickets, and implementing new transaction processes into my own marketplace. Moving forward, it is a goal of mine to practice developing more complex transaction processes and getting more comfortable with differing flows.

It is also important to understand the distinction between roles - operators, providers, and customers. This can sometimes get a little tricky when in custom development, especially when working with more advanced transactions. Simply put:

• Operators - those who run a marketplace
• Providers - those who offer products/services in a marketplace
• Customers - those who purchase or book products/services in a marketplace
  

Then there is also Sharetribe-specific terminology. Console development vs. custom coding has been a learning experience as well - understanding what changes to make where is vital to having a more enjoyable experience during your marketplace development. I think studying the options available in Console gives a good foundation for this understanding - largely these are configurations and content. Referring back to the Sharetribe architecture diagram is really helpful.

✅Amanda’s recommendation: Become familiar with general marketplace terms, user roles, and the differences between Console and Template development. 

Final thoughts and recommendations

Overall, while Sharetribe offers a lot of features going the no-code route, customizing the Template can be well worth the time and effort to make your marketplace stand out and offer your customers a wider range of interactions. It may have a high learning curve, but there is an abundance of articles, guides and general documentation to help you along the way.

To recap my recommendations:

• Do the full tutorial and take your time - it will pay off later! Use the How-to articles for specific topics and actively employ the use of browser developer tools.
• Familiarize yourself with the Template structure and use browser developer tools to inspect page elements. Invest time into learning the basics of the CLI.
• Become familiar with general marketplace terms, user roles, and the differences between Console and Template development.
• Study basic marketplace terms/processes and learn the standard user roles. Solidify your understanding of what should be developed in console vs custom code.

Don't get discouraged when working with the Template! It can be a tad heavy at first - it has taken me some months now of working with it consistently to get to a place where I feel fairly comfortable. The more you investigate and practice, the more familiar and easier to work with it will become. We at Sharetribe are here to support you along your custom code journey, either in the form of documentation, guides/articles, or through the chat widget. Don't hesitate to reach out and share your thoughts and issues, we'll get it sorted together! 💪

Thank you for taking the time to read about my experience - I hope to provide an update to this article after some more time here at Sharetribe when I will be even more comfortable working with the Template. In the meantime, let us know if any of this has resonated with you and if you have also faced your own challenges - we'd be happy to hear your experiences!