1. Deploying Umbraco in China
Tales from an Umbraco Localisation Project
Paul Marden
Carbon Six Digital
Morning everyone my name’s Paul Marden from Carbon Six Digital. We’re an Umbraco Gold Partner based just outside of London - we’re a small development agency who focus solely on projects that feature Umbraco. I’ve been building sites with Umbraco for 10 years now, and this is my fourth or fifth Code Garden in that time.

2. It was billed as a tale of triumph and success...
So today I’m going to tell you a few stories from the experience we’ve had with localising a complex web and mobile app with Umbraco at it’s core. I pitched this talk months ago when the call for talks opened, as a tale of triumph and success from the trenchs. However, you’ll see in a minute that my expectation that the project will have been over for months by the time Code Garden comes around, was perhaps a little optimistic.
This isn’t a highly technical talk - that would be difficult for me in 15 minutes anyway - instead this is a practical discussion around the challenges of launching a system in China.

3. First lets start with an introduction.
Pulse Fitness is a UK fitness equipment manufacturer, interior design agency for fitness industry and a gym operator with a long pedigree.
They’re the only manufacturer to design and assemble fitness equipment like treadmills and exercise bikes in the UK.

4. PulseMove is their Connected fitness environment which enables gym users to access their fitness data anywhere via mobile and web apps, and to track their exercise outside the gym following plans set by their instructor.
The system has evolved from Windows Forms based Kiosk application over a decade

5. iOS App Android App WinForms Kiosk App Web App WebApi Umbraco
Business Logic Layer
C6Ds
Responsibility
Umbraco DB
Gym DBs
Now the system spans mobile apps on IOS and Android as well as a web app, and the existing Kiosk application.
C6D involved since 2014
Initially delivering
Cloud based database
Web App
Mobile API

6. iOS App Android App WinForms Kiosk App Web App WebApi Umbraco
Business Logic Layer
C6Ds
Responsibility
Umbraco DB
Gym DBs
In the last year our responsiblity has grown in the system so that we now manage the native mobile apps as well as the existing bits

7. 2017/8 Goal: Launch in China
In 2016 pulse decided to expand their manufacturing sales into China.

8. PHASE 1 Setup Seoul infrastructure
Create our registration system to enable members to sign up in gym or online
Create the necessary databases and webapps
Localisation of the Apps and launch in China App Stores
We agreed to split the project into two phases
Initial prototype - last year
Full implementation - planned for this year

9. LESSONS LEARNT Our 4-year old architecture plan was sound
We completed the prototype last year and it really taught us a lot.
Firstly around our infrastructure plans
We knew from the outset that PulseMove needed to be a globally distributed application, as we have clients
All of our hosting is done in AWS, as it gave us the best global coverage for Pulse when we designed our work.

10. (Dublin - Serving UK, Europe & Middle East)
UK Web Instance Instance
IE Web Instance Instance
Customer 1
uk.pulsemove.com
Customer 1
ie.pulsemove.com
Web Server
Customer 2
Customer 2
DB Server
EU-West-1
(Dublin - Serving UK, Europe & Middle East)
UK SQL Server Instance
Ireland SQL Server Instance
Customer 1
Customer 1
Customer 2
Customer 2
Physical Architecture Europe
We designed an infrastructure plan which would see regional clusters setup worldwide, and that we would determine if a new cluster was required on a country-by-country basis. The key determinant being network latency.

11. (Seoul - Serving CN & SP)
CN Web Instance Instance
SG Web Instance Instance
Customer 1
cn.pulsemove.com
Customer 1
sp.pulsemove.com
Web Server
Customer 2
Customer 2
DB Server
AP-NorthEast-2
(Seoul - Serving CN & SP)
CN SQL Server Instance
SG SQL Server Instance
Customer 1
Customer 1
Customer 2
Customer 2
Asia Phase 1
As Pulse has plans to launch elsewhere in Asia we decided that we would setup shop in Seoul.
We undertook tests of the mobile and web app in Beijing and hosted in Seoul
Really positive outcomes that showed the mobile and web app performed well with low latency

12. LEASONS LEARNT Our 4yr old infrastructure plan was sound
Latency from Seoul to Beijing was fine for Apps
Just because Chinese firewall works in some respects from outside in, it doesn't always
Chinese market is not like any market we've seen before
Localisation is more than translation
Smart cards don’t work
Social Media is WeChat not Facebook
However, after doing a successful prototype we found that when we made the app available in soft launch, that people were signing up but not receiving our activation s, rendering the whole prototype functionally useless.
China is a highly regulated market, the Great Firewall of China is a set of technologies and policies that regulate the internet. It's pretty amorphous - when you read stories what is blocked varies based on where it is located, the content and by time - what is accessible inside China today may not be tomorrow.
And what bit us is that it's not just http that's regulated, not all mail sent from outside China to really common hosts such as qq.com. when you google this problem it's a common issue.
But bigger than the technical lessons, were the Product lessons we learnt in the marketplace - we’ve done a lot of localistion projects where we’ve translated content from one language to another, but we found that in China that wasn’t enough.
We found issues with the core of the technology used to connect the gym equipment together - Smart Card technology is just not that widely used in China, and it is core to the way gym users interact with equipment and transfer data from machine to machine and back to our cloud database.
We found that while is in use in China, that users are completely comfortable with interaction with brands via an Integrated Messaging and Social Media platform called WeChat

13. PHASE 2 Replace the Smart Cards with NFC wristbands Enable activation
Improve s Deliverability
WeChat Messaging (Requires an ICP license)
Relocate the servers inside the firewall (Requires an ICP license)
Single Global Domain
And so with that in mind our Phase 2 development has delivered a number of improvements
We quickly established that it’s incredibly difficult to ensure deliverability to the major hosts from outside china into China
So we looked at integrating with WeChat to send messages via their API - but you need a license from the Chinese Government to access the WeChat API.
There are two types of Internet Content Provider licenses: Filings and Registrations. Both of which require some element of legal representation in China, and you need to be a native Chinese speaker to make the application. You're going to struggle if you try to Google Translate these forms.
Finaly we settled on moving the servers into Beijing for the China Market. But hey you need an ICP license.
We've also moved from Country top level domains across to a single global domain

14. SINGLE GLOBAL DOMAIN
Enable to serve a fast landing page experience anywhere
Enable users to access their account anywhere
Uses AWS Cloudflare to configure the domain redirections
pulsemove.com
uk.pulsemove.com
Country Cookie Set?
Show country picker & set cookie
Country Cookie Set?
cn.pulsemove.com
Show country landing page
Show country picker & set cookie
The goal of this global domain name was to be able to use PulseMove.com as a single domain, and wherever you are in the world we’ll redirect you to the closest Regional Cluster.
We built this really easily in Amazon Cloud front, and we've used cookies to be able to redirect you to your home country instance once you've registered and return to the top level domains.

15. PHASE 2 PROGRESS NFC has been prototyped and now in full production
ICP Filing is now complete
Single global domain is complete
Next up...
Setup AWS CN servers
Integrate with WeChat

16. It was billed as a tale of triumph and success…
But in the end delivery in China is an ongoing challenge.
So let's go back to my pitch to Ilham - I'm going to tell the story of releasing a system into China.
Well it's hard - the market has different behaviours and needs, and it's a highly regulated environment which can really slow you down.
but...

17. THANK YOU Paul Marden Twitter: @paulmarden
Carbon Six Digital carbonsix.digital
We have a Product that has evolved in response to a new environment and that now being marketed, it needs more work, but that's what makes this thing fun.