Homenetmen Toronto
Building A Digital Community
Role —
Developer
Who —
Homenetmen Toronto
What —
Web Design & Development
Where —
Toronto, ON
When —
2022-Present
How —
Next.js, React, Node.js, Firebase, Sendgrid, Vercel, Bambora, Headless Wordpress
Background
In fall of 2021, the decision was made to modernize the membership process of Homenetmen Toronto. Up to this point, there wasn’t even a website to build off of, and everything would need to be designed and developed from scratch. Many options were considered, including out-of-the-box solutions like Squarespace, Square and even some specialized options like PowerUp. We concluded that a custom solution was required.
Project
We set off with designing an infrastructure that consisted of a public-facing website, an admin site, a headless CMS powered by WordPress and a Node.js API middleware that would handle auth and db calls for both front-end applications. For storage and authentication, Firebase was chosen for speed of development and cost restrictions.
Next.js was used to build the public-facing and admin sites, paired with TailwindCSS for quick styling. For the membership system, a custom solution was built leveraging Bambora’s forms and APIs for payments, Firebase for data storage and user accounts, and Sendgrid for communications. All dynamic content for the site comes from a headless instance of WordPress, with it’s own auth and membership system to manage executive/leadership access. The sites and API were hosted with Vercel.
Results
In its first year of operation, the site processed over $48,000 CAD in membership payments, with over 440 members registering. The project was lauded as a massive success, setting a record for registrations and modernizing a severely outdated process, allowing for efficient auditing and management.
