Refactoring of homepage / restaurant list

[alexsegura]

Long term vision

What we want to implement is "faceted search" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faceted_search)

Right now, filtering will be implemented by performing SQL queries in the database.
This may lead to bad performance, and put some pressure on the database.
We can mitigate the performance impact by caching results.

To reach a higher throughput, we will need to use a search/indexing engine.
So, filtering system (mainly URLs) needs to be designed so that we can migrate later.

This will be implemented on the web first, but as we will want to implement it on the app, the filtering will probably need to be moved behind the API, to make it reusable out of the box on the app.

1/ Implement horizontal scroll for "collections" (homepage)

This will be implemented directly on the (current) homepage, to show more shops (less vertical space). It is basically what already exists on the homepage: we have a collection per type of business.

At the moment, collections will be built automatically on what we have.
We will have a collection per type of business like now, and we can also have:

• Featured shops
• Exclusive shops
• New shops
• Some collections per cuisine (the ones with the most restaurants)

Later, we can allow "editing" collections by hand, creating custom collections with arbitrary shops.

2/ Implement lazy-loading for images

If we are going to show more shops, at least we must lazy load images for performance.

3/ Implement infinite vertical scroll

It shouldn't be necessary to click on a button to show more shops.
As most visitors are coming on mobile, this improves UX a lot when scrolling with fingers.

4/ Implement sidebar on shops list page

At the moment, we will have 2 sections (= facets) on the sidebar: type of business, and cuisine.

⚠️ Existing URLs should continue working, and redirect (?) to new URLs.

• /fr/restaurants
• /fr/shops?type=fast-food-restaurant
• /fr/restaurants/cuisines/noodle_bar

5/ Start indexing shops using Typesense

We are already using Typesense, and it implements faceted search.
For some time, we won't be using it, just monitoring the RAM usage across all instances.

https://typesense.org/docs/0.22.2/api/documents.html#facet-results

6/ Implement search box + use Typesense to return filtered results

Once everything is indexed properly in Typesense, we can use the search engine, instead of performing SQL queries.

7/ Allow adding custom facets to shops

Once everything is managed properly using Typesense, we can add screens to manage facets.

8/ Allow adding custom collections

Admins should be able to create custom collections per instance, with arbitrary shops.

9/ Generate collections automatically for customers

Collections can also be built automatically based on what each customer prefers (previous orders, preferred cuisines...)

[Paul-Eraman-CoopCycle]

This is super Alex! Thanks a lot! I really appreciate having a roadmap like this :)

[Paul-Eraman-CoopCycle]

What step on we on now?