Notice something different? Meet the new Solidus brand!

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Use cases

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Big player with big needs? See what Solidus can do for you.

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Don’t reinvent the wheel—use our built-in integrations.

Integrations

Pricing plans designed to accommodate your growth.

Pricing

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Insights and announcements from the Solidus team.

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Need a bit of help? Engage our trusted partners!

Partners

Join us if you want to chat—we're a friendly bunch!

Community

- [2.11.0 on GitHub](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/releases/tag/v2.11.0)
- [2.11.0 on RubyGems](https://rubygems.org/gems/solidus/versions/2.11.0)

Thanks to all contributors, testers, and users who made this release possible.

This version's support will end in 18 months: 2022-04-23.

## What's next?

Before digging into the most important changes introduced by Solidus 2.11, we want to give you a couple of big announcements.

### Next versions

Solidus 2.11 is the last minor release for version 2 of Solidus. The next release will be **Solidus 3.0** 🎉.

### Solidus 3.0

Solidus 3.0 will not introduce any new features.

In Solidus 3.0, we are going to **remove all the deprecation introduced by Solidus 2**.

So Solidus 2.11 is your last chance to fix all the deprecations on your application because, with Solidus 3.0, they will stop working.

### What's changed?

Full changelog can be found on our
[GitHub repository](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/releases/tag/v2.11.0/changelog.md)
but here's a list of major changes:

**Removed support for Rails 5.1**

Rails 5.1 is not maintained anymore, we deprecated it in 2.10 so it's time to remove it entirely.

**Add `billing_address_required` preference**

The new preference controls whether validations will require the presence of the billing address.

**Add BCC email to order confirmation emails**

Spree::Store model now accepts a BCC email field that, when present, will be used in order confirmation emails.

**Order merger and order updater now require valid order**

The order merger and order updater will complete successfully only on valid orders. This new behavior is opt-in with this release, but will become the default from Solidus 3.0.

You can enable this feature right now by setting the preference with `Spree::Config.run_order_validations_on_order_updater = true`.

**Stop calling `Spree::Refund#perform!` after creating a refund**

From Solidus v3.0 onwards, #perform! will need to be explicitly called when creating new refunds. Please, change your code from:

`Spree::Refund.create(your: attributes)`

to:

`Spree::Refund.create(your: attributes, perform_after_creation: false).perform!`

The `perform_after_creation` attribute will be deprecated in Solidus 3.x.

**Allow to configure `guest_token` cookie options**

The guest_token cookie is currently always only allowed for the current domain, including subdomain. If you want to use the cookie on a different subdomain you can use the preference `guest_token_cookie_options`.

**Add event subscribers automatically**

Event subscribers are now loaded automatically when their source file is placed under the directory `app/subscribers` and filename ends with `_subscriber.rb`. This works both for Solidus core, Solidus extensions and the store app.

If you have any custom subscribers with an explicit subscription (i.e. `MyCustomSubscriber.subscribe!`) ensure they're under `app/subscribers` path and remove the explicit subscriptions from your app initializer (i.e `MyCustomSubscriber.subscribe!`).

**Add address default for billing as well**

It's now possible to mark an address as default for billing with the column `default_billing`.

**Getting closer to completely replace Paranoia with Discard**

We're getting closer to fully replace Paranoia with Discard. Paranoia methods have been fully deprecated, so you're encouraged to switch to Discard also in your store codebase.

**Add ActiveStorage adapter**

From Rails 6.1 ActiveStorage will support public blob URLs and Solidus should be ready to offer an ActiveStorage adapter to new stores.

**Introduce `Address#name`**

We're going to introduce the new column `name` for addresses that will replace the existing `first_name` and `last_name`. In preparation of this, we're now introducing a virtual attribute name that works like and replaces` #full_name`.

**Replace `Spree.routes` with `Spree.pathFor`**

The use of `Spree.routes` is now deprecated. You can check in your browser developer tools console for deprecation messages.

**Configurable order state machine with new default**

The order state machine class is now configurable, just like other models state machines. Also, a simplified version of the current state machine will be the new default in Solidus 3.x.

**Include payment methods in installer**

Solidus installer has now a section for installing payment method gems out of the box. Currently, the only available gem is `solidus_paypal_commerce_platform`.

**Remove CanCanCan custom actions aliases**

`CanCanCan` custom action aliases have been deprecated and replaced with default ones to make it easier upgrading to newer versions of `CanCanCan`. A new application preference has been introduced: `use_custom_cancancan_actions` which when set to:

- `true` will still accept using custom aliases (default for existing applications).
- `false` any custom aliases defined previously won't be handled anymore by Solidus.

Ensure double-checking all the custom defined permissions in your application before switching to `use_custom_cancancan_actions` preference to `false`.

**Introduce encrypted preference type**

A new preference type `encrypted_string` has been introduced allowing to encrypt the value assigned to the preference to avoid exposing it in case a malicious user gets access to the DB or a dump. Check the related [guide](https:/legacy-guides.solidus.io/developers/preferences/add-model-preferences.html#details-for-encrypted_string-type) for more details.

**Add "discontinue on" attribute to products**

Adds a `discontinue_on` attribute to products. This accompanies the `available_on` attribute to complete the "Time Based Availability" feature. The `Product.available` scope and `Product#avaliable?` method take this new date field into account to calculate the availability of products.

**Fixed how the default reimbursement store-credit category is fetched**

Before this change the store-credit category for reimbursement was fetched by name using a missing translation (i.e. `en.spree.store_credit_category.default`) that resulted in the name "Default". If no category was found the code fell back on the first category from the database, which wasn't guaranteed to be the right one. Trying to update the translation to the desired category name was also useless due to how code was loaded. Now it's possible to disable this legacy behavior and switch to a simpler one, in which the code will look for a CreditCategory named "Reimbursement". Here's a list of checks and fixes you can perform to ensure you can enable the correct implementation:

- If you don't use reimbursements you're good to go, skip below to Disabling the legacy behavior.
- Ensure you didn't decorate or patched any of the involved code, especially:
    - `Spree::StoreCreditCategory.reimbursement_category`.
    - `Spree::StoreCreditCategory.reimbursement_category_name`.
- Ensure your "production" environment is already returning the correct category, you can assess that by running this in your "production" console: `Spree::StoreCreditCategory.reimbursement_category(nil).name == "Reimbursement"`.

Disabling the legacy behavior If everything is sound, or you are ok with a different category name for newly created reimbursement store credits you can switch to the new behavior by configuring this Solidus preference in your spree.rb initializer:

```ruby
Spree.config do |config|
  config.use_legacy_store_credit_reimbursement_category_name = false
end
```

If you had modifications in your codebase consider disabling the legacy behavior and porting them to a simple overwrite of `Spree::Reimbursement#store_credit_category`. The legacy behavior will be removed in the next major version of Solidus.

**Do not consider promotions without actions as active**

When considering to apply a promotion to an order we use the `active` scope. This scope was including promotions without actions and we no longer are taking them into account.

To switch to the new behaviour which will be the only one accepted in Solidus 3.0 change the following preference `Spree::Config.consider_actionless_promotion_active` to `false`.

If you need to consider actionless promotions as active for any reason please implement your own scope for that.

Solidus v2.11 is available! Thanks to all contributors, testers, and users who made this release possible. This version's support will end in 18 months: 2022-04-23.

Solidus v2.11

## It's HacktoberFest! 🎉

Hey, Solidus! I'm sure you're aware, but Hacktoberfest started a few days ago. To celebrate, we have a few things for you to consider:

First, to get the sweet HacktoberFest shirt this year, you'll need to [sign up here.](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/)

After that, you'll need to complete 4 pull requests to a public repository, and you're done! [Check out our issues marked Hacktoberfest if you're looking for a place to start.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3AHacktoberfest)

Second, we're offering more swag in addition to the Hacktoberfest shirt - any author of a merged Solidus PR this month will be able to receive a package of Solidus swag. This PR can be made on any part of Solidus - on the main repository, or on any of our extensions as well. To receive this swag voucher, reach out to [@seand](https://slack.solidus.io) on Slack after making your pull request. At this time, we're only able to ship to these locations: Canada, US, Mexico, and Europe.

Hacktoberfest is one of our favorite times of year. If you are looking for a project to help, or want to start your Open Source journey, Solidus is waiting for you 💖. 

That's all for now - happy hacking!

It's HacktoberFest! Learn about what the Solidus community is doing to celebrate, and how you can contribute to make Solidus better than ever.


Solidus Hacktoberfest Announcement

Hello everyone, and welcome to This Month in Solidus — Summer 2020!

You may have noticed we've paused this series for a couple of months: with the summer, the [conference](/blog/announcing-solidusconf-2020) and a lot of people being on vacation in the last few weeks, we've been working steadily but a bit more slowly than usual, and we thought it would best to wait until we had more exciting news to share. 

### Introducing the Solidus data tracking architecture

Up until very recently, if you wanted to integrate your Solidus store with a marketing or analytics service, you only had two options: you could either roll your own implementation, or leverage an enterprise-y, expensive tool such as Segment to streamline the integration.

For a long time, we've wanted to solve this problem by creating a data tracking toolset that would act as an on-premise, simplified version of Segment. Today, we're excited to present Solidus's very own [data tracking architecture](https://github.com/solidusio-contrib/solidus_tracking)!

Think of it as an on-premise, simplified version of Segment, providing everything you need to forward your Solidus store's data to the right platforms.

There's actually much more to it, and we'll be diving into the extension and how to integrate it in the next few days. Stay tuned on our blog!

### PayPal Commerce Platform is now available

Our [PayPal Commerce Platform](https://github.com/solidusio-contrib/solidus_paypal_commerce_platform),
integration is here! This is the new default payment method for Solidus, and adds some handy
features like instant checkout and easier onboarding.

PayPal Commerce Platform allows your customers to pay via credit card or with any of PayPals various 
payment options - such as PayPal Credit, Venmo, or just their PayPal balance. It also enables your
customers to check out directly from the cart page, using PayPal's streamlined checkout process in
concert with the powerful Solidus  checkout API, to get your customers to the finish line as quickly
and easily as possible.

For more information about the extension,
[check out the blog post we wrote to announce it.](https://solidus.io/blog/2020/09/02/solidus-paypal-commerce-platform.html)

### Core updates this summer

Here are some of the new features and enhancements introduced to the core this summer: 

- [We simplified the Order state machine and made it configurable.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3542)
  This removes a lot of possible transitions - and complexity - from the state machine, and makes it
  easier to customize. Thanks to Martin Meyerhoff for this improvement!
- [Creating an order from the admin user page will now prefill the users address on the order.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3558)
  This should save some time when creating new orders. Thanks to Jaime Loyola for this new feature!
- [We added bulk selection to admin tables.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3565)
  This is controlled by CSS classes, making it easy to drop this functionality in wherever you want.
  This new feature is thanks to Daniele Palombo!
- [We implemented an API endpoint for customer returns.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3579)
  Previously this didn't exist - now it does! 🎉 Thanks to Sean Denny (Hey, that's me!) for this new
  feature!
- [We added an admin UI for adding stock locations to shipping methods.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3624)
  This allows you to associate shipping methods to stock locations, ensuring that a shipping method
  will only be available on whatever stock locations you designate. Thanks to Demitru Ceban for this
  feature!
- [Validations will now run on order updates.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3645) You
  can disable this functionality with a config option, but it's desirable to ensure that everything is
  still valid for an order when it updates. Thanks to Alberto Vena and Martin Meyerhoff!
- [Variant properties can now be set to apply to all variants.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3653)
  Thanks to Filippo Liverani and Adam Dunkley for this new feature!
- [You can now configure whether or not billing addresses are required for orders.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3658)
  This is helpful for stores and payment methods that don't require a billing address. This new
  feature is thanks to Edwin Cruz!
- [We added an encrypted_string preference type.](https://github.com/solidusio/solidus/pull/3676)
  This allows you to safely store sensitive information in the database, rather than having to use
  ENV variables. Thanks to Stefano Sarioli for this new feature!

### Solidus 2.11 around the corner

Solidus 2.11 is on the way! Be on the lookout over the next couple of weeks. As a reminder, this is
the last release of Solidus before 3.0.

Solidus 3.0 will be release shortly after, and will only remove deprecated functionality. In other
words, if you're on Solidus 2.11 and see no deprecation warnings, you can safely update to Solidus 
3.0!

### SolidusConf is LIVE!

**SolidusConf 2020** is happening *RIGHT NOW!* We had a great lineup of
speakers and presenters for you, and today we're holding our hack day. The hack day is open to
everyone, so [click here](https://hopin.to/events/solidusconf-2020) for entry!

At 10AM central today, we'll also be holding an open stakeholders meeting. If you're curious how the meetings are run, come in and say hello!

Dive in and see everything that happened in the Solidus world in summer 2020: new data tracking architecture, PayPal Commerce Platform integration and SolidusConf!


This Month in Solidus: Summer 2020


## Introducing SolidusConf Speaker Richard Gilbert


We’re proud to announce that Richard Gilbert will be joining us as a presenter for **SolidusConf 2020**.

Richard Gilbert heads systems integrator partnerships for PayPal for the last two years. Richard has been managing partnerships for much of his career, previously running strategic partnership for Payoneer, a cross border payments company, Infusionsoft, where he launched Infusionsoft Payments through partnership and running co-marketing partnerships for Google’s SMB Marketing Team.

### E-Commerce & Consumer Financing Opportunities

Consumers choose and spend more with merchants that offer consumer financing alternatives. Increase conversion rates and grow your average order value by offering more payment options. We will share statistics and approaches merchants can use to offer consumer financing solutions and why merchants should aggressively consider consumer financing strategies.

### [See Richard speak at SolidusConf 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy4T4r0zK04)

We’re proud to announce that Richard Gilbert will be joining us as a presenter for SolidusConf 2020.

SolidusConf 2020 Presenter Richard Gilbert

## Introducing SolidusConf Speaker Rob Johnson


We’re proud to announce that Rob Johnson will be joining us as a presenter for **SolidusConf 2020**.

Rob has been working with design, content and development teams since 2009. Before that he enjoyed a short stint developing and teaching a new Digital Strategies curriculum for a University as an Adjunct Professor, until he realized that providing for his family is important. He's also worked in News Media for some of the largest news entities in Utah, until he realized that a good business model is important. Originally from the Northwest of England, Rob dreams of spending days in British Columbia, Canada, playing his classical guitar on the deck, gazing at the stars reflecting from the lake after grilling up a scrumdiddlyumptious dinner.

### Solidus & Subscriptions: Adventures of a Publisher Trying to Disrupt Itself

Subscriptions have become increasingly popular due to the financial stability they produce for businesses and investors. Done right, subscriptions deliver great value for customers with draws such as unlimited access, original product and deep discounting that can often lead to increased brand affinity and lifetime value. We'll review a 2.5 year timeline of the impact subscriptions have had for a Publisher and Retailer using Solidus. We'll cover learnings around acquisition and retention, subscription usage trends, customer survey insights, upgrade experiences and the importance of empowering the customer.

### [See Rob speak at SolidusConf 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1jnBbJgFGI&list=PLLD8ikQvfJqpscVZS3yJuftojeKcsjWeV&index=5&pp=iAQB)

We’re proud to announce that Rob Johnson will be joining us as a presenter for SolidusConf 2020.


SolidusConf 2020 Presenter Rob Johnson

## Introducing SolidusConf Speaker Alberto Vena


We’re proud to announce that Alberto Vena will be joining us as a presenter for **SolidusConf 2020**.

Alberto is passionate about open-source and he founded [Nebulab](https://nebulab.com) with the goal of creating a sustainable company for people who share the same passion. But since he started the company he has a curse: everybody spells his name wrong. He's also one of the members of the Solidus Core Team.

### The State of Solidus

We've had a lot of shocks in the Solidus (and Spree) community in the last few years, and we need stability. Alberto will cover what's happened since the previous maintainers left the project, and how a group of people that care about Solidus are trying to make the platform more solid than ever.

### [See Alberto speak at SolidusConf 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZhF9srB2_0&list=PLLD8ikQvfJqpscVZS3yJuftojeKcsjWeV&index=7&pp=iAQB)

We’re proud to announce that Alberto Vena will be joining us as a presenter for SolidusConf 2020.

SolidusConf 2020 Presenter Alberto Vena

## Introducing SolidusConf Speaker Peter Berkenbosch


We’re proud to announce that Peter Berkenbosch will be joining us as a presenter for **SolidusConf 2020**.

Peter has a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and got his start in the exciting world of ”Enterprise Java.” After discovering Ruby and Ruby on Rails in 2007, everything changed: he launched a Spree store, started actively contributing to the Spree community, and eventually, became a core team member at Spree. Since May 2015 Peter’s focus has shifted from Spree to Solidus.

Peter has a knack for producing high-quality code that is tried & tested, and can often be heard asking “are there any specs?” He usually works remotely from a small town in the Netherlands.

Currently Peter works as an independent e-commerce developer and consultant for a number of different agencies and stores, from troubleshooting (performance) challenges with large scale storefronts to development of (opensource) extensions and Saas storefront products and anything in between.

In his spare time, Peter loves hanging out with his children, fly-fishing, playing soccer, wine and dine, and cross-country runs with his adorable English Stafford.

### Building Payment Provider Integrations

Providing a detailed step by step technical insight on how to integrate payment service providers in your Solidus storefronts. Focused mostly on the Solidus Payment internals, but also touching the surface of development support tools and best practices.

### [See Peter speak at SolidusConf 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWznleqof8s&list=PLLD8ikQvfJqpscVZS3yJuftojeKcsjWeV&index=2&pp=iAQB)

We’re proud to announce that Peter Berkenbosch will be joining us as a presenter for SolidusConf 2020.

SolidusConf 2020 Presenter Peter Berkenbosch

## PayPal Made Easy

We're excited to announce that Solidus has a new payment method - [Solidus PayPal Commerce Platform](https://github.com/solidusio-contrib/solidus_paypal_commerce_platform)! This extension allows you to accept PayPal and credit/debit card payments directly to your business PayPal account, and adds some handy new features to Solidus.

###What new features does this extension add?

Well, dear reader, I'm glad you asked! In addition to adding an easy-to-use payment method, this extenion comes packed with three new features:

### Payment Setup Wizards

![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/9g5nd6b4/production/a4bad7623d776130a530979ab5bd2da002bc4a8a-758x146.png?fit=clip&q=60)

We've added a system where any payment method can add a "payment setup wizard" - easing the onboarding process. For this extension, what that means is that you can hook your website to your PayPal account at the click of a button.

### Cart Payment Buttons

![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/9g5nd6b4/production/d997d93bf10fc5b2fc3abd69604ee31843cb4fbb-1904x642.png?fit=clip&q=60)

Now your users can check out directly from your cart! This streamlined process will take the user to PayPal. During the checkout process, PayPal will collect the necessary shipping information and send it back to your server. Upon confirming the payment, the user will be taken to the order confirm page, where they can complete their order. 

### Product Payment Buttons

![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/9g5nd6b4/production/a8b82efaa56ff68dd5ab7b6e6d0bffbfc5bbf3cf-584x530.png?fit=clip&q=60)

In addition to adding payment buttons to the cart, we've also added them to the product page! Unlike the cart button, product payment buttons act as an "instant checkout" feature - this will take the user to PayPal for payment, and the order will be created and populated will all necessary information. If your users just want the one item, they can skip almost the entire checkout process. Like the cart button, on payment, the user will be directed to the order confirmation page for final confirmation.

### What does "Default Payment Method" mean?

This extension is now the default payment method of Solidus. What that means is when you install new versions of Solidus, you'll see a prompt during installation asking you what payment method you'd like to install. Currently, those options will be "paypal" - installing this extension - and "none" - installing none. Any payment methods can be added to this list with no problems, but PayPal will be the default option.

### What should I know about the installation process?

The integration process is described in the extension README, but here are some common gotchas and possible surprises:

#### Phone Number Validation

Because addresses coming from PayPal do not require phone numbers, we've turned off phone number validation for addresses. You can override this, but you'll need to create a method for getting a phone number from your customers before or after returning from PayPal.

#### Order Completion

When your customer approves a payment on PayPal, they're taken to the checkout path - which should direct them to the order confirmation page. If you've removed the order confirmation step, you'll need to adjust the javascript method that redirects users to instead complete the order.

#### Order Totals

When a user clicks the PayPal button, Solidus sends line_item, adjustment, shipping and tax totals to PayPal. If these totals don't match, PayPal will not allow checkout. If you've done extensive modifications to anything involve the order total, you'll want to review the paypal_order model for accuracy.

#### Shipping Estimates

When a user logs in or changes their address on PayPal, PayPal sends a partial shipping address (missing only street address) and expects us to return an estimate for shipping. We simulate this change in the shipping rates controller, and return what the shipping would be for that address. Then, after the user confirms their payment, we get the finalized address from PayPal. This shouldn't cause you any issues unless you have a lot of customization around shipping rates, but you should keep it in mind just in case.

### Referral Fee

This extension has been sponsored by PayPal and implemented by [Nebulab](https://nebulab.com). PayPal will pay a commission fee to the maintainers for each order placed through the new payment gateway.

## What's Next?

This extension lays the groundwork for the future of Solidus payment methods. With the default payment system, you won't have to mess with your gemfile to install your payment extension. With the setup wizard, you'll be able to set up your payment provider at the click of a button. And with product payment buttons, installing an instant checkout feature is easier than ever.

## Final words

We've worked hard on this extension, and we hope it lives up to your expectations. If you find room for improvement, feel free to open an issue or PR!

And as always, make sure you stay up-to-date on the latest Solidus news by subscribing to the [Solidus newsletter](https://solidus.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=679f4835b2683d59bc5762ec3&id=3ce07e9582).


Thanks, Solidus Community! You rock!

Learn about the new default Solidus payment method


Introducing Solidus PayPal Commerce Platform

## Introducing SolidusConf Speaker Taylor Scott


We’re proud to announce that Taylor Scott will be joining us as a presenter for **SolidusConf 2020**.

Taylor Scott is a Software Engineer at Sendoso. He has been working with Solidus for a few years, specializing in integrating Elasticsearch, custom payment methods, as well as building a physical and digital subscription service. On the line, you can find him playing games such as CoD, Elder Scrolls, and Hearts of Iron.

### The 5 W's of Application Logging

Often times when we write are logs we only include the “what” and “when”. Taylor would like to talk to us about getting the most of our application logging by discussing the importance of the “Who”, “Where”, and “why”. Having logs without context can be just as bad as no logs at all.

### [See Taylor speak at SolidusConf 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0XAmRxkr3w&list=PLLD8ikQvfJqpscVZS3yJuftojeKcsjWeV&ab_channel=Solidus)

We’re proud to announce that Taylor Scott will be joining us as a presenter for SolidusConf 2020.

SolidusConf 2020 Presenter Taylor Scott

## Introducing SolidusConf Presenter Sean Denny


We’re proud to announce that Sean Denny will be joining us as a presenter for **SolidusConf 2020**.

Sean Denny is a developer at Nebulab and member of the Solidus Stakeholders - he's also the organizer for this and previous SolidusConfs! He got his start in web development at the age of 11, learning HTML to build a [Zelda fansite](https://web.archive.org/web/20010405002630/http://zeldacraziness.tripod.com/). His design skills have improved slightly since then. After work, Sean spends his time playing guitar, video games, and listening to the worst music imaginable.

### Don't Panic: The Solidus Guide to ReactJS

How do you bring the speed of ReactJS to the flexible and scalable Solidus ecosystem? The first step: Don't panic. Sean will take you through the basics - taking a vanilla Solidus store and adding ReactJS in step by step. Follow along as we take a look at how the Solidus API interacts with React, how React routing works, and some of the benefits of using ReactJS with Solidus. Just don't forget to bring your towel.

The workshop is a new addition to the SolidusConf lineup. These sessions will be longer than our traditional speaker spots, and more technically focused - be prepared to follow along as Sean shows you how to speed up your frontend!

### [See Sean speak at SolidusConf 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHZLrhNAEo&list=PLLD8ikQvfJqpscVZS3yJuftojeKcsjWeV&index=4&pp=iAQB)

We’re proud to announce that Sean Denny will be joining us as a presenter for SolidusConf 2020.

SolidusConf 2020 Presenter Sean Denny

**Sparking community engagement and helping our open-source platform thrive, _Support Solidus_ is a _Call To Arms_ to contribute more to the platform we all love so much.**

_This article was originally posted on April 16th, 2020 to [Karma Creative](https://karmacreative.io/)'s website, you can read it here:
[Full Text of original Support Solidus Article](https://karmacreative.io/support-solidus)._


## Chapter 1: A Call To Arms

### The Movement, Its Origins, and What We Hope To Achieve

In an effort to demystify the team operating the open-source platform [Solidus](https://solidus.io/), and to rally support from members and participating stores, we’re updating the community today on the *“Support Solidus”* initiative.

The initiative is one that we at Karma Creative are proud to have spearheaded ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we did it alone. Far from it.

Rather, the idea arose out of a full year of biweekly meetings (hosted through virtual conferences on Zoom) between key members of the community. These ‘Solidus Stakeholder’ conference calls saw community members speaking out over their growing concerns and working together to solve problems and improve the platform. In need of support, these stakeholders found ways to help one another. And, just one year later, after working together as a team, we were thrilled to organize an incredible Solidus Conf 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The atmosphere there was buzzing with new ideas and goals for the platform; we could tell that over that past year the community had become truly re-energized.

Needless to say, supporting Solidus has been at the front of our minds for a while. But ever since Hawthorn left the core team and Stembolt was acquired by JUUL, the community has realized it’s even more important to come up with innovative ways to maintain, fund, and support this amazing platform that we’ve grown to love.

Luckily, in the wake of Stembolt’s departure, Nebulab truly stepped up to the plate to fill their shoes, and has done an amazing job with Solidus.

After that pivotal Southeast SolidusConf in 2018, Nebulab almost immediately pledged to hire another open-source maintainer (using their own money), and have continued their strong dedication to the platform ever since. One fantastic initiative to highlight is that every Friday, their whole company spends the day working on open-source Solidus eCommerce. Incredibly, even by a conservative estimate, they still put several hundred thousand dollars a year worth of development time into the open-source platform. Not only have they taken on a ton of the maintenance, but they’ve also contributed some very welcome funding as the top contributing Ambassador on Open Collective.

But even so, in order for this effort to be sustainable, we knew we’d need to rally even more support and create a diverse group of volunteers who love the platform as much as we do,
and want to support it and shape its future.

That's why we at Karma Creative launched the Support Solidus Initiative: *to spark community engagement and to help our open-source platform thrive.*

![Support Solidus Logo](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/9g5nd6b4/production/31b06d29f65c18e68244db115c5d3f913f5d2c0f-800x592.jpg?fit=clip)

Wouldn't it be great to put some items from YOUR roadmap directly onto the Solidus Roadmap? That's our goal: To completely align with the community and implement items that are shared between individual retailers' roadmaps.

We printed these shirts at Solidus Conf 2019 to introduce the initiative:

![Mock Up of the Support Solidus T-Shirt that was printed for Solidus Conf 2019](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/9g5nd6b4/production/75c2ba4ba78c05ef5cb6fcbf8ac425e75e6ed650-600x352.jpg?fit=clip)

At Solidus, we want the goals of our stores and the goals of the platform to be totally aligned and symbiotic. But in order to have their own needs met and supported, stores need to support Solidus in return.

From our side, we know that doing so can create a ton of opportunity. It can open doors; streamline processes; enable community work on the features and benefits you want to see; and make your business earn more money with less effort. If you care about features and functionality, and if you want your own company roadmap to be a part of the equation, then supporting the platform is a necessary and prudent investment.

![Illustration of People in the Open Source Community Standing Together](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/9g5nd6b4/production/c0a6e06e9554cd5e4de2a61a846e36f9113b90dd-800x298.jpg?fit=clip)

### And It's in Your Best Interest Too

It might help the community (those on the fence about whether or not to join in) to be given a crystal-clear image of what open-source, Solidus, and donating to the platform will offer.

To start, just by choosing open-source, you open yourself to a world of opportunity. The community and the altruism built around it is palpable in long-running open-source projects like Ruby on Rails and Solidus. Instead of licensing fees, you have a veritable army of developers collaborating together with you, supporting you, providing regular maintenance on underlying dependencies, and so much more. Sure, sometimes you have to also give back to that project, platform, and community. But doing so multiples your *own* efforts and creates a positive feedback loop: one where we gain the ability to add more new features, improve our framework, and stay more secure. Open-source is congruent with success.

But why Solidus in particular?

- Complete control over your store.
- No licensing fees.
- Strong community.
- Solid core team.
- Support for high-volume stores with varied and complex needs, with many outlying use cases and features already included on the platform.
- And it scales.

‘Support Solidus’ means promoting access to future conferences, new features, hassle free maintenance, and better support. But moreover, it means peace of mind knowing that you’re securing the future of this platform as a leading open source e-commerce framework.

### How to Support Solidus: Money, Code, and Community Events

Now, it’s important to note that supporting Solidus can be done in different ways. It also depends on your own capacity as a store or developer.

We’ve touched on this in previous talks, but it might help to have a quick refresher on how to support Solidus. Basically, there are three crucial ways:

**Money:** If more agencies and stores commit to being Ambassadors (donating $750/month), we can support even more open-source development on the platform. This applies to everyone from big retailers to small agencies. But if this isn’t affordable, then we can all chip in something, even if it’s just $10/month. Everything counts.

**Code:** Take a look at any of the open issues on the repo or any of our core extensions. Provide some review on a PR. Or why not host an open-source Friday? It could be every Friday (like Nebulab), once a month, or even just once a quarter. If you cannot afford to donate funds, we hope you can give back to the community with your time and your code.

**Community Events:** Another awesome way to spread the word about Solidus, connect with the community, and to do your part in supporting the platform is to host a community event. We still need to put together an official guide for Solidus, but a good example of what to do is provided by Hacktoberfest. Here’s a link to their [Event Kit](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/eventkit/). Interested companies can look to them for a comprehensive list of what to do. Maybe you could commit to organizing and hosting a virtual event once a quarter. Our community would benefit in a myriad of ways from this type of engagement.

Finally, if you can’t commit to any one of these three things, perhaps you could at least join us in the Solidus Stakeholders Slack chat (solidus_stakeholders) and contribute your ideas at our weekly meetings. We would seriously love to have you.

The group is made up of different people who all have a significant stake in Solidus. Most members also contribute financially through Open Collective, where there are 3 tiers of support (Ambassadors, Supporters, and Enthusiasts), each contributing a different amount each month. At Karma Creative, we chose to be an Ambassador because it meant we could:

- Support the core team, community, and platform we love
- Actively shape the direction and strategy of Solidus
- Appear in the Community section on the Solidus site
- Get our logo out there on conference materials
- Be recognized in the readme and mentioned during conferences
- Have the option to join the partnership program as a Gold partner

And that brings us to our next point, which is to look at how far we’ve come as a platform since Stembolt broke the news they were leaving. Because we think a huge part of this is thanks to how we function as a community. People say that you go farther together, and that couldn’t have been more true for us.

Since Stembolt left, we’ve been busy. And creating a Slack channel was just the first step of many. From there, we set up organizational meetings, assigned roles, created streams of funding through recurring donations to the platform, supported and learned from each other, organized and attended conferences and, most importantly, built really solid relationships and trust within the community.

And as we touched on in our talk, trust and good relationships allow us to move forward together. Without it, there’s no real way to have an honest conversation about the roadmap, next steps, collaboration, or really anything.

In summary, the Support Solidus initiative was meant, first and foremost, as a *call to arms*. With your code, through becoming an Ambassador, or by donating your time, we want to remind everyone that, together, it can be done.

## [Click to Support Solidus](https://opencollective.com/solidus/contribute/)

Sparking community engagement and helping our open-source platform thrive, Support Solidus is a Call To Arms to contribute more to the platform we all love so much.


Support Solidus

## Introducing SolidusConf Presenter Thomas Sample

We’re proud to announce that Thomas Sample will be joining us as a presenter for **SolidusConf 2020**.

Focused on Spree and Solidus since 2013, Thomas founded [Karma Creative](https://karmacreative.io/) in 2017, a full-service custom digital agency focused on Solidus, eCommerce, and SEO. There he continues to work passionately on the platform he loves, committed to working with karma, and to providing real business value through close alignment and long-lasting relationships. Thomas also loves to play guitar, go hiking, and make hot sauce.

### The 10 Best Ways to SEO Audit Your Solidus Store for Free

A step-by-step walkthrough of an SEO Audit and a workshop to learn more about SEO. Find out what's new in 2020 and grab the low-hanging fruit for your Solidus Store. We'll focus in on the most important tips this time to make sure we see results by the end of the session.

The workshop is a new addition to the SolidusConf lineup. These sessions will be longer than our traditional speaker spots, and more technically focused - be prepared to follow along as Thomas shows up the SEO ropes!

### [See Thomas speak at SolidusConf 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_5HEJtA8I0&list=PLLD8ikQvfJqpscVZS3yJuftojeKcsjWeV&index=9&pp=iAQB)

We’re proud to announce that Thomas Sample will be joining us as a presenter for SolidusConf 2020.

The Solidus Blog