Category: WEB-development

How We Integrated Our Website’s Product Database with a VK Store: A Story of Overcoming Challenges

Our company recently completed a project to synchronize the product database of the Ignis Pixel website with its store on VK (Ignis Pixel on VK). This process was far from simple, but in the end, we successfully tackled the challenge, making the online store as convenient and professional as possible. Here, we’ll share the challenges we faced, how we overcame them, and the results we achieved.

Why Synchronization Is Needed

Modern online stores strive to be where their customers are. VK is one of the most popular social networks in Russia, where millions of users make purchases directly through the platform. The ability to synchronize products from the website with a VK store simplifies inventory updates and helps attract new customers.

However, setting up automatic synchronization is not as easy as it might seem. We encountered several difficulties that required a careful approach, time, and professional expertise.

Challenges We Overcame

1. VK Application Authorization

To start the synchronization, we had to authorize the application on VK’s side. At first glance, this is a standard procedure, but it turned out to have some nuances.

• Unexpected issue: VK reviews authorization requests even on weekends, but for some reason, our first attempt was rejected. We found out that the issue was due to incorrect credentials that needed to be provided when submitting the request. We had to quickly verify the details, correct the request, and resubmit it. On our second attempt, we successfully passed the process.

2. Multiple Authorization Levels in VK API

VK’s API has a complex authorization system. To synchronize products, we needed a permanent access token for the application.

• The catch: The official VK documentation was quite vague about this key. We had to figure out all the details—what permissions were required, how to request a token that wouldn’t expire in a few hours, and how to verify its validity.

As a result, we developed an algorithm for obtaining the token that eliminates human errors and automated the authorization process.

3. Choosing the Correct Categories in the VK Store

Once we connected synchronization and started uploading products, we encountered an unexpected problem. VK uses its own product categories, which often do not align with standard online store logic.

• What went wrong: Automatic product mapping placed items in completely random categories. For example:
  • Sports equipment ended up in the “Face Care” category.
  • Gaming products were placed in “Home Textiles.”

While amusing, this was completely unprofessional. To fix it, we manually checked and mapped each product category, adjusted filters, and refined the distribution algorithm. Now, all products synchronize correctly.

4. Image Upload: Three Stages and Error Handling

One of the most challenging parts was uploading images. VK implements this process in three steps:

1. Obtaining an upload link.
2. Uploading the image to VK’s server.
3. Receiving the final URL and linking the image to the product.

• Where we faced issues: Errors could occur at any stage. For instance, VK’s server sometimes returned an incorrect response or unexpectedly dropped the connection. We had to devise an error-handling mechanism and implement a retry system for each image upload.

Now, the system checks the status at each step and automatically reuploads data if something goes wrong.

Final Outcome

After 20 hours of intensive work, we completed the project. Here are the key results:

• ✅ Product synchronization is implemented as a Laravel console command. This is a convenient and flexible tool that allows synchronization to be run at any time.
• ✅ The entire process is logged, so we can track which products were successfully added and where issues occurred, allowing for quick troubleshooting.
• ✅ Products from the website’s database now automatically update in the VK store, including descriptions, prices, categories, and images.

What This Means for the Client

• Time savings: Manually uploading products would take days, while automation updates the database in just minutes.
• Improved brand image: The VK store now looks professional, with correctly categorized products and error-free images.
• Increased customer reach: Buyers can see up-to-date products directly on social media, boosting purchase potential.

Why Choose Us?

We understand that it’s not just about getting the job done—it’s about doing it well. In this project, we overcame numerous challenges that might have discouraged less experienced specialists. We take pride in always seeing projects through to the end, no matter the obstacles.

If you need to synchronize your store with social networks or implement other complex functionality, contact us. We’ll be happy to help take your business to the next level!

To improve your pagespeed rating, you often need to reduce the size of the images used on your website. Let’s look at a simple way to solve this problem.

1) Run the service https://pagespeed.web.dev/ and look at the first diagnostic item, which is related to images.

2) Select the links that the analysis offers and save them to your computer

3) Open any image compressor, for example https://www.iloveimg.com/compress-image and upload the pictures there

4) Start the process and after it’s done you will get an archive with compressed files, which can be downloaded manually if the download does not start automatically

5) Open the downloaded archive and replace the old pictures that are on the hosting with new ones. The exact location of the pictures can be determined by the URL from the test (see step 2)

That’s pretty much the whole process.

In the dynamic world of web development, staying up-to-date with the latest technologies is crucial. PHP, the popular server-side scripting language, continues to evolve, and its latest iteration, PHP 8.2, offers a host of benefits that make upgrading from older versions a smart choice.

1. Improved Performance: PHP 8.2 introduces optimizations that make your code run faster. This means your web applications will respond more swiftly, improving user experience. The just-in-time (JIT) compiler enhancements provide significant performance boosts, making your applications more efficient and responsive.

2. Enhanced Type Safety: PHP 8.2 enhances type safety with stricter type checks and error handling. This reduces the chances of runtime errors, making your code more reliable and easier to maintain. Stronger type declarations help catch bugs earlier in the development process, leading to more robust applications.

3. New Features and Syntax: PHP 8.2 introduces new features and improvements to the language. These include enhanced pattern matching capabilities, additions to the standard library, and updated syntax for cleaner and more concise code. By embracing these features, you can write more efficient and readable code.

4. Improved Error Handling: PHP 8.2 provides better error handling mechanisms, which simplifies debugging and reduces downtime. New error handling features allow you to catch and manage errors more effectively, leading to more resilient applications that can gracefully handle unexpected situations.

5. Security Enhancements: Security is a top priority, and PHP 8.2 comes with several security improvements. By upgrading, you ensure that your applications benefit from the latest security patches, protecting your users’ data and preventing vulnerabilities that might exist in older PHP versions.

6. Compatibility: While upgrading to a new version may require some adjustments to your existing codebase, the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term effort. PHP 8.2 maintains backward compatibility where possible, but it’s essential to review your code to ensure a smooth transition.

7. Community and Support: With each new PHP version, the community grows stronger. By upgrading to PHP 8.2, you gain access to an active community of developers, extensive documentation, and ongoing support. This vibrant ecosystem ensures that you’ll have the resources you need to tackle any challenges.

Upgrading to PHP 8.2 offers a wide range of benefits that include performance improvements, enhanced type safety, new features, better error handling, increased security, compatibility, and a supportive community. Embracing the latest version ensures that your web applications remain competitive, secure, and efficient, making the switch a wise investment in the future of your development projects.

In our century, companies that achieve good results almost all have their own website: business card website, corporate website, online store, or as it is now fashionable to say landing page (landing page). One-page site – a site on the page of which all the company’s material is displayed, starting with a phone number and ending with a feedback form. Now there are many platforms for creating sites such as WordPress, Joomla, Bitrix, UMI.cms, Drupal and many others. Like them, programs such as Adobe Muse CC are created. Here is what the official Wikipedia source tells us.

“Adobe Muse CC” is a graphical editor focused on creating websites, small online stores and landing pages without the need to write code, a product of Adobe Systems.
This application is available through the Adobe Creative Cloud (a suite of cross-platform subscription applications from Adobe Systems).”

The program will be of interest to everyone who starts their own business and does not want to bother much with all the knowledge in the code. That is, all actions performed in the program will be automatically translated into code, which is convenient for those who do not know the basics of html. The program has ready-made menus, simple and complex feedback forms, which makes the program even more convenient. There are also ready-made templates that you can change to fit your data and the site is ready. It’s all about the benefits of the program. Now let’s talk about the downside. The main disadvantage of a one-page site, however, like all the others, is the promotion of SEO. That is, having a full-fledged site, we can use thousands of words for promotion, but on a one-page site there can be no more than 20. Landing page is mainly aimed at contextual advertising Yandex.Direct and Google.Adwords. We will talk about contextual advertising in the following articles.

Comment from the head of KIT-Service.

The text – which you can read below – is typical SEO text for a website. It is written by one of our SEO specialists and is necessary to increase the ranking of our site among search engine robots, although the portfolio images are real. On my own behalf, I want to say that the main principles of our work are the creation of customer-managed sites that sell. Contact us – we will advise +79899500527, +79273211707.

SEO text ))

Website development is our passion. We have been in the market for goods and services for many years. Over the past years, we have created more than 200 projects (websites), each of them is distinguished by its design and functionality. Clients were satisfied and many of them turned to us for the promotion and maintenance of their sites.
Why do you need to create a website, you ask? Everyone has their own reasons for this. The first, and the main reason why they turn to us is to create a website for a business. Previously, newspapers, bulletin boards were relevant, now these are Internet projects (websites). The company presents its products and services on sites where many people go and choose exactly what they like. The second reason is the portfolio. Photographers, designers, architects who show their worthy work to enhance their image and show their style.

Websites we create:

• promo site (small site with company shares);
• business card site (small site with data about the firm, company);
• business site (small site with data about the company, company + additional modules (for example, feedback);
• official website (representation of the company on the Internet);
• exclusive site (a site that is completely different from others);
• site-shop (a small site with data about the company, company + assortment of goods);
• landing (one-page site);
• corporate (website for corporations).

Recently, many proposals from various WEB design studios have appeared on the Internet about creating sites based on their own content management systems (CMS). In general, CMS is a system thanks to which you can manage your WEB site, change information on it, add products and services, edit texts.

So, choosing the so-called “free” website builder you are building an Internet platform, you have both pluses and minuses.

Advantages	Disadvantages
· The site is often created really for free · The site is created quickly	· You do not control the design of the site · The site address is usually in such cases owned by the owner of the designated constructor. · There is an overpayment for hosting – that is, for the place where your site files are stored · In case you want to improve or change your site, you need to rewrite it again, and this is precisely the main benefit of the creators of the constructor

 

When developing websites, we use free and well-known content management systems WordPress and Joomja

When using them, sometimes the site loading speed decreases for several milliseconds, but you get:

• An online platform for attracting customers or selling goods, information on the management of which can be easily obtained on the Internet.
• You get independence from the programmer, because. there are VERY many specialists who own these control systems on the market at the moment
• You get scalability, so by ordering a website for 5-7 thousand rubles, in 2-3 months you can easily refine it to the required level using almost any freelancer or programmer, because all work on well-known control systems is perfectly described in different languages, including number and in Russian.
• Get your OWN! Internet address.
• You get the opportunity to choose the most favorable hosting tariffs for you

That is why we use free well-known content management systems when developing websites.