Customising on Scale & Enterprise

There are two different solutions that our customers can use to configure, customise and operate their marketplaces. Depending on your needs, we would recommend either the SCALE or Enterprise.

The SCALE package comes with Arcadier’s Core template solution, while the Enterprise package consists of the API web template solution, along with other customisation tools, resources and support.

Choosing between the SCALE & Enterprise

We recommend the Arcadier Core template solution ( SCALE package) for users who only require simple customisation, such as tweaking the existing front-end design, editing existing process flows, and slight logic changes. API web template (Enterprise) is more suited to customers who require heavy customisation and integration a headless commerce solution, or a complete reconstruction of the consumer/merchant portal. While the ability of customisation differs in both solutions, it does not make one superior to the other. Ultimately, your decision should be based upon the type of customisations, and the level of security l and service support you require for your marketplace. When in doubt, please contact our sales support for further clarification.

You may refer to the summary below for the customisation methods available for each solution. We highly recommend reading this article in full to understand Arcadier’s solution and choose the package best suited for you.

 

Subscription Solution Template Customisation methods
SCALE Arcadier Core template Bespoke
  • This is where the retail goods template is build on
Spacetime
  • This is where service bookings, rental goods, location bookings templates are build on
  • Public plug-ins
  • Private plug-ins for Admin, Merchant & Consumer portal
  • 3rd party app: Mobile apps only
  • Webhooks does not work on the Arcadier core template. Refer to JS custom triggers for example
  • Only PHP & JS allowed
  • PHP SDK only
Enterprise API web template A single API web template that allows different flows depending on the config file
  • B2C flow
  • B2B flow
  • Service/rental flow
  • Private plug-ins for Admin
  • Any 3rd party apps
  • Mobile apps
  • Customisation built into the API web template
  • PHP & Node SDKs

Customising on Arcadier Core template (SCALE)

Arcadier Core template is fundamentally different from the API web template. The Core template is not built on APIs and you do not have access to the source codes. Therefore, the only way to you can customise your marketplace is via additional code on top of the existing Core template. This can be achieved through Custom Codes (CSS, HTML , JS), plug-ins (JS, PHP) or building a mobile app (APIs).

 

Custom codes

On the Arcadier Core template, you can modify the buyer, merchant and admin portal using custom codes. If the customisation is complicated, we recommend the use of plug-ins instead.

 

Plug-ins

The recommended way to customise your Core template marketplace is via plug-ins. They are additional codes that a developer can create, zip and upload onto Arcadier’s Marketplaces. Ideally, the plug-ins would be built using Arcadier’s APIs and work by calling the existing frontend classes from the Core template. Plug-ins are typically used to alter the functionality of the user portal (buyer, merchant) and admin portal.

A plug-in would be needed when you're dealing with huge and extremely segmented code, which may include calls done in PHP (secure code/information). Plug-ins can only be written in JS or PHP language. JS is a client-side language and is recommended for front-end and design changes (e.g. displaying custom fields on the merchant’s storefront). PHP plug-ins load from Arcadier server-side and can be used for handling sensitive information and secure code (e.g. custom payment flows or creating a new page). You can also refer to the PHP SDK to help with your development.

Please refer to the article “Building my first plug-in” on instructions on how to create a plug-in, the process to take and the rules to take note. It is very important for you to read the article in great detail to prevent facing difficulties during development in the future.

 

Mobile apps

Arcadier does not allow the building of any external 3rd party apps on the SCALE package other than buyer/merchant mobile apps. If you require a mobile app for your marketplace, please contact us and we will recommend a seasoned developer partner.

 

JS Custom Triggers (non-API)

Since the Core template is not built on APIs, and our event triggers/webhooks only work on APIs, you can only use JS custom triggers to perform similar outcomes. These JS custom triggers act like a listener to detect events that happen on Arcadier's front-end. We have created a few examples of how these JS custom triggers look like and you can refer to them here.

Customisation on Web API template (Enterprise)

Arcadier Web API template is a pre-made webpage that emulates all existing marketplace flows using our APIs. This cuts down development time as there is no need to build the entire marketplace experience from scratch. The key benefit of the Web API template allows you to customise it freely as the source codes are provided.

Plug-ins

On the Enterprise solution, the user (buyer and merchants) files are replaced by the Web API template. Hence, plug-ins do not work on the API template’s user pages (Buyer and Merchant portals) as the Admin portal is still on the Arcadier Core template. Plug-ins should be used to alter the functionality of the admin portal.

Plug-ins can be written in JS or PHP language. JS is a client-side language and is recommended for front-end and design changes (e.g. displaying custom fields on merchant storefront). PHP plug-ins load from Arcadier server-side and can be used for sensitive information and secure code (e.g. custom payment flows or building a new page).

Please refer to the article “Building my first plug-in for instructions on how to create a plug-in, the process to take and the rules to take note. It is very important for you to read the article in great detail to prevent difficulties during development in the future.

 

3rd party apps & Mobile apps

You can build and integrate into external 3rd party apps or build mobile apps on the Enterprise package.

 

Event Trigger & Webhooks

Arcadier has set events in key flows of the marketplace (e.g. Successfully completing a checkout) called event triggers. Each time the specific Arcadier API that has the event trigger is called, a POST request can be sent to your webhook with a payload containing relevant information about the event.https://api.arcadier.com/webhook

 

Arcadier SDKs

Arcadier has 80+ APIs that enable you to customise your marketplace, whether via a Plug-In or an app built from scratch. Our SDKs perform as a wrapper that removes the need for developers to build HTTP requests from scratch, resulting in fewer lines of code but achieving the same result.

Currently, Arcadier has SDKs in two languages: PHP and Node.js. More languages will be added over time for increased developer access.