This post is meant to be my development guide.
🌐 Main Site – faisaldarbar.com
Stack: Hugo + Giscus + GitHub Pages
- Static content: blog, about, contact
- SEO-optimized and fast
- Newsletter via ConvertKit
- Comments via Giscus
- Hosted on GitHub Pages
✅ Done and live
🛍️ Storefront – store.faisaldarbar.com
Stack: React + TailwindCSS + Vite
- Static SPA for digital/physical products
- Product catalog and detail pages
- Razorpay Buy Now integration (guest checkout)
- Inventory indicators (in stock, low stock, out of stock)
- Tokenized download links for digital products
- Hosted via GitHub Pages or Netlify (free tier with caution)
🔧 Backend API – api.faisaldarbar.com
Stack: Node.js + Express + Prisma + PostgreSQL (self-hosted)
- Razorpay webhook validation
- Order logging and processing
- Generates secure download links (JWT/UUID with expiry)
- Sends transactional emails via Resend
- Stores product and order data in PostgreSQL
- Rate limiting and secure headers with Helmet.js
🔐 Admin Dashboard – admin.faisaldarbar.com
Stack: React + TailwindCSS
- Secure login with password + 2FA (TOTP via otplib)
- Manage products (add/edit/hide)
- View and fulfill orders
- Upload digital files
- View dashboard widgets:
- Sales graphs
- Newsletter stats (via ConvertKit API)
- Download counts
✉️ Integrations & Services
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Razorpay | Payment checkout and webhooks |
| Resend | Transactional emails (order delivery, receipts) |
| ConvertKit | Newsletter and subscriber analytics |
| Giscus | Blog comments on Hugo site |
| GitHub Pages | Static deployments for Hugo and Storefront |
| Cloudflare | Proxying, DNS, custom error pages, and tunnels |
🧱 Stack Summary
| Layer | Stack |
|---|---|
| Static Site | Hugo |
| Storefront App | React + TailwindCSS |
| Admin Dashboard | React + TailwindCSS |
| Backend API | Node.js + Express + Prisma |
| Database | PostgreSQL (self-hosted) |
| Payments | Razorpay |
| Emails | Resend |
| Newsletter | ConvertKit |
| Hosting | GitHub Pages + Proxmox |
🛡️ Security & DevOps
.env+ dotenv for managing secrets- HTTPS via Cloudflare Tunnel + Let’s Encrypt
- Secure headers with helmet.js
- Logging with Winston or Pino
- GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipelines
- Docker for backend deployment on Proxmox
- Custom Cloudflare error pages for power outages
🚧 Background Tasks (Future Enhancements)
- Basic webhook retry mechanism (manual or CRON)
- BullMQ + Redis (optional) for scalable job queues
- Email delivery retries
🧠 Planned Expansion Ideas
- Dashboard widgets: sales, downloads, subscriber growth
- Analytics dashboard with charts and insights
- Light CRM layer using ConvertKit API
- Affiliate system for digital products
🗺️ Build Priority Roadmap
Phase 1 - MVP:
- Hugo site live (✅)
- Storefront + API for order/digital delivery
- Admin panel (basic) + 2FA
Phase 2 - Enhanced Functionality:
- Inventory visibility
- Dashboard widgets
- Background job retry logic
Phase 3 - Scaling:
- Redis/BullMQ integration
- Additional roles & permissions
- CRM, analytics, affiliate system
- Multi-user admin dashboard (optional)
- Postgres backups + monitoring tools
- Optional: Self-hosted analytics (Plausible/Umami)
- Optional: File CDN for digital downloads (Cloudflare R2 or Bunny.net)