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PIM Extranet for B2B Promotional Products Search Engine (European Sourcing)

PIM Extranet for B2B Promotional Products Search Engine (European Sourcing)

Complete back-office for managing the largest European online trade show for promotional products - 229K lines of application code, 38 data models, 7 languages, 15 GB database.

2011 - 2016
~6 years
Software Engineer then Senior Software Engineer
European Sourcing Group
PHP 5.xSymfony 3.1MySQLPostgreSQLDoctrine ORMRabbitMQAngularJSNode.jsjQueryBootstrap 3d3.jsApacheVagrantChefGitPHPUnit

Lines of Code

229,090

Application code (PHP, JS)

Merge Requests

629

4 active contributors

Database

38+

Languages

7

FR, EN, DE, ES, IT, NL, PT

Presentation

Project definition and scope

The Extranet European Sourcing is the central back-office of the European Sourcing platform, the largest European online trade show dedicated to promotional and advertising products. This internal administration tool enables the European Sourcing team - operating under the name Medialeads, the IT development and IT consulting division of European Sourcing - to manage the entire product catalog, suppliers, resellers, advertising services, and platform statistics.

Originally designed by SQLI consulting (Phase 1, 2008-2013) with extensive functional and technical specifications - reflecting the state-of-the-art consulting practices of the time - the project was taken over by the internal team in 2014 to bring development closer to the business and increase iteration velocity. From there, the project went through two major versions: Extranet v1, a custom PHP MVC application with MySQL, used in production for several years; and Extranet v2 "Rebirth", a complete rewrite under Symfony 3.1 with PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ, initiated on March 14, 2016, aimed at modernizing the architecture and centralizing shared business bundles.

A third associated component, the Supplier Back-Office, is an AngularJS/Node.js single-page application offering suppliers a dedicated space to manage their profile, products, statistics, and contracts.

Domain

B2B promotional products - European online trade show connecting suppliers, resellers, and brands

Target Users

Internal team (sales, catalog managers, administrators) + 800+ European suppliers (via Supplier BO) + 50+ resellers (via MyEasyWeb)

Functional Scope
Product Catalog Management
Supplier & CRM Management
Reseller & MyEasyWeb Sites
Advertising Services
CSV Import/Export (6 steps)
Statistics & Reporting
Multilingual Management (7 languages)
Contracts & Subscriptions
Global Ecosystem Architecture

Objectives, Context, Stakes & Risks

Strategic vision and constraints

Objectives
  • Provide a unified administration tool to manage a catalog of hundreds of thousands of products from hundreds of European suppliers
  • Rewrite the extranet with a modern framework (Symfony 3) to improve maintainability, testability, and code reusability via shared bundles
  • Migrate from MySQL to PostgreSQL and introduce asynchronous messaging with RabbitMQ
  • Offer suppliers an autonomous modern interface (AngularJS SPA) to manage their presence on the platform
Context

The project operates within a complex software ecosystem of 15+ interconnected sub-projects (sourcing front, export, flux/auto-update, API, translation, statistics, MyEasyWeb, etc.). The shared MySQL database weighs approximately 15 GB (uncompressed) across 97 tables and is accessed by all applications.

Infrastructure is hosted on OVH dedicated servers (sql1, sql2 for MySQL, dedicated web servers). Versioning migrated from SVN to GitHub (medialeads organization) in January 2016. Development environments are provisioned via Vagrant + Chef with 25+ cookbooks.

Massive Catalog

Millions of products with their variations across 7 languages, 32+ fields per product/variant, 36 fields per marking option, up to 50+ degressive pricing grids per product, 32 currencies (ECB rates). Some suppliers like SOL's maintained up to 15,000 variations for a single product (e.g. a T-shirt declined by size, color, V-neck or round neck, with or without sleeves, finishings, etc.). A PIM/data model complexity that was the state of the art at the time for this kind of B2B catalog - a level of modeling that off-the-shelf PIM solutions only started to approach years later.

B2B Relationships

Tracking supplier subscriptions, contracts, advertising service orders generating the platform revenue

Multi-Site Ecosystem

Extranet data feeds europeansourcing.com, tendanceobjet.com, export site, 50+ MyEasyWeb reseller sites

Identified Risks

v1 to v2 Migration Complexity

Complete rewrite of a production tool used daily, with risk of functional regression and prolonged coexistence of both versions.

Monolithic Database

A single shared MySQL database between 15+ sub-projects - an architecture pattern aligned with the practices of the late 2000s, which became a structural challenge as the platform grew.

v1 Technical Debt

Custom MVC framework reflecting the state-of-the-art PHP practices of the 2008-2010 period (before Symfony 2 and modern ORMs became mainstream) - increasingly demanding to evolve as the ecosystem grew.

The Steps - What I Did

Chronological phases and personal contributions

Phase 1 - Extranet v1
Extranet v1 - Custom PHP MVC
2011 - 2016

  • I developed the original extranet on a custom PHP MVC framework

  • On the data ingestion side, I built a 6-step CSV import system: upload, column mapping, validation, preview, insertion, history with rollback

  • To feed the catalog continuously, I built and maintained 37 distinct automated supplier import connectors (FTP, HTTP, REST APIs - including Pixika, Makito, Midocean, BIC, Paul Stricker, Clipper, TopTex, Cybernecard, etc.)

  • On the catalog side, I implemented the full product management: attributes, variants, markings, multi-language translations

  • For the CRM, I created supplier management, reseller management and MyEasyWeb site creation and backup

  • On the advertising side, I developed the services: banners, AdWords campaigns, homepage sliders, partner management

  • To enable steering, I built a comprehensive statistics module: by supplier, product, reseller, MyEasyWeb, advertisements

Phase 2 - Rebirth (Symfony 3)
Extranet v2 - Symfony 3.1 + PostgreSQL
2016 - 2019

  • I took part in the Symfony 3.1 rewrite (initiated March 14, 2016) with PostgreSQL, Doctrine ORM and RabbitMQ for async messaging

  • On the mutualization side, I worked on the shared business bundles: ESCoreBundle (entities, auth, file system) and ESSourcingBundle (business logic)

  • To industrialize the admin screens, I implemented a generic list system (EntityList) with configurable columns, bulk actions, row actions and pagination

  • On the forms side, I developed 70+ Symfony Form Types covering products, variants, product images, markings (static/dynamic with profiles), attributes (simple/multi/groups), categories, keywords, labels with synonyms, subscriptions and import/export workflows

  • To secure the rewrite, I built a full PHPUnit test suite with 611 test files validating entities, controllers and business logic

  • On the DevOps side, I set up Vagrant + Chef provisioning with 25+ cookbooks for reproducible development environments

Phase 3 - Supplier Back-Office
Supplier BO - AngularJS SPA
2014 - 2016

  • I built the supplier self-service SPA with AngularJS and CoffeeScript (19,007 lines)

  • On the functional side, I implemented the modules: Dashboard, Profile, Contacts, Products, News, Statistics, Contracts

  • On the i18n side, I shipped a multilingual interface supporting 7 languages (FR, EN, DE, ES, IT, NL, PT)

  • To plug the SPA into the ecosystem, I integrated it with the European Sourcing REST API for all supplier operations

6-Step CSV Import Process
Architecture Comparison v1 vs v2

Extranet v1

Extranet v2 Rebirth

The Actors - Interactions

Who I interacted with directly and how I collaborated

Development team - my day-to-day teammates (4 active developers) Inside this tight-knit team, I contributed 629 merge requests and 117,916 lines of application code - I was the primary author of v1 and the Supplier BO. Alongside me, Thomas C. took the lead on the v2 Rebirth; IronXtreme brought targeted reinforcement on the v2 Rebirth, and Wamania focused on refactoring and corrections.

  • SQLI: External consulting firm (Phase 1, 2008-2013) where I authored 47+ detailed specification documents for the extranet supplier module (ESV3) - covering functional specs, technical specs, exploitation and installation guides, data model and requirements traceability
  • Systonic: Former hosting provider (2009-2010); I then helped drive the migration of the entire infrastructure to OVH
  • OVH: Primary provider of dedicated servers - we handled all sysadmin operations ourselves (provisioning, configuration, security hardening, monitoring, backups), and I took an active share in that work
  • Suppliers: Hundreds of European promotional product companies, B2B clients for whom I was the technical contact through the extranet
  • Resellers: 50+ distributors using MyEasyWeb sites that I fed from the extranet
Contribution Distribution - Application Code (229,090 lines)

Results

Impact for me and for the organization

Results for Me: Professional Growth

This project was a foundational experience in my career as a software engineer. Over nearly 5 years of involvement, I developed deep expertise across the full stack: backend PHP development (custom framework then Symfony), relational databases (MySQL and PostgreSQL), frontend SPA development (AngularJS) and DevOps practices (server administration, Vagrant/Chef provisioning, Git workflow).

An XXL-scale project, exceptional in every dimension: the Extranet was the orchestration brain of an entire ecosystem - 9.1M total lines of code, 7,510+ PHP files, 4,510+ JavaScript files, 910+ controllers, 2,220+ views/templates, and a search engine indexing 22,000+ words derived from this Extranet. This project changed the way I work: I learned to think about performance, scalability and data integrity at a level impossible to reach on smaller projects, confronted daily with data manipulation, data architecture, business rule complexity, infrastructure and server administration and large-scale data backup strategies.

Search engines and indexing: I progressively moved from native database indexing (MySQL full-text MyISAM/InnoDB, then PostgreSQL full-text search with `tsvector`/`tsquery`, GIN indexes and `to_tsvector`/`ts_rank` functions) to a true search engine with Elasticsearch - inverted index, multilingual analyzers (stemming, tokenization, normalization), TF-IDF scoring, aggregations, facets. Going through every step let me grasp in depth the differences between a relational engine and a search engine.

Complex algorithms and business rules: I designed and implemented many algorithms and very complex business rules - for example the calculation of all possible combinations of prices, product variants and availability (Cartesian product / combinatorial explosion that can generate thousands of combinations per product across sizes, colors, quantities, marking types, marking zones and finishes). Dynamic pricing rule modeling and business decision engines are now part of my toolbox.

Results for the Organization: Business Impact

The extranet was the operational heart of European Sourcing. Without this tool, it would have been impossible to manage the catalog of hundreds of thousands of products, supplier relationships, and advertising services that generated the platform's revenue.

  • Catalog Management: Hundreds of thousands of products managed across 7 languages with attributes, variants, markings, and pricing
  • Multilingual Search: 7 dedicated Elasticsearch indexes (one per language) powering full-text product search across the platform
  • Supplier Network: 800+ European suppliers managed with subscriptions, contracts, and dedicated self-service portal
  • Multi-Site Distribution: Data feeding europeansourcing.com, tendanceobjet.com, export site, graphicsourcing, 50+ MyEasyWeb reseller sites
  • Revenue Generation: Advertising services (banners, AdWords, sliders, partner placements) managed entirely through the extranet
  • Operational Efficiency: Internal team of 5-10 people managing the entire European promotional products market through a single unified tool

The Aftermath

What happened after the project

Immediate Post-Delivery The v1 and v2 coexisted in production for several years, with the v1 continuing to handle daily operations while the v2 Rebirth was being developed module by module. The v2 is still in production today, powering the European Sourcing platform.

Career Impact This experience at European Sourcing - within Medialeads, its IT development and IT consulting division - was instrumental in shaping my approach to large-scale web development. The lessons learned about managing complex data models, building multi-tenant architectures, and working with massive datasets directly informed my subsequent work on even more ambitious projects.

Critical Reflection

With hindsight, how I judge this project

What worked well
  • Extremely rich functional scope: with hindsight, I measure how thoroughly the extranet covers every administration need of a complex B2B platform - catalog, suppliers, resellers, advertising, statistics, import/export, multilingual
  • Modular architecture (v2): I stand behind the decision to create shared bundles (ESCoreBundle, ESSourcingBundle) to mutualize code between sub-projects - a choice that held up over time
  • Courageous technology migration: moving from a custom framework to Symfony 3 and from MySQL to PostgreSQL took guts, and I would do it again
  • Automated provisioning: by pushing Vagrant + Chef on v2, I secured reproducible development environments
What I would do differently
  • Implement CI/CD from the beginning: I would have set up a pipeline with Travis CI or Jenkins from day one (GitHub Actions didn't exist yet) and it would have caught regressions earlier
  • Separate the database: I would have split the monolithic database into microservices or at least distinct schemas to reduce the strong coupling between 15+ sub-projects
  • Adopt Docker instead of Vagrant + Chef: I would have switched to Docker earlier for lighter and more portable provisioning
The lasting lessons this project brought me
  • Shared bundles are a long-term investment: I saw how mutualizing business code between sub-projects reduces duplication but creates strong dependencies and demands solid version management
  • Data import is a full engineering problem: after shipping the 6-step CSV import system with validation, preview and history, I now treat mass data management as a first-class engineering concern
  • Documenting architecture is essential: I experienced that when the number of sub-projects and developers grows, documentation becomes critical - I now apply this systematically

Related journey

Professional experience linked to this achievement

Software Engineer · PHP Zend Framework Developer

Skills applied

Technical and soft skills applied

Hard Skills

Architecture & Design5/5

Software & System Architecture

PIM/data model bigger than Akeneo: 32+ fields per variant, 36 per marking option, 50+ pricing grids, 97 MySQL tables on 15 GB. European Sourcing REST API consumed by the Supplier BO SPA and downstream services across 7 languages. Shared Symfony bundles (ESCoreBundle, ESSourcingBundle), 70+ Form Types, generic EntityList system, MVC + SPA + ETL

Software Development5/5

Fullstack Development

PHP custom MVC then Symfony 3.1, Doctrine ORM, RabbitMQ async messaging, MySQL then PostgreSQL over 5+ years. Owned 229K lines across the Extranet v1, v2 Rebirth and Supplier BO (AngularJS SPA), front-to-back ownership

DevOps & Cloud5/5

DevOps, Cloud & Production Industrialization

PHPUnit test suite with 611 test files validating entities, controllers and business logic on the v2 Rebirth. OVH dedicated servers self-administered: Vagrant + Chef provisioning, 25+ cookbooks, Apache, security, monitoring, backups

Data & AI4/5

Data, AI & Machine Learning

MySQL then PostgreSQL with Doctrine, 6-step CSV import pipeline, 37 supplier connectors via FTP/HTTP/REST

Architecture & Design4/5

Reverse Engineering & Algorithms

Cartesian-product pricing engine: thousands of combinations per product (sizes × colors × markings × zones × finishings)

Image gallery

Project screenshots and visuals

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