Animatron

Challenge

The client’s main product is a web application called the Editor. It is built to enable the creation of animated content within a browser. The best description of the concept is “Flash in a browser, but without Flash”. This revolutionary web app allows users to create cartoons, 2D games, presentations, vector graphics and all kinds of other animations very easily. Users can export the content created in the app in different formats, and publish their creations to social networks and/or share them with friends.

Redwerk was asked to develop a website to manage the content created by users in the Editor and to add some additional meta functions. Some of the main functions of the app were:

• Sign-in
• Sign-up
• Content creation
• Explore option

The idea was for the communication between our application and the client-side backend to be carried out via the backend’s REST API. However, this API was not fully described and we had to create a descriptive document with an exact analysis of the REST methods required for the individual development steps.

The client intended to split the software development process into several milestones.

Solution

Initially, on the client’s request the development process was divided into 3 milestones.

In the first phase, the HTML/CSS code and service aspects of the project were developed. This was chosen as the first step because this work did not depend on the API. We used mock storage solutions in order to give the client the chance to judge the look and feel of our interactive designs.

After the first milestone was reached, we had gathered enough information to compose a document on the required REST API. It was important to do so in a precise and transparent way, because the backend is developed by the client, and the REST methods had to be implemented on their side.

The second milestone was primarily concerned with API-related issues. After the REST specifications were confirmed, we implemented a prototype model that was later used for the communication between the REST API and the web part. SSL Certificates were implemented. This made it easier to build the live deployment solution later on.

The third milestone was to design the user interface for users logged in to the system, which in turn brought about changes in the general design. In addition, a couple of new functions had to be implemented. Redwerk software development outsourcing team found a solution to support a great number of web browsers, i.e. Internet Explorer 9 and 10, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari (for iPad). The design was prepared to be adaptable for Retina displays in the future. A number of UI elements were created as jQuery plug-ins, which means that they can be re-used easily.

As far as the authentication method is concerned, Redwerk’s team built a simple solution based on the classic email and password combination as well as social network authentication via Twitter and Facebook. We even made it possible to display a user’s Gravatar. For this purpose, Java components were used and re-coded as a service in Scala.