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Enterprise Application Case Study

Building a 50,000+ Line Trading Platform from Scratch

How we engineered a comprehensive trading platform for the agricultural export industry featuring real-time grading, multi-tenant portals, and complex inventory management.

Project at a Glance

The numbers behind this enterprise build

51,600+

Lines of Code

Custom TypeScript

4

User Portals

Admin, Farm, Tannery, Buyer

Real-time

Live Updates

WebSocket Integration

20+

Core Features

Full Business Solution

The Challenge: Digitising a Complex Industry

Our client operates in the agricultural export industry, managing a complex supply chain that involves multiple farms, grading facilities, and international buyers. Their existing processes were entirely manual - spreadsheets, paper records, and endless phone calls.

The problem: Grading thousands of products manually, tracking inventory across multiple locations, coordinating with international buyers, and generating compliant export documentation was consuming hundreds of hours per month and prone to costly errors.

Specific Challenges We Had to Solve

Multi-Stakeholder Coordination

Farms, graders, buyers, and admin staff all needed different views of the same data, with different permission levels and workflows.

Real-Time Grading Requirements

Live grading sessions needed instant updates visible to all stakeholders. A 5-second delay could cause confusion and duplicate entries.

Complex Pricing Logic

Prices vary by grade, size category, buyer-specific rate cards, and yearly contracts. Manual calculations were error-prone and time-consuming.

Export Compliance Documentation

CITES permits, packing lists, and invoices needed to match exactly. Any discrepancy could delay shipments at customs.

Mobile-First Field Operations

Grading happens in the field, often with poor connectivity. The system needed to work reliably on mobile devices in challenging conditions.

The Tech Stack

Enterprise-grade technologies for a mission-critical application

Next.js 16

Frontend Framework

NestJS

Backend API

PostgreSQL

Database

Prisma ORM

Data Layer

Supabase

Auth & Storage

WebSockets

Real-time Updates

TypeScript

Type Safety

Tailwind CSS

Styling

Why this stack? We chose a modern TypeScript-first architecture for type safety across the full stack, reducing bugs and enabling confident refactoring. Supabase provides enterprise-grade authentication and file storage without the overhead of managing separate services.

The Solution: A Complete Digital Ecosystem

Key features we built to transform their operations

Multi-Tenant Portal System

Four distinct user portals with role-based access control. Admin staff manage the entire operation. Farms track their inventory and sales. Tanneries (buyers) browse available stock and place orders. Each portal shows relevant data without exposing sensitive business information to other parties.

Real-Time Live Grading

WebSocket-powered live grading sessions where multiple stakeholders watch grades being assigned in real-time. Scan a tag, assign a grade, and everyone sees it instantly. Includes anti-cheat measures to ensure grading integrity and audit trails for every action.

Integrated Photo Management

Mobile-friendly photo capture directly in the browser. Each item can have up to 20 photos across different grading stages. Automatic watermarking with grade, size, and identification data. Cloud storage with Supabase ensures photos are accessible from anywhere.

Dynamic Pricing Engine

Complex pricing calculations based on grade (1-5), size category, buyer-specific rate cards, and yearly contracts. Automatic price projections during grading sessions. Support for multiple currencies and pricing models.

B2B Order Management

Full e-commerce functionality for B2B transactions. Buyers browse shared inventory, add items to cart, and place orders. Automatic inventory updates prevent double-selling. Order status tracking from placement to delivery.

Automated Document Generation

One-click generation of packing lists, invoices, and export documentation. All documents match exactly - no more manual reconciliation. PDF exports with professional formatting ready for customs and clients.

Analytics Dashboard

Comprehensive dashboards showing total inventory value, grade distribution, sales performance, and farm-by-farm breakdowns. Real-time statistics update as grading sessions progress. Export reports to CSV for further analysis.

Technical Challenges We Solved

Data Consistency in Real-Time Systems

When multiple users are grading simultaneously, race conditions can cause data corruption. We implemented database transactions using Prisma's transaction API to ensure atomic operations. If any part of an operation fails, everything rolls back - no partial updates, no data inconsistency.

Solution: Prisma transactions wrap related database operations, ensuring order creation and inventory status updates happen atomically or not at all.

Multi-Tenant Data Isolation

Different organisations must only see their own data. A bug in access control could expose sensitive business information to competitors. We implemented defence-in-depth with application-level checks in every controller endpoint.

Solution: Every API endpoint validates the requesting user's organisation before returning data. Middleware intercepts requests and enforces permission boundaries.

Offline-Resilient Mobile Experience

Grading often happens in areas with poor connectivity. The application needed to handle temporary disconnections gracefully without losing data or confusing users.

Solution: WebSocket reconnection logic with exponential backoff. Local state management ensures the UI remains responsive even during brief disconnections. Sync indicators show users when they're offline.

Complex Schema Design

The database schema needed to model complex relationships: products belong to farms, get graded in batches, sold to buyers, packed in crates, shipped in consignments. Each entity has its own lifecycle and audit requirements.

Solution: A 1,000+ line Prisma schema with 26 unique constraints preventing duplicate records. Soft deletes preserve audit trails. Cascading relationships maintain referential integrity.

The Impact

Hours Saved Weekly

Manual data entry, document creation, and inventory reconciliation that took 20+ hours per week now happens automatically.

Error Reduction

Automated pricing and document generation eliminated calculation errors that previously caused shipment delays and customer disputes.

Real-Time Visibility

Stakeholders across multiple locations now see the same up-to-date information, eliminating phone calls asking "what's the current status?"

Scalable Operations

The platform can handle growing volume without adding administrative headcount. What required a team can now be managed by fewer people.

The bigger picture: This platform transformed a traditional, paper-based business into a digitally-enabled operation that can compete with larger players. Real-time data enables better decision-making, automated workflows reduce costs, and professional buyer portals improve customer experience.

Key Takeaways

What we learned building enterprise software

Security First

Multi-tenant applications require defence-in-depth. Application-level checks, database constraints, and audit logging work together to protect sensitive data.

Transactions Matter

Any operation that touches multiple database tables should be wrapped in a transaction. The cost of implementing transactions is far less than the cost of data corruption.

Mobile Can't Be an Afterthought

When field workers are your primary users, mobile experience determines adoption. Design mobile-first, then enhance for desktop.

TypeScript Pays Off

In a 51,000+ line codebase, TypeScript's type safety prevents entire categories of bugs. The upfront investment in types saves debugging time later.

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