VueStorefront Hackaton #4 Experience and My Contributions

A few days ago I noticed an Instagram feed that the VueStorefront Hackaton #4 happens. It was a post from BitBull team with a date and the location of the event. For me it was a short notice and I decided to participate in the hackaton remotely.

This is a story of my experience participating in the VueStorefront Hackaton #4, VueStorefront - a headless Progressive Web Application for e-Commerce.

What is VueStorefront?

VueStorefront is an open source project based on VueJS. The purpose of this project is to enable headless Progressive Web Application experience for e-Commerce websites. This is a standalone storefront which allows to connect to an any e-Commerce backend system including Magento 1 and Magento 2, Pimcore/CoreShop, BigCommerce, Prestashop and Shopware.

VueStorefront is a fully API driven allowing to support any backend whether it is an e-commerce, B2B platform or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

VueStorefront is the number one open-source Progressive Web Application for e-commerce on GitHub with almost 4,000 stars.

VueStorefront Features

VueStorefront provides a native mobile experience which feels like a mobile app. It includes an app style navigation and interaction.

Full screen

VueStorefront allows to hide browser top url bar and bottom navigation menu when using it on a mobile phone. It gives a real mobile app experience for customers.

Home screen

With a VueStorefront storefront as your website, customers can simply access from their mobile home screen without opening a browser and searching for your website. Really handy capability which increases customer satisfaction.

Push notifications

VueStorefront allows to enable push notifications and provide a one click opt-in experience for your customers.

Offline mode

Most importantly, VueStorefront supports an offline mode capability. It allows your customers to browse and even place order while having no internet connection on a mobile phone.

Meeting VueStorefront

My first experience with the VueStorefront storefront came in late 2018, when I decided to see it in action. I was impressed about the speed and the possibilities it gives to merchants. At that time I didn’t have a goal to learn new yet another JavaScript language. As you may guess from the name of the storefront that it uses VueJS.

For 2019 I set myself a goal to learn how my team can benefit from Progressive Web Application. I decided to start from myself and get hands dirty with one of solutions, which happen to be VueStorefront.

I know Divante CEO and CTO in person and I’ve seen their effort pushing this VueStorefront as an open source platform. So I thought, why not give it a try, especially with my plan to build payment integrations with a Progressive Web Application support.

The VueStorefront video I made back in 2018 called Why should you check VueStorefront made viral and I really wanted to somehow join the community and learn something new.

And here we are, I joined VueStorefront team as a Community Contributor.

The VueStorefront Hackaton #4

Few things you have to remember if you would like to join a hackaton and contribute:

  • Your motivation to contribute will empower you and your skills, even if you are like me, beginner in this field.
  • It is okay to contribute remotely, VueStorefront community is very open and friendly.
  • There are no single silly question you should afraid to ask. All questions are good especially when you contribute and want to bring some clearness and understanding on the best way to deliver a fix or a feature.

Filip Rakowski sent me an invitation to VueStorefront Community Slack channel where the crowd discuss questions and help each other with the things related to contributions.

As I am a beginner with VueJS without prior experience, obviously I could take a super complex feature and for the next few weeks spend all my time trying to figure out the right path. I found a ticket which I thought is easy enough for me to work on and deliver it in the scope of the VueStorefront Hackaton #4.

After some time I did created my first pull request and merged it to the develop branch. The thing is, I just wanted to contribute, and I did it. I’ve also asked numerous questions via Slack as I knew someone would help me and I would finish the work on time.

From now on, one more community member with the desire and huge motivation to contribute has born in the VueStorefront space.

Special thanks to Filip Rakowski for finding and confirming one of the tickets I can really work on and deliver the pull request, Piotr Karwatka for a great suggestion on improving the pull request and merging it into the develop branch and #help channel peeps who answered all my junior questions.

VueStorefront Contributions

Feel free to contribute and participate in the creation of VueStorefront - Progressive Web Application. Write to Filip Rakowski directly or send email contributors@vuestorefront.io to be added to VueStorefront Community Slack channel.

Here are links:

My story with VueStorefront officially begins.