case study
Modernizing and maintaining a global trade show marketplace
Upgrading from Rails 5 to 8 and boosting SEO health without disrupting live operations.
A legacy multi-platform trade show marketplace was buckling under technical debt, security vulnerabilities, and manual operational workflows.
About
- Client: Exhibit Trader
- Industry: Event Marketing & B2B E-commerce
- Location: Texas, USA
- Year: 2024
Scope of work
- Legacy Platform Modernization (Rails & Ruby Upgrades)
- Cross-Platform Integration & Maintenance
- SEO Health Monitoring & Workflow Automation
Future-proofing a complex, multi-platform marketplace without disrupting live business operations.
The client operated a distinctive three-layer architecture: a Ruby on Rails Seller Portal, a Salesforce Operations Platform, and an Angular Customer Marketplace.
Years of accumulated technical debt caused security vulnerabilities, compatibility gaps, and SEO issues, while manual workflows consumed operational time. Our brief:
- Execute a phased, zero-downtime upgrade from Rails 5 to Rails 8 and Ruby 2.5 to 3.4
- Systematically resolve years of SEO debt and improve organic visibility
- Automate recurring manual tasks and maintain seamless cross-platform data sync
Common questions
A complete rewrite would disrupt live operations and halt new feature delivery. A phased, ongoing support model allowed us to modernize the platform incrementally while keeping the business running.
We dedicated specialized resources, including a Salesforce developer and Rails experts, to maintain and strengthen the bidirectional data sync and REST API integrations between the Rails, Salesforce, and Angular layers.
No. We delivered new marketplace features and business enhancements in parallel sprint cycles alongside bug fixes and automation, ensuring no trade-off between stability and progress.
For a B2B marketplace, platform stability and search visibility are the heartbeat of the business. With years of technical debt and manual workflows threatening growth, we stepped in as a long-term partner to systematically clear SEO backlogs, automate operations, and execute a massive Rails upgrade without missing a beat.
A phased, zero-downtime modernization strategy that balances stability with continuous progress.
STEP
01
Platform Modernization
Managed a complex, multi-step upgrade from Rails 5.0.2 to 8.0.2 and Ruby 2.5.9 to 3.4.4, expanding RSpec test coverage to ensure zero breakages.
02
SEO & Stability Optimization
Conducted a thorough SEO audit to systematically fix duplicate tags, missing H1s, and broken links, while triaging and resolving daily bugs across all platforms.
03
Automation & Integration Maintenance
Automated recurring manual tasks like report generation using Sidekiq, and reinforced bidirectional data sync between the Rails portal and Salesforce.
A secure, scalable, and highly visible marketplace foundation built for long-term growth.
8.0.2
Rails version achieved
Upgraded from Rails 5.0.2 to 8.0.2 (and Ruby to 3.4.4) with zero disruption to live operations.
69%
SEO health score
Boosted from 62%, drastically reducing duplicate tags, missing H1s, and broken external links.
100%
parallel delivery
New feature delivery and workflow automation achieved alongside critical maintenance, with no trade-offs.
The bottom line
The trade show marketplace proved that legacy platforms don't need risky, disruptive rewrites to become future-ready. By partnering with Railsfactory for ongoing support, they successfully executed a massive Rails 8 upgrade, cleared years of SEO debt, and automated manual workflows, creating a stable, scalable foundation for continuous growth.
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