ID-Queue

The first challenge was to choose the right approach to build the optimal solution architecture for mobile application development.

The primary source of the problem – developers had to work with an existing database. This database already contained data and had its structure. Still, all this is complicated by the fact that there was a web solution that worked with the database directly through regular queries without any APIs.

So, DOIT’s task was to find developers who could not only build a project on the existing solution but also extend the API endpoints that can be used for the mobile application.

Since there was no access to the web solution but only to the database, DOIT suggested focusing on developers who could:

– build a separate Backend instance where APIs for mobile App are located;
– connect the Backend instance directly to the database to interact with, taking into account the existing structure;
– create a mobile application that will work with the standard Client-Server approach.

Of course, ideally, it would be great to rebuild the part regarding the web solution to avoid a tight relationship between the interfaces and the database. It would add more flexibility to the system in the future. But it was not relevant from a business point of view at the moment.

This product was conceived as a SAAS solution for organizations in the medical field. It means we must provide convenient work with one application but personalized data for each user, depending on which company he belongs to.

DOIT team has considered several options. The first is that the user simply specifies the server to which the application should connect. This method may work, and DOIT developers even have experience with this approach for another project. But the problem is sometimes these server names are not very user-friendly to remember, and it is quite difficult for users to do so.

DOIT decided to improve this approach and create an intermediary, like a proxy table, that will contain configuration data for each client’s server. Then, the user only needs to remember a simple company code. Yes, it added a bit of work to administer the system, but it made life easier for users.

For this solution, it is crucial how quickly and guaranteed users receive notifications. The time of their response and the provision of services depends on it.

The first solution to this problem was to engage developers with Socket Connections expertise. It allows real-time data exchange between the application and the server. However, maintaining a live connection through Sockets can be challenging, especially when the mobile app is not in use or running in the background.

To ensure the receiving of messages, developers have decided to implement Push Notifications based on the Google Cloud service. This additional layer ensured that users received all necessary updates, even with a slight delay when the app wasn’t running.

In this way, the combination of Sockets for real-time updates and Push Notifications for guaranteed delivery provided a comprehensive notification system.

Data protection is essential for any software solution. But this is much more important when you work with sensitive data like Patient Data in Healthcare.

There are several standards you should consider to manage and structure this issue throughout the development process. So, DOIT focused on matching developers with HIPAA and OWASP compliance experience.

OWASP – The Open Web Application Security Project is a nonprofit foundation that works to improve software security.
HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

The main focus is to:

– secure data transmission: for example, use the only HTTPS;
– avoid the possibility of access to data by third parties; for example, access to the database is only from the whitelisted IP, minimizing the transfer of sensitive content, etc.

The good news is that DOIT Software has a pool of experts who successfully coped with similar tasks and met all the requirements.