After successfully launching the StormHub Apps just a few months ago, we are thrilled to announce the arrival of the second solution powered by the StormHub Engine: Lilybrews. Lilybrews is a cutting-edge platform that revolutionizes the way beers are ordered and enjoyed by allowing users to pre-order batches that haven't even been brewed yet.
The primary goal of Lilybrews is to provide breweries with a risk-free avenue to showcase and offer their beers without the uncertainties associated with large-scale production. By eliminating the need for breweries to produce beers that may be difficult to sell, Lilybrews offers a streamlined and efficient solution for both breweries and beer enthusiasts alike.
For consumers, Lilybrews offers unparalleled convenience in finding and purchasing their favorite beers or discovering new ones they are eager to try. With a wide selection of pre-order options, beer lovers can explore various breweries and flavors, enhancing their beer-drinking experience.
Looking ahead, the vision for Lilybrews extends beyond being a mere platform for pre-ordering beers. The team behind it aspires to create a vibrant community that brings together beer enthusiasts from around the world. This centralized platform will empower users to exchange valuable feedback, contribute to the development of new beer batches, and ultimately elevate the art of beer brewing to new heights.
High-level architecture
From a high-level perspective, the entire solution is structured as a collection of interconnected microservices. Many of these components are standardized parts of the StormHub Engine, encompassing tasks such as user management, communication, logging, and public endpoints. Additionally, a few specialized components are dedicated to fulfilling specific needs, such as the beer batch management service and the front-end application.
This architecture allows us to effectively address all of Lilybrews' requirements and position the entire solution for future scalability and the seamless integration of new functionalities.
SEO optimization
One of the key requirements for this solution was to prioritize SEO optimization. Given that Lilybrews is a web application, it was crucial to optimize all content not only for an enhanced user experience but also for achieving the best SEO rankings. This requirement becomes even more significant as every brewery has the ability to create its own page where it can promote its unique beers. This implies that they should have a certain level of control over the content they publish, particularly regarding their brewery, beer batches, and most importantly, their beers.
To address this, we made the decision to separate the front-end site application and develop it in a manner that optimizes content delivery. This was primarily achieved through a well-balanced combination of real-time API calls and server-side rendering technology (SSR). By using this approach, we aimed to ensure that Lilybrews' web content is visually appealing and performs exceptionally well in terms of SEO optimization.
E-commerce component
When it comes to the main functionality of Lilybrews, which involves pre-ordering beer batches, we recognized the need to incorporate all the common e-commerce functionalities. From order management to configuring different delivery methods, we made the decision to develop a new standard Engine module—an e-commerce component.
When combined with the billing component, you can effortlessly build complex e-commerce solutions in no time, benefiting from all the default advantages that come with the rest of our Engine and platform.
Internationalization
In the first phase, Lilybrews is targeting the Belgium market, which means that supporting at least two languages from the beginning is essential. With the StormHub Engine, internationalization is a standard component that allows solution owners to easily manage labels, text, and even entire content in multiple languages.
From a technical perspective, labels are implemented during the building process of front-end applications. In simple terms, when the application is built, the latest translation JSONs are downloaded from the storage and applied to the front-end, ensuring accurate translations.
For larger blocks of text, the solution retrieves texts from the backend services. This also applies to HTML-based content blocks. To ensure efficient delivery to end-users, both texts and content blocks are fetched through a cache layer, optimizing the speed of delivery.
It's important to emphasize that all three translation layers—labels, texts, and contents—can be managed through the admin user interface.
Summary
Lilybrews is the perfect use case where we had the privilege to develop a comprehensive solution from scratch to a fully operational, production-ready state in an impressively short span of time. What's even more significant is that the entire solution has a robust foundation that enables seamless scalability, not just in terms of user base, but also in terms of incorporating additional functionalities and expanding into new markets worldwide.
Join us on this exciting journey as we redefine the way beers are discovered, ordered, and enjoyed. Let's raise our glasses to the future of beer brewing with Lilybrews.
Cheers!