Cluster GO:Core

Enterprise plugin for WooCommerce stores that synchronizes their product catalogs and sales data with a suite of supported Greek-market-oriented ERP software.

Cluster GO:Core is a product of Cluster CIS used by 70+ businesses, with flavors that support 3 ERP software solutions that are prominent in the Greek market.

My involvement as a lead engineer for the project includes code development, oversight of contributions to the core and of the development of extensions, and direct communication with clients.

Standout features include the efficient use of the WordPress/WooCommerce APIs and the database —as opposed to other solutions that rely on costly intermediary servers and storage— as well as an extension system for addons and on-demand features.

Technical overview

Backend

• PHP with use of WordPress APIs comprises the most part of the backend.
• The GO:Core extension APIs build upon the WordPress hook system.
• The WooCommerce REST API is used for CRUD operations on WooCommerce entities.
• Action Scheduler provides a library for scalable background processing.
• Synchronization with the ERP applications involves calling their HTTP JSON API services.
• A subscription management system built on Drupal accompanies the product.

Frontend

• Custom theming with vanilla CSS and minimal usage of Bootstrap utilities for the grid system.
• jQuery and AJAX are employed to build interactive UI components.

Also, Select2 is used for powerful dropdown UIs, and wp.template for Underscore.js style template rendering.

Tooling

• Bash scripts are relied upon for building, making translations, and deploying to local environments.
• GitLab CI/CD pipelines orchestrate the build and release processes with use of custom Docker images.
• PHP Code Sniffer is used for linting.
• Documentation is built with PHP Documentor.