Note: this project is in very early stage development - the API is likely to change considerably and the feature set is currently too incomplete to implement a fully working e-commerce site. Having said that, it's under active development and I hope to be using it in production soon. If you're interested in the project (using, helping etc), please contact me directly to discuss.
ECOSystem arises from a frustration with existing and traditional approaches to building e-commerce websites. I experienced these frustrations over 10 years as the owner of an e-commerce business and the main developer responsible for our site.
I believe that the software a merchant chooses to run their e-commerce site should be as independent as possible from the other software, tools and processes they use to run their business. This approach of loosely-coupled modules allows a merchant to pick and choose the very best software available for each discrete function within their business. ECOsystem is designed to implement just one layer in a loosely-coupled 'ecosystem' of e-commerce components - it would typically sit on top of a merchant's enterprise software and other backends, as well as interface with other cloud-based APIs, like content providers, review software, analytics, payment processing etc.
This is a very rough and ready summary of the main things you need to know about ECOSystem, including architecture, design philosophy and motivation:
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Not just a backend: ECOSystem includes functionality to actually generate and display an e-commerce website. It does this in a data-driven, CMS-less way - using a JSON feed of product information which is supposed to be taken directly from the merchant's business backend software. There is no replication of data required - no secondary 'website' database to maintain - integration is primary. Merchant's manage their inventory in their usual software, not a blogging platform, bloated CMS or some other proprietory database.
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Traditional client-server architecture: ECOSystem is not a RESTful JSON API, nor is it a client-side Javascript app. ECOSystem generates pages and partials. The 'slow' information on a page (think product descriptions, images, category layout etc) is rendered on the server and delivered in one HTML request. Faster moving 'components' (e.g the cart) are also rendered server-side and delivered as partials to be loaded into the relevent portions of the page. The result is an SEO-friendly site, with fast initial load and snappy, app-like interface.