The e-commerce is one of the main points of modern software. The e-commerce sector is growing about 15% annually, which is why it deserves special attention from software engineers. Speaking of e-commerce and open source at once is not easy. For many years we have identified the concept with pain and despair, so we must work urgently to change the way we understand it should be. What are the important points to consider? Where do we find the line between architecture and pragmatism? Are we walking in the right direction? How can Symfony help in this?

1. When E-commerce meet Symfony
#SymfonyCon

2. @mmoreram
Elcodi

3. @mmoreram
Co-founder and lead at Elcodi
Organizer of Symfony Barcelona UG
Entrepreneur in AntaiVB - Barcelona
Maintainer of several open source Libs and Bundles
(GearmanBundle, ControllerExtraBundle, Visithor, php-
formatter, PaymentSuite…)

4. About this talk
E-commerce in PHP until 201*
E-commerce project life cycles
Architecture for pragmatic development
Symfony in action
3 tips about Elcodi

5. E-commerce + PHP
until 201*

6. Ideal Marc dialogue
Marc: Hey dude, how are you?
Ideal developer, in an ideal environment with an ideal
amount of money: …

7. Real Marc dialogue
Marc: Hey dude, how are you?
Real developer, in a real environment with a real amount
of money: …

8. What has happened here???

9. PHP Until 201*
PHP Full-stack projects based mostly on final user
needs
Old PHP code without change margin
Technological effort on maintenance over refactoring
Can these projects evolve?

10. PHP Until 201*
From the developer’s point of view…
Configuration
Configuration
Extension + Pain
Configuration

11. PHP Until 201*
No testing
No SOLID principles

12. PHP Until 201*
So… why are they that used?
A lot of users and developers have based their
companies on them (YAY! Me, want!)
BIG and Extremely well created plugin and template
markets
E-commerce with minimum time-to-market

13. Is that enough for me?

14. No is not!
:’(

15. E-commerce life cycle

16. MVP
Minimum Valuable Project
The minimum you need to make sure you can measure the
impact of your application - First stage… ALWAYS!
Small investment (FFF)
Small budget to spend on everything
Perfect for applications with advanced template and plugin
markets

17. MVP
Technology is not used to being important here
And, in fact, it should never be…
Most of times, projects die after this stage because the
market is not ready or the project is not valuable enough
Fast set-up technologies are used here

18. After MVP
Business Angels in action!
Bigger budget than before, but not as big as we’d love to
We can spend a little bit more on technology
This is where we need to make the difference, so…

19. Hello, Custom Business!!!

20. Bye Bye, 90% of all existing
plugins!!!

21. After MVP
This is where a lot of companies start a refactoring
process
This refactoring is used to costing too much money $$$
Everything is for yesterday :’(
Things are done poorly and rapidly
Pain^n

22. Do you know what this causes?

23. Sadness!

24. Frustration!

25. I hate E-commerce!

26. Bye Bye E-commerce!

27. After MVP : #tip
Choosing here your strategy can save your project!
As important as MVP, but even more difficult to manage
Smart decisions will be important

28. When Venture Capital
The amount of money is much bigger (shut up and take
my money…)
We are going to be a player, so our technology must be a
player as well
Time for do all these things you always had in mind
No excuses, you have to hire talent and be responsible

29. But you know what?

30. First of all, you need to
reach that point

31. Pragmatic
Architecture

32. Just some questions…
Is PHP the right platform for that?

33. “is it?”

34. “it is, why not?”

35. Just some questions…
From a technical point of view… what criteria should I
follow about when deciding an E-commerce platform?

36. Do I feel confortable working with it?
Will I be able to born with this project?
Plugins, Templates, User documentation
Will I be able to grow with this project?
Excellent technical documentation, Communication,
Community
Some tips

37. Will I be able to increase my skills as developer using
this technology?
Will I be able to do it… properly?
Will I (as a company) co-exist with this technology?
For how long?
Some tips

38. “Do I feel confortable working
with it?”

39. Just some questions…
Should I test my MVP application?

40. Some tips
Take a tested (or popular) platform when you need to
reach your MVP
If your project is not going to grow, take the project with
the most advanced plugin and template system. Forget
about everything else
You may not care about the roadmap of the project if
your project ends as soon as you finish it

41. Some tips
If your project is LTS, then… tests battery will only tell
you if the initial product works properly
You will really need tests after your MVP, and your
application will be completely different
You will have to do your own tests then. Be ready for that!
That one of the things you could invest on with your new
money :)

42. Just some questions…
What architecture should I use?

43. “What architecture I really need?”

44. Some tips
What architecture allow you to overwrite more easily
Cart, Product, Shipping, Payment
Admin functionalities, integrations, change capacity
What architecture allow your team to understand the business model?
What part of the application handles your business logic? Service layer?
Model? Commands + Controllers + EventListeners + Twig Extensions?
CQRS, Event-Driven Design… do you really know how it works?
Annotations at the beginning, maybe? Easier :)

45. Choose the architecture that
really fits your case

46. Some tips
As soon as your developers (or you) are better, then your
needs will be bigger and stronger
Technology will follow you, not vice versa
Don’t base your E-commerce on practices you don’t
really know how to handle with

47. And the more better you are…

48. … the more alternatives you’ll
find

49. Some tips
Annotations will become bad practices, maybe
You will understand that an Event Listener, for example,
should have 0 business Logic (Same as other entry points)
You will NEED tests in all your developments. Not for the
“tested” badge on Github, but only for you
You will understand as well why ValueObjects are great,
for example

50. Symfony in action

51. Symfony
What parts of Symfony can really help us on our
adventure <E-commerce case>!
Event Dispatcher
Symfony DIC
Tests integrations (PHPUnit, Behat, Visithor…)
Bundles

52. Event Dispatcher
Event-Driven Design is one of the most important things
when you want to build a Plugin-based environment
+Events = +Extension points = +Adopters =
+Integrations

53. DIC
How easy overwriting a service is by registering your
own service with the same name (after the original one)
Good for composition and inheritance
+Easy to overwrite = +Customizations = +Adopters =
+Installations

54. Tests integrations
Integrations with Testing Platforms
Behat Symfony2 Extension (Symfony3?)
Symfony PHPUnit Bridge
VisithorBundle

55. Bundles
Why a bundle is something relevant here?
How a bundle can help when trying to create a Plugin +
Template environment…

56. A Bundle can be a Plugin!

57. 3 tips about Elcodi

58. Elcodi
Set of E-commerce PHP Components
Set of Symfony2 bundles for these components
Project called Bamboo. Full stack E-commerce based on
Elcodi + Symfony components and bundles.
http://github.com/elcodi
By giving us a star is like… Hey guys! You’re cool ;)

59. Elcodi Tip #1
Intended to be a great option for MVPs
Create a Plugin environment on top of Symfony Bundles
Template as a Plugin
Install in less than 2 minutes with Heroku (i.e.)
4 layers of testing

60. Elcodi Tip #1
[Components] PHPUnit for unit testing of our Service
Layer (classes)
[Bundles] PHPUnit for functional testing of our processes
(services, event listeners, event dispatchers…)
[Bamboo] Behat for behavioral testing (user processes…)
[Bamboo] Visithor just for testing the HTTP layer
(responses)

61. Visithor
http://github.com/visithor/VisithorBundle
You only need a single and small YAML file, and some
lines. One per route.
Define your routes by url, url name (Visithor) +
parameters (VitithorBundle)
Authenticate in a Firewall with a ROLE (Admin routes)

62. Visithor

63. Elcodi Tip #2
Intended to be a great option after MVP
Use Symfony ecosystem for evolving your project. No
refactoring needs
The project is built on top of some Best Practices, and is
treated with A LOT OF LOVE
Both developer and final user oriented. No one is less
important than the other one

64. Elcodi Tip #3
Community-Driven. Developers are the brain of any open
source project. Final users are the heart
The more happiness any open source project provides,
the more quality offers
Join us on this adventure :)
http://gitter.im/elcodi/elcodi

65. Elcodi Extra Tip
Elcodi (L) Symfony ^3.0.0 (December 2015)
Elcodi App Market (2016)
And… much, more, soon!
Emanuele Minotto, new Core dev :) Thanks dude!

66. TB;WS

67. TB;WS
Too Boring; Was Sleeping

68. TB;WS
Each E-commerce stage needs different strategies
Check all Symfony E-commerce solutions, and find the
one who REALLY makes you feel comfortable
And if you really love E-commerce… consider getting
involved in one of them, and spread the word :)
and meanwhile… read!

69. Q / A

70. Differences Elcodi - ~^.*$~
Elcodi is a ready-for-production project
We offer both a project and a way of doing, of
understanding open source and collaborative projects
Just make sure you discover this way of doing, and join us
if you really enjoy it
We are still waiting for your feedback and energy :)

71. Thanks!
Gràcies!
@mmoreram