Introducing Sqrdo: A Modern Squarespace Commerce Dashboard
Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts where I'll be sharing the journey of building Sqrdo - a comprehensive dashboard for Squarespace website owners that provides a visual interface to monitor and manage commerce data through available API endpoints.
The Vision Behind Sqrdo
As someone who has worked with multiple Squarespace stores, I've often found myself wishing for a better way to visualize and analyze commerce data. While Squarespace provides powerful e-commerce functionality, the built-in analytics can sometimes feel limited when you want to dive deeper into your sales patterns, customer behaviors, and product performance.
That's where Sqrdo was born - from a need to create a more intuitive, data-rich dashboard specifically tailored for Squarespace commerce users. The goal was simple: build a tool that helps store owners make better business decisions through enhanced data visualization and management.
What Makes Sqrdo Different?
Unlike generic analytics platforms, Sqrdo is specifically designed with Squarespace commerce in mind. Key features include:
- Google OAuth Authentication: Secure and simple login process
- Squarespace API Integration: Direct connection to your store's data
- Interactive Analytics Dashboard: Visual representation of sales, trends, and performance metrics
- Customer Management: Better insights into your customer base
- Order Tracking: Comprehensive view of your order history and statuses
- Product Catalog: Manage your products more efficiently
- Demo Mode: Try out all features with sample data before connecting your store
The Tech Stack
For fellow developers who might be interested, Sqrdo is built with:
- Next.js: React framework providing server-side rendering and static site generation
- Supabase: Backend as a Service for authentication and data storage
- Tailwind CSS: Utility-first CSS framework for rapid UI development
- Radix UI: Unstyled, accessible components for building high-quality web interfaces
This combination of technologies allowed me to create a responsive, performant application that provides real-time data visualization while maintaining excellent user experience across devices.
Early Development Insights
The first phase of development focused on establishing the core architecture and integrating with the Squarespace API. Some interesting challenges I encountered included:
Authentication Flow: Creating a seamless authentication process using Google OAuth through Supabase while ensuring proper session management.
API Integration: Building a flexible system to connect with Squarespace's API endpoints that could handle various store configurations.
Data Visualization: Finding the right balance between detailed analytics and an intuitive, clean interface.
Demo Mode: Implementing a comprehensive demo experience that showcases the application's capabilities without requiring API credentials.
What's Next?
In the coming weeks, I'll be sharing more detailed posts about specific aspects of Sqrdo's development, including:
- Deep dives into key features and how they were implemented
- Technical challenges and solutions
- User feedback and iterative improvements
- Future roadmap and planned enhancements
I'm excited to continue building and improving Sqrdo, making it an even more valuable tool for Squarespace commerce users.
Stay tuned for the next post where I'll explore the development of the analytics dashboard and how we're visualizing commerce data in meaningful ways.