Building a Seat Generator PoC with AI Assistance

Hello!

If you've ever hesitated to build a Proof of Concept or a feature for a sales demo because it felt too complex or time-consuming, I have good news: AI-assisted development has changed the game. Today, I want to share my experience building a complete seat generator and bulk seat assignment system for an event management application - with the help of Claude.

The Challenge: Seat Management for Events

Event management is complex. When you're running conferences, galas, or concerts, you need to handle:

  • Different venue layouts - theater-style rows, banquet tables, or standing zones
  • Seat inventory generation - creating hundreds or thousands of seat records with proper numbering
  • Bulk assignments - matching participants to seats efficiently
  • VIP handling - distinguishing premium seating from standard areas

Building this from scratch? It sounds like a multi-sprint project. But here's the thing - it doesn't have to be.

What We Built

Working with Claude, I created a comprehensive seat management solution consisting of:

1. Guided Seat Generator (LWC)

A wizard-based component embedded in Salesforce Flow that supports three seating configurations:

  • Row-Based Seating - Theater or auditorium style with configurable rows, seats per row, VIP rows, and aisle positions
  • Table-Based Seating - Banquet style with tables and seats around them
  • Standing Zones - Festival-style areas like "Golden Circle" or "Fan Zone" with capacity-based management

The component includes a live preview that lets users click individual seats to change their type before generating the inventory.

2. Bulk Seat Assignment (LWC)

A powerful interface for event organizers to:

  • View all participants with their current seat assignments
  • Filter by assigned/unassigned status or seat type
  • Search participants by name, email, or package
  • Manually assign seats via dropdown selectors
  • Auto-assign seats randomly with a single click using the Fisher-Yates shuffle algorithm

3. Supporting Apex Classes

Invocable Apex classes that handle the heavy lifting:

  • Capacity validation against event limits
  • Bulk seat record creation with proper error handling
  • Transaction management with savepoints for rollback

The AI-Assisted Development Experience

Here's what made this project different from traditional development:

Conversational Problem-Solving

Instead of spending hours researching patterns and syntax, I described what I needed in plain language. Claude understood the domain context - event management, Salesforce platform constraints, LWC best practices - and translated requirements into working code.

Rapid Iteration

When I wanted to add Roman numeral formatting for row numbers (I, II, III...) or alphabetic seat labels (A, B, C...), it was a quick conversation. The implementation appeared in minutes, complete with edge case handling.

Best Practices Built-In

The generated code follows Salesforce conventions:

  • Proper use of @track decorators for reactive state
  • FlowAttributeChangeEvent for Flow integration
  • Invocable methods with proper annotations for Flow builders
  • With sharing enforcement for security
  • Comprehensive error handling and validation

Documentation as You Go

Every Apex class came with JSDoc-style comments explaining what each method does. The code is self-documenting, which is exactly what you need for a PoC that might evolve into production code.

Why This Matters for Sales Demos

When you're demonstrating your product to prospects, you often need features that don't exist yet. Maybe they're on the Q3 roadmap, or maybe they're nice-to-have features that haven't been prioritized.

With AI assistance, you can:

  • Build functional PoCs in hours, not weeks - show real, working functionality instead of mockups
  • Customize demos for specific prospects - if a prospect needs table-based seating for their gala events, you can show them exactly that
  • Validate ideas before committing resources - test whether a feature concept actually solves the problem before full development
  • Impress stakeholders - nothing beats a live demo of working software

The "Scary" Parts That Weren't

Let me address what I thought would be challenging:

"Complex UI interactions" - The seat preview with clickable elements and real-time updates? Claude generated the CSS grid layout and click handlers seamlessly.

"Algorithm implementation" - Roman numeral conversion, alphabetic sequence generation, Fisher-Yates shuffle for random assignment - all provided with correct implementations.

"Flow integration" - Getting LWC to work with Screen Flows, including bidirectional data binding with @api properties and validation - handled correctly from the start.

"Capacity calculations" - Aggregating package capacities, tracking existing seats, validating against limits - the Apex code handles all edge cases.

Key Takeaways

  1. Start with the outcome, not the implementation - Describe what you want users to experience. AI excels at translating user stories into technical solutions.

  2. Iterate in small steps - Build the basic version first, then add features incrementally. Each conversation builds on the previous context.

  3. Trust but verify - AI-generated code should still be reviewed and tested. But the heavy lifting of initial implementation is done for you.

  4. Don't be afraid of complexity - What looks like a complex feature (wizard with multiple steps, live preview, bulk operations) breaks down into manageable pieces when you work through it conversationally.

Try It Yourself

If you've been putting off building that PoC or demo feature because it seemed too ambitious, I encourage you to give AI-assisted development a try.

The seat generator project took a fraction of the time traditional development would have required. And more importantly, it was fun - collaborating with an AI that understands your domain and can keep up with your vision.

What feature have you been hesitant to build? I'd love to hear about your experiences with AI-assisted development in the comments!

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