Introduction
Within the context of the HES-SO group of professional schools, a project was initiated to develop a platform for centralizing online payments. The objective was to allow the different schools, each with their own invoice management methods, to use a unified solution to issue invoices payable online, while maintaining their specific processes and treatments.
The origins of the project
The project was born at the request of a school in the group, which was using an old application developed in Zend Framework. This application allowed to import invoices and to make them payable via a Web interface. The idea was to facilitate the payment of bills for students, by providing them with a link to pay their fees online, thus avoiding payment slips and trips to the counter.
Rethinking the application
Our initial mission was to take over and maintain this existing application. However, after an in-depth analysis of its operation, we identified major security flaws, such as the possibility of changing the amount to be paid simply by modifying the source code of the page. Moreover, the complexity and risks of maintaining a payment solution based on an obsolete framework led us to make a bold decision: rebuild the application using Symfony. This choice proved to be wise and was quickly extended to many schools in the group.
Architecture and key features
The application has been designed according to an architecture that includes the following elements:
- Management of the import and export of traditional invoices, such as tuition fees.
- Management of “live” invoices, allowing spontaneous payments, such as the purchase of books directly from a school’s website for example.
- Ability to connect to multiple Payment Service Providers (PSP), such as PostFinance, Stripe, Datatrans, etc.
- Each school has its own configuration for PSPs.
Conclusion
For six years now, I have been responsible for the maintenance of this platform, which continues to evolve year after year. This project, which started with the goal of looking like the original application, has turned into an all-in-one eCommerce project. The robust architecture we have put in place has allowed it to handle heavy load periods, especially before the start of each new school year, when thousands of students attempt to pay their bills simultaneously. The platform continues to meet the needs of the professional schools in the HES-SO group and offers an efficient solution for centralizing online payments.