Review
"Wow that's amazing you've been so helpful, I am very grateful."
Gary Watkinson
@Scottish Horse Auctions
This is a Bubble.io development for the auction industry. It is multi-tenanted Saas which provides auctioneers with a range of mature tools to help them run online and live auctions.
We choose a No Code platform because it gave us the opportunity to really concentrate on making sure the tools we created for auction management would be well thought out and intuitive to use.
Building an auction platform is complex. Building it as a Saas adds in an extra level of complexity.
Auction platforms have to be precise, very scalable and resilient. But, and this is often under estimated, they have to come with a good set of tools. Auctioneers have a lot of admin to do to create and manage an auction.
During the auction set up the auction management tools are what matter. During the auction and post-auction reporting and invoice generation are the key areas for the auctioneer.
But above all reliability is key
Segregating auctioneer data - we built a self identification model where the app identified the auctioneer website being used at any particular time and passed that to Bubble security model to display only the data that needs be displayed to the user.
Scalability & resilient - we have built auctions systems in the past using structured languages (such as Java), so we knew the challenges.
They key with all apps and especially Bubble is to use the data model wisely and efficiently. Only call data when you need it, and don't repeatedly get data. Get it once and use it wisely.
There were many complex challenges that needed to be overcome in building this app:
Creating a secure and segregated data model
Building an efficient and scalable database
Using database triggers to create an efficient bidding process and fast UX
Providing a set of workflows where data was only used when needed and didn't slow down under load.
Taking in to account the over workload and work units consumed when operating the auction platform at scale.
Providing upgrade paths and feature segregation according to subscription level.
We had a list of features to think about outside the core app to make this work as a Saas:
Providing a 14 day trial and full sign up process for auctioneers to use the platform
Using the full Stripe API to manage the subscription model, including trials and monthly recurring payments.
Permission to mange product levels and features based up subscriptions models.
Integrating a DNS API to manage and automate the domain name process.
Managing multiple domains on one app to give unique & custom domain names for auctioneers signing up to use the platform.
Onboarding and offboarding accounts.