ICFES Application

https://www.icfes.gov.co/seminario-2020

Web application with security applied on three fronts

Background:

The Colombian Institute for the Evaluation of Education (ICFES) sought to develop a mobile application for the iOS and Android platforms, using Drupal 8 and Flutter technology with the aim of creating multi-platform, high-performance native applications that allow the integration of functionalities and services of the Exea Media Web Event Box platform, according to the specification of functional and non-functional requirements.

The specific objectives for the development of the project were:

Allow users of the mobile application to access relevant information about the events.
Allow guest users access to live broadcasts on the Exea Media platform.

Connect the application with monitoring services and collection of usage statistics provided by the Exea Media platform.

Why was Drupal 8 chosen?

Drupal 8 through its integration layer allowed us to exchange data between the backend and the frontend. In this case for the frontend we use Flutter, which is Google's user interface toolkit for creating natively compiled applications for mobile, web and desktop devices from a single code base, it was chosen because it is possible to use a programming language and a code base to create two different applications (for iOS and Android).

Advantages of using these tools:

Optimization of loading time for content.
Expressive and flexible user interface.
Native features, the code used is suitable for any platform and it is not necessary to write custom code.

Project description:

The development of the ICFES application met the following requirements:

The design of the application had to comply with the accepted design guidelines for both Android and iOS.

The design of the application had to be in accordance with the specifications of the use of corporate image requested by the client.

The design of the application had to be easily adaptable to other brands by changing elements such as: Fonts, color scheme, logos and images.

The application had to be supported by devices with Android version 6 or higher.

The application had to be supported by devices with version of iOS 7 or higher.

The application had to consume services provided by the Exea Media Web Event Box platform API to perform operations that require the use of persistent data or access manageable content.

The format of the views considered should be vertical for all pages, except for full screen views (video playback).

Within the improvement process we help Icfes app to:

We help ICFES with security applied on three fronts, taking into account the integration model proposed in the general architecture.

Drupal Security: Taking advantage of the fact that the Drupal community pays a lot of attention to security with its specialized team that is continuously supervising all the modules with stable versions published on the official “drupal.org” page, this project will work with these versions. Similarly, to ensure high security standards, the Drupal APIs that automatically assert security will be used and the set of best practices for writing secure code will be applied, which are widely described in the relevant section of the Drupal documentation shared at this community.

Security Mobile application: The implementation of the mobile application is designed to comply with all the standards and policies defined in Google Play Protect and the Apple App Store, in order to obtain the certification of secure applications that allow publication in stores.

Integration Security: The exchange of messages between the portal and the mobile application will use security tokens, which guarantee access to information in a unique and secure way.

Result:

The result is a web application that allows users to access relevant information about events to be held, as well as being able to connect to live broadcasts through Exea Media's Web Event Box platform. Through this platform, monitoring services and collection of usage statistics are offered.