All Concepts articles

Explanations and background information for important concepts and design decisions behind the platform.

• Users and authentication in Flex

  This article explains how users are managed and how authentication and authorization works in Flex.

• Social logins & SSO

  Flex allows your users to authenticate themselves using a 3rd party identity provider.

• Listings in Flex

  Flex powers online marketplaces, and listings are at the core of any marketplace. This article explains the different aspects of listings in Flex.

• How the listing search works

  Listings search can be crucial for your marketplace to thrive. Providing people with the right kind of search parameters and filters will help the users to easily find listings relevant to their needs.

• Requiring approval for new listings

  Flex allows you to require operator approval for new listings before they are published. This article explains the feature and describes how to take listing approval into use in both Flex Console and Flex CLI.

• Introduction to transaction processes

  This article introduces transaction processes as a concept, their parts, and how they define user interactions and order flows in your marketplace.

• Privileged transitions

  This article introduces you to the concept of privileged transitions and how Flex uses them to invoke actions from a trusted context.

• Changing your transaction process

  How to create and communicate a new transaction processes or make changes to an existing one

• Reviews

  This article introduces reviews in the Flex marketplace, why they are important, and how they relate to the transaction process.

• Payments in Flex

  This article introduces how payments work in Flex in general, and describes the default Stripe payment gateway integration

• Payment methods overview

  This article provides an overview of different payment methods in Flex.

• Using stored payment cards

  This article gives you a brief overview on how the Flex functionality for storing credit and debit cards works and what are the different use cases for it.

• Automatic off-session payments in transaction process

  With off-session payments, you can automatically charge your customers closer to their booking times. This allows for money to be held in Stripe throughout the booking period even when the booking is placed long time in advance.

• How PaymentIntents work

  Overview of how Stripe PaymentIntents work with Sharetribe Flex, and how you can build your transaction process with support for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).

• Solving payout problems

  A payout is the part of the payment process where the price of an order is paid to the provider's bank account. This article gives you an overview of how payments work in Flex, what problems you may encounter with payouts, and how to solve those problems.

• How Strong Customer Authentication works

  This article gives an overview of Strong Customer Authentication, a way to add additional security to online payments required by European legislation.

• Applications

  Flex Applications are the entities that authenticate to and access the Flex APIs.

• Flex environments

  What are Flex environments and the differences the three types have.

• Understanding Console

  This article will help you understand how to navigate Console.

• API Reference

  Introduction to the Sharetribe Marketplace API reference documentation.

• Authentication API

  Description of the Flex Authentication API and how the Marketplace API and Integration API applications use it

• JavaScript SDKs

  Information on our SDKs and where to find our SDK documentation

• Flex Marketplace API and Integration API

  Description of the different Flex APIs and how to choose which one to use

• Rate limiting in Marketplace API and Integration API

  This article describes rate limiting in Marketplace API and Integration API, as well as suggests how to handle those limits gracefully.

• Inventory management

  Inventory or stock management is a key feature of many product marketplaces. Here’s how Flex’s stock management works.

• Manage seats

  You can manage the capacity of an event or a rental space within a specific time frame with seats.

• Introduction to extended data

  Extended data allows you to fully customize the information you want to collect about users, listings, and transactions on your marketplace.

• Listing extended data

  Listing extended data allows you to use the powerful search engine in Flex, as well as customise your listing information.

• Transaction extended data

  Transaction extended data allows you to keep sensitive information stored and visible for both transaction parties, as well as add information related to, for example, integrations or analytics.

• User extended data

  User extended data allows you to distinguish between different types of users, such as customer and providers or regular and verified providers, as well as share sensitive information to a transaction counterparty.

• Commissions and monetizing your platform

  Flex provides configurable options for monetizing your platform. You can collect commissions from providers, customers, or both. This article provides you with basic information on the mechanisms supported by Flex for monetizing your platform.

• Pricing

  Flex allows lots of flexibility for your providers in terms of how they can set their pricing. This guide walks you through how price is defined in Flex.