Skip to content
03 / Laravel / FMS Integrations

Self-Storage Widget Platform

A Laravel-based platform for building configurable self-storage widgets connected to external facility management systems, supporting synchronized unit data, availability and reservation workflows.

Role Full-Stack Developer
Platform Embeddable Widget SaaS
Integrations SiteLink + storEDGE
Backend Laravel
Laravel PHP SiteLink storEDGE SOAP REST Tailwind CSS MySQL

Project Overview

The application acts as a bridge between external facility-management systems and embeddable website widgets. The core flow connects storage facilities, synchronizes facility information, retrieves unit data, normalizes FMS responses, configures customer-facing widgets, displays current unit availability and supports reservation workflows.

Application Widget Integration Platform
Backend Laravel
External Systems SiteLink + storEDGE
Delivery Embeddable Widgets
The Challenge

Translating external systems into a consistent frontend.

Self-storage facilities often rely on external management systems as the source of truth for facilities, units, availability and reservations. A customer-facing widget must translate those external systems into a consistent and reliable frontend experience.

01

Different External APIs

SiteLink and storEDGE expose different integration patterns and response formats.

02

Data Synchronization

Facilities and unit information must remain aligned with external source systems.

03

Widget Consistency

Customers should see a consistent UI even though the underlying data may come from different FMS providers.

04

Reservation Workflows

Selected units and reservation actions must remain connected to the appropriate facility and source system.

Integration Architecture

One widget layer. Multiple facility systems.

Facility & Unit Sync

Keeping widget data connected to the source.

Fetch Validate Normalize Store Expose to Widget
Widget Experiences

Different interfaces built from the same data.

01

Spotlight Widget

A focused promotional widget showing a few available unit options.

02

Unit Grid

A card-based storage unit interface.

03

Unit List

A structured list/table interface.

Data Normalization

Different APIs. One internal structure.

SiteLink and storEDGE can provide similar business concepts through different APIs and payload structures.

Core Capabilities

Built around integration and reuse.

01 Embeddable Widget Architecture
02 SiteLink Integration
03 storEDGE Integration
04 Facility Synchronization
05 Unit Synchronization
06 Availability Processing
07 Widget Configuration
08 Spotlight Widget
09 Unit Grid
10 Unit List
11 Reservation Workflows
12 External FMS Data Processing
Reservation Flow

From available unit to reservation workflow.

The frontend widget should remain simple for users while the backend keeps the selected facility, unit and external management system aligned throughout the reservation process.

Engineering Challenges

Problems and how they were solved.

01

Multiple FMS Providers

Problem

Different storage management systems expose different API styles, authentication mechanisms and data structures.

Solution

Keep provider-specific integration logic separate while exposing normalized application data to the rest of the Laravel platform.

02

SOAP Integration

Problem

SiteLink integration relies on SOAP-style requests rather than a modern REST interface.

Solution

Create a dedicated integration layer responsible for constructing requests, handling SOAP responses and transforming useful facility information into application data.

03

REST Integration

Problem

storEDGE uses a different API model and authentication flow.

Solution

Handle storEDGE as an independent provider while translating its responses into the same internal concepts used by widgets.

04

Unit Synchronization

Problem

Unit availability can change externally and widget data must remain aligned with the source system.

Solution

Use synchronization workflows to refresh facility and unit information before exposing it through customer-facing widgets.

05

Reusable Widget Delivery

Problem

Different websites need storage widgets without duplicating the core business logic.

Solution

Separate data/integration logic from the presentation layer and render reusable widget experiences from the same normalized facility and unit data.

Technology Stack

Tools behind the platform.

Laravel Application framework
PHP Backend language
Blade Templating
Tailwind CSS Widget styling
MySQL Relational database
SiteLink FMS integration
storEDGE FMS integration
SOAP SiteLink protocol
REST APIs storEDGE protocol
Laravel Queues Background sync
Outcome

A reusable widget layer between facilities and customers.

The platform creates a consistent Laravel-based layer for connecting external facility management systems with embeddable storage widgets, allowing synchronized facility and unit information to power customer-facing availability and reservation experiences.

  • Multiple FMS integrations
  • Synchronized facility data
  • Synchronized unit data
  • Reusable widget architecture
  • Responsive widget interfaces
  • Reservation workflow foundation
Previous Project SEO Analytics Platform Next Project CustomsFlow SaaS