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Mike Kruglov returns to present a case study on his powerful QR Toolkit plugin—a generator, parser, music player, and mindmap creator that accepts TON payments.
Mike Kruglov is a Directual veteran; he’s built a whole host of different projects and continues his fruitful no-code journey with Directual’s help. This time, we’re going to take a look at one of the latest projects he’s bringing to the table for everyone—a super-plugin, QR Toolkit, that packs a lot more than it would seem at a glance.
Mike is a seasoned no-coder. Previously, he has already shared his journey of building a successful solo dev agency powered by Directual’s help. The projects he’s working on grow in both quantity and complexity. You can read the previous case study here.
Oh, and this top gun is for hire: be sure to drop him a message if you want something awesome built, fast.
At this point, the only real challenge is time. With 15 more plugins on the way, you have to be able to balance development performance with quality. Apart from other client-oriented projects, each with its own requirements, the only thing worth noting here would be harnessing the desire to create more (tacky, but true).
The other challenge was rather an opportunity: a QR Toolkit with the features I had in mind is nowhere to be found. That involves creating things from scratch, and making sure they all work well.
You can see the previous case study for more details on this. Long story short—a desire to build without code has always been strong. A stumble upon Directual somewhere in the social media space (this was a while ago) really directed the journey of what my business is now.
Backend: Directual
Frontend: Directual
Payments: CryptoPay (Directual plugin, also built by me)
To start with, the plugin is already live, and you can use it yourself! To find it, head over to your Directual app, go to Plugins, then to Marketplace, and scroll until you find QR Toolkit.
Basically, one of the clients I had requested a QR generator for their own purposes. This was an easy thing to build, and once I did, I figured I could do so much more with this. Think about it: just about any business out there can utilize QR codes. Marketplaces, restaurants, government branches, entrepreneurs, games, anyone. But that’s only one side of the story—a proper parser is also needed to take it to the next level. And then…what about customization?
All of these thoughts swirled in my head and I just started creating. At first, this was a plugin built on the frontend only—the backend was elsewhere. Then, to my audience, I have announced that it would become more—bigger, stronger, and with proper backend on Directual.
And then…6 months passed—life is life.
Once I had returned to this project and thought everything over, I realized that a proper system with the scale I wanted it to be wouldn’t be easy to make. The main problem was understanding how payments should be defined, based on a request to the server. Solved—a token sent to the server, and paid via TON.
That was indeed another big reason why waiting for a bit was a good idea: TON and Telegram Mini Apps are taking off. Thanks to CryptoPay, a plugin I built earlier, making the two work together was easy.
Now, the features of the plugin.
You can create customized QR codes with your own custom design. That involves frames, logos, custom design, and so much more. The QR code image is then either shown to the user in the plugin, or within the frontend interface elsewhere. Again, just play with it yourself and see how much is available on the basic plan in the demo.
What’s more, on the Pro plan, you can copy the code and wrap it into HTML to get generation done on your website as it happens, as well as create versatile templates fit for just about any use.
My idea is to let anyone create their own services, or even ecosystems, that involve QR codes. And the best bit—all of this is instant.
A little bit on the nose, but you can also pay for the plugin use via QR codes as well! Telegram will then process the transaction in TON and you get access to the plan you want instantly. Both the customer and me will get confirmation emails, with the transaction key included.
On top of it all, there’s also a music player and an AI-powered mindmap generator. Yup!
Scalable, powerful, integrates with anything. It has proven its worth ten times over. Plus, a direct line to the founders—this level of support is simply unmatched. You can’t even hope to get that with Bubble, for instance.
Directual needs polishing. There are little things here and there that would make life a little bit easier, and the plugin ecosystem must be a lot wider. I’ve already communicated what I would like to improve within the platform to Pavel, and as far as I’m concerned, I know it will be done. Besides that, I don’t create plugins that can’t be fully completed without having to resort to third-party services.
Ah, and yes, the frontend elements. With enough love, Directual’s frontend capabilities will match any service out there on the market. I understand, however, that there are priorities. No doubt they’ll get there eventually.
I’ve already covered this a little bit, but I want to create an entire ecosystem of plugins for Directual. This particular plugin will grow to have its own little marketplace of templates and use case variations so that anyone and everyone needing a QR code, a QR code parser, or anything in between—can find something they need.
No-code is all about being able to build things fast. To do so, you need templates, plugins, and other pre-made blocks. The community can pitch in for this, and this is what I plan to keep on doing.
Be sure to send a message to Mike if you’d like something built, or chat with him or our founders yourself—the links to the communities are in the footer below. Thanks for reading!
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