Plugins, direct database access, custom integrations: how far you can really customise JTL-Wawi when the standard is not enough.
JTL-Wawi and the JTL-Shop cover a surprising amount. For most businesses the standard is enough for a long time. But sooner or later almost everyone hits the sentence: "It can't do that one thing." That is exactly where it gets interesting.
The first step is usually a plugin. For the JTL-Shop and for Wawi you can add features without breaking anything at the core. New fields, custom workflows, extra outputs. A lot of what is missing in the standard can be solved cleanly as a plugin. What to watch out for so a plugin does not break on every update is in three pitfalls with JTL plugins.
When a plugin is not enough, it goes deeper. JTL stores its data in an SQL database, and you can have your own software work with it directly: read, write, connect. That is powerful, but also delicate. Anyone who goes in without understanding the structure does more harm than good. With the necessary respect for the database, you can build things the standard never could.
The top tier is custom integrations that connect Wawi with the outside world. Shop, marketplaces, accounting, shipping, or your own cloud modules. I described one example here: a module that brings quotes straight from the shop into Wawi, exactly as if an employee had created them by hand.
Through all of this, one simple rule applies for me: better to build the missing feature than to bend your process around the software. Too often businesses adapt their workflows to whatever the program happens to do. It should be the other way round. The software has to fit your business, not the other way around.
What I see again and again: manual work treated as normal because it has always been that way. Typing data from one system into the next, exports someone kicks off by hand every morning. Almost all of it can be done away with. The only question is whether it pays off, and I do that math for you honestly upfront.
JTL-Wawi can be customised much further than most people think. When the standard hits a limit for you, that does not have to be the end.
Take a look at my work in the JTL space or message me, and we will find out what is possible for you.