A Custom Web App, Mobile App and Website designed and developed by Outsourcify

Web App - Reservation System: The API

The ComAdvisor project serves as a centralized Application Programming Interface (API) across various environments, encompassing an administration interface, a widget, a mobile application, and a system for creating and managing websites, in addition to a public website. Further details on each component will be provided at a later date. Notably, this API plays a pivotal role as a central hub for two distinct brands: Bons Restaurants in France and Aroi Restaurants in Thailand, functioning as the driving force that unifies and synchronizes these two entities.

As we delve into the project’s history, ComAdvisor has been in existence for some time. The initial version of the API was developed by Outsourcify in 2018, with the integration of Reserve With Google taking place in 2022. During this period, the ComAdvisor project already boasted a substantial number of restaurants, necessitating a migration process. Given that the technology choice had initially favored PHP and its Symfony framework, we maintained continuity by transitioning from Symfony 4 to the Symfony 6 version.

Aroi Restaurants widget and Reserve with Google

The system equips restaurateurs with two efficient tools to streamline their operations and enhance time management: a widget for customers to reserve a table with ease and the Reserve with Google system, which allows direct reservations through Google Maps. The widget provides restaurateurs with exceptional flexibility, allowing them to place it strategically—whether in social media posts with a direct link, on their website using an iFrame system, or seamlessly integrating it into WordPress CMS with a downloadable plugin for easy display on-site pages.

Whether utilizing the widget or Reserve with Google, we empower restaurateurs to efficiently organize their opening times by room and service, enhancing customer navigation. An additional widget functionality focuses on reviews; a day after their meal, customers receive an email with a link to share their opinions, and these reviews can be prominently displayed using the widget. The development of the widget interface was accomplished using VueJs.

The notifications and automation tasks

When developing this platform, our main objective was to simplify the work of restaurateurs as much as possible. This is why we implemented notification and automation systems.

For example, when a customer makes a reservation via the widget (or Reserve with Google), the system instantly sends a notification on the mobile application, an email, and an SMS to the restaurateur to inform him of the new reservation. The restaurateur simply uses the mobile app to approve or reject the reservation, and can also perform this action by clicking on the link provided in the email.

Other notifications are also integrated, such as reservation cancellations.

For the customer’s convenience, we have set up an e-mail system to notify them when their reservation has been sent, and when the restaurateur has approved or rejected it. In addition, customers receive an email a few hours before their meal to remind them of the details of their reservation.

We have also developed a rating system. The day after their meal, customers receive an e-mail containing a link enabling them to add a review and a rating for their experience of the previous day.

Other more technical automations are also integrated through the use of CronJobs. These include, for example, the process of rebuilding the BonsRestaurants and Aroi Restaurants public sites, as well as the execution of recurring tasks necessary for the smooth running of the Reserve with the Google system.

The data migration from the V1 to V2 and redirects

When creating a website, or even a platform like this one, a migration phase is often unavoidable. This involves transferring existing data to the new system. In the case of Aroi Restaurants, this step was essential, as Bons Restaurants had been in existence for some time in France, accumulating a large amount of data and images. We aimed to make this transition seamless.

We developed several SQL scripts to ensure an optimal process. The creation of several databases and production launch simulations were carried out on several occasions to ensure that we were ready on D-day.

As far as image migration was concerned, this required a different approach. Since the previous system classified images differently, we had to download all the files onto our computers and create Python scripts to reorganize them logically, in line with the new system. After several tests and data analyses, we were able to migrate all the images without a hitch.

Data migration is a crucial step, but so is the management of redirects. The transition from version 1 to version 2 could potentially lead to the breakage of certain links, notably those shared via widgets on social networks or directly on customer websites. To anticipate this situation, we spent several hours scraping the existing site and analyzing all links to create all necessary redirects. In addition, we developed a Python script to automatically replace the links in the old database with those in the new one.

On D-Day, we had to block all ComAdvisor services to save data and files, running all our scripts one last time. We set up a maintenance page during this period. Once the migration was complete, we checked the pages and functionalities to ensure that the platform was running smoothly.

A WordPress Headless for the blog

The Aroi Restaurants website offers its visitors a blog. To set up this blog in an efficient and user-friendly way, we chose to use the WordPress CMS. However, our website relies on Astro technology for page generation.

To reconcile these two technologies, we established a connection between the REST API of our WordPress installation and our central API. The latter acts as an intermediary between the WordPress REST API and our Astro website. Using only the WordPress API can be complex due

to the format of the data. For example, the post response doesn’t directly include the URL of the featured images, but rather their ID. To obtain this URL, another API call is required.

Our API therefore takes care of all these WordPress API calls and returns the data to the frontend in the most appropriate format.

We’ve also developed a small WordPress plugin to initiate the rebuild command on our server. This regenerates the Astro HTML pages and automatically updates the data.