Balla Loctician: Full-Stack Salon Platform

◈AI Automation

A full-stack salon management platform for Balla Loctician (Harlem, NYC) that drove $5K+ in new revenue for the client. Vanilla JS single-page frontend on Vercel, Django REST API on Google Cloud Run, and a Cloudflare Worker + D1 booking tracker running at the edge. Clients book appointments against live Apple iCloud CalDAV and Google Calendar availability, pay deposits via Stripe, and the owner gets real-time booking alerts through a password-protected dashboard shared with his business partner. Every page on the frontend ships with offline fallback data — if the API is unreachable, the site still renders and bookings still land through the edge worker.

Technology Stack

DjangoPythonVanilla JSVercelGoogle Cloud RunCloudflare WorkersCloudflare D1StripePostgreSQLCalDAVGoogle Calendar API

System Architecture

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Specifications

▸$5K+ in New Revenue: Platform drove over $5,000 in bookings for the salon in its first months of launch
▸Offline-First SPA: Hardcoded fallback data means every page renders even if the Django API is unreachable
▸Edge Booking Tracker: Cloudflare Worker + D1 captures every form submission instantly — no polling, no cron
▸Password-Protected Dashboard: Shared HTML dashboard with CSV export, accessible to the owner and business partner via a single shared password
▸Live Calendar Availability: Apple iCloud CalDAV + Google Calendar API read the owner's real calendar — only free slots are offered
▸Stripe Deposit Checkout: Checkout sessions with webhook handler for appointment deposits — reduces no-shows
▸HTMX Management Panel: Server-rendered admin dashboard for the owner to manage appointments, barbers, services, and reviews
▸Token-Auth REST API: Full CRUD with Swagger docs, django-filter, and LimitOffsetPagination across all resources
▸Parallel Redundant Delivery: Fire-and-forget POST to Worker + Web3Forms email — bookings land even if one path fails

Design Decisions

Challenge	Solution
Bookings could not depend on the backend being up	Fire-and-forget parallel POST from the browser — Cloudflare Worker logs it, Web3Forms emails it, Stripe takes payment
Owner needed real-time visibility shared with his partner	Cloudflare Worker + D1 + password-protected HTML dashboard — single shared Worker secret, no accounts to manage
Booking slots had to reflect the owner's real calendar	Apple iCloud CalDAV + Google Calendar API — merged free/busy feed drives the available time slots
No-shows were hurting revenue	Stripe Checkout deposit on booking confirmation, captured via webhook
Frontend needed to be fast and easy to maintain	Vanilla JS ES6 modules + CSS custom properties — zero build step, instant deploy, tiny bundle
Owner is non-technical	HTMX-powered management dashboard + Django admin — server-rendered, no SPA complexity for the operator
API deployment blocked by GCP access	Moved the critical booking path to Cloudflare edge so revenue capture keeps working independent of Cloud Run

Process Flow

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