Preventing media discontinuity by means of interfaces

The Challenge

Client applications for networked devices require knowledge of the available functions to enable user interactions. This is done by means of configuration files, which must be provided.

Our client is a global consumer goods manufacturer that unites a wide variety of brands and products from a broad range of disciplines. Due to the increasing individualization and internationalization, the effort for the manual provision of such files quickly reaches the limit of economic efficiency. Processes for automatic delivery and quality gates have been already in place in the existing system, even before the project started. Quality gates ensure that no unfinished version reaches the customer. Configuration files are generated in a web application by the firmware developers and automatically imported into a system responsible for delivery to the clients. Before delivery, an authorized user must confirm that the uploaded version has reached an accepted state and may therefore be delivered. This confirmation is also done via a web application.

Two different web applications were thus involved in the process, and manual intervention was required in two places for both testing and final delivery.

The Solution

To avoid media breaks, an API was proposed and implemented to allow any automated process to provide the approvals in an automated manner. Thus, the release via the web interface becomes optional and the system responsible for creating the configuration files is empowered to control the delivery system. In addition to the increased convenience for editors and the reduced susceptibility to errors during release, this ensures a faster test cycle, as configuration files can be sent to any environment with a short delay. The interface is secured via a connected keycloak and can be used by technical and non-technical users of the existing Active Directory, assuming special authorization. The API was integrated into the existing system and uses much of the existing functionality, such as authorization concept and versioning.

The Project

With a developer and product owner, Scandio was responsible for conception, development and testing. The team was accompanied by a responsible product owner on the customers side. The project was launched as a fast-lane project alongside an agile framework to save capacity. A new API was built into the application responsible for delivery and secured with automated unit tests.      

About us

Scandio

Scandio GmbH has been a technology and consulting company for more than 16 years and has already handled several highly complex projects for companies in the field of IoT development. As a technical IT service provider, we are IT all-rounders, software developers and permanent companions all-in-one. We support you in the areas of cloud strategy, UI/UX consulting, managed hosting and DevOps engineering. We are also your partner for automation, orchestration, first, second & third level support, and agile development.