Using 3rd party services like Stripe, MailChimp? This might interest you
Hello Makers!
I hope you are doing well. I've been researching a niche problem that I want to focus on. One of my side projects is a data viewer for MySQL/PostgreSQL.
As I was playing around, I realized merging App data (your database) and API data from Stripe, MailChimp, GSuite, Shippo… etc. would solve some issues:
- An admin for your App data (view/edit like Django admin) - no config
- See data from 3rd party like Stripe, MailChimp as is provided from their API
- Merge data with simple rules (1)
- Search across App and 3rd party data
- See full chain of user flow (2)
(1) Say your user table has a column stripe_customer_id, then just specify in the config:
user.stripe_customer_id = integration.stripe.customer.id
The system would show Stripe customers for any of your own user, their transaction history, etc.
(2) Like above, but once you add similar merge rules for Payments provider, Shipping, Email, etc. you can see a users' lifetime flow through all your services.
These are board ideas, I have only basic database integration, Stripe Charges and MailChimp Campaigns (both read) prototyped.
Long way from MVP. I am looking for founders who need this. I can solve some of your urgent issues in this domain, learning in the process. You get lifetime free access to the actual product.
Looking forward to your thoughts, Thanks a lot for all the support, Sumit
As far as Stripe is concerned, there is already an open source project doing this. https://github.com/dj-stripe/dj-stripe what it does is that it stays in sync via stripe webhooks and basically keeps a local copy of all your stripe data, that is then accessible via the Django ORM
Hey Bruce, thank you for sharing DJ Stripe. It is a great example of how integrations should work directly with our own products, on premises even. I did not know of this but imagine this applied to all the integrations that a business needs.
In my product's case, the integration can be directly to your DB, either the fields are already created or the software can create them too. But DB level integration is still not anywhere nearby.
BTW the product I am building is also open source and self-hosted. There will be a check for "support the developer" license at $3/month, which is mandatory for all installation.
@brainless yeah sounds good, but I do not know how useful it is for other integrations. The huge benefit of DJ Stripe is, that queries to check if a subscription is active can go to the DB and don't need to have outbound traffic. But I do not see this advantage with i.e. MailChimp tbh.
@bcye For example "Are users in my app synced with a particular Email list on MailChimp?" This is a very common usecase. Similarly get shipping status for an order that went out.
All such services are done using 3rd party providers. And all that data is somewhere else. Currently getting it means someone adds new code to your app to read API (or listen to Webhook).
So if this one product reads all well known services and you add API keys for the ones you need, then it centralizes that.
@brainless ah ok, so it's more about having a common API, instead about reducing network traffic and loading times.
@bcye Yes primarily it is to give visibility to your data that is elsewhere.
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