Custom Member Database with Supabase & React Admin

The Challenge

CASA, Canadian Automatic Sprinkler Association, was facing critical performance challenges with a legacy internal user management and authentication system with a Wordpress core. They were using a Wordpress plugin originally designed for property management, that would slow to a crawl with concurrent users, and often crash.

Requirements

1. The primary purpose of it was to authenticate users to access-gated pages on their website.

2. User authentication was still required even after migrating their marketing site to a Headless Storyblok implementation with Next.js.

3. Performance had become a critical issue as the Wordpress installation became unusable.

At a high-level, 9thCO helped CASA to migrate off of a legacy system with a custom built solution to handle performance, content storage, handle authentication, and provide an improved UX. The core focus was on scalability, developer ergonomics, and fast iteration.

The Solution

9thCO worked closely with CASA to architect a replacement solution that not only would provide parity with existing functionality but migrate existing data without loss while exceeding any Wordpress capabilities. 9thCO first commenced with a discovery phase to select the most optimal services, document current features and functionality, map database schemas, and determine an optimal data migration strategy. 

With the requirements mapped, 9thCO initiated the development kick-off by scaffolding the project and dividing the work into epics. This ensured the team was fully aligned on expectations, strategies, task delegation, and the project timeline. Our expert (and witty) Development team not only delivered the destination ahead of schedule, meeting all milestones gracefully, but also architected it to efficiently manage content and authentication. This was coupled with providing a sleek, performance-focused frontend.

• Custom web application deployed on Netlify, leveraging an API-first architecture for all data access and business logic.

• Implemented Supabase as a backend-as-a-service for Postgres, auth, and row-level security.

• Used React Admin with Material UI to rapidly scaffold CRUD interfaces with custom views and battle tested components.

• Implemented authentication and data access for a headless marketing site, combining public API consumption with server-side authentication safeguards.

• Authentication to the admin dashboard is handled by Supabase Auth.

• React 19 with TypeScript for type-safe component development