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Automated Maintenance of Mifos X API Documentation
| Mentors TBD | Vishwas Babu A J |
| Overview & Objectives | This project focuses on simplifying/automating the maintenance of the Mifos X API documentation (https://demo.openmf.org/api-docs/apiLive.htm) and ensuring it is complete:
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| Description | The API is probably the most important part of the new Mifos X platform and that's why we put a ton of effort into making it easier for developers to see examples and interact with. It's certainly not 'passive' documentation and must be interactive and up to date such that our community can see the flexibility and power in which the API can be used to support new financial services or support alternative way for accessing the Mifos technology. However, its currently a manual process that is a bit of a pain to complete and because of that our current documentation can become out of date. |
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| Impact | Worldwide, there are multitudes of methodologies and delivery channels in which to deliver financial services to the poor. On the platform through the API, our community has the ability to build applications to allow Mifos to support new markets and scale more services to the poor in need. Our community is global and of varying skillsets, so it's critical that the API is well-documented and constantly up to date with clear examples. This project will significantly reduce the burden of maintaining this documentation. |
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Multi-tenant Caching
| MentorsTBD | Vishwas Babu A J | ||||||||
| Overview & Objectives | Enable service level caching using a clustered caching framework to improve the performance of MifosX | ||||||||
| Description | MifosX is a multi-tenant application (a single MifosX instance can support multiple MFI's).We need to add tenant aware caching for common read operation in MifosX (preferably at the service level) Note: For pure Read operations, Mifos X uses native SQL Queries with Spring's JDBC Template. JPA (the provider being Hibernate) is used for Create/Update operations | ||||||||
| Helpful Skills | Java (Spring) , SQL and MySQL | ||||||||
| Impact | While the current codebase works well for smaller financial organizations, adding caching would greatly improve the performance of MifosX when working with the data sets of larger MFI's | ||||||||
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Create Data Import Tool for Mifos X
| MentorsTBD | Vishwas Babu A J | ||||||||
| Overview & Objectives | Create a tool for importing the following data into Mifos X using existing REST API's exposed by the platform
Bonus: Center / Group details and Personnel Details | ||||||||
| Description | One of the biggest challenges of implementing and using an information system for microfinance is getting data in efficiently. This project would lead the creation of excel or csv-based data import tools for both migration initial data into Mifos as well as bulk imports of data on an ongoing basis such as new clients, new loans, bulk transactional data, etc. This tool would also help facilitate the migrations from our current software, Mifos 2.6, to our next generation platform, Mifos X. Refer
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| Helpful Skills | Java (Spring), Excel | ||||||||
| Impact | Efficiency and lowering operational costs is a critical factor in bringing effective financial inclusion to the poor. Migrating in historical data quickly is important to quick adoption of an information system. Day to day, MFIs could save time by being being able import and edit clients and transactions in bulk. Secondly, this tool will also address connectivity issues as MFIs often input transactions into spreadsheets and then need to import these in. MFIs also often interact with other systems and payment networks and this tool with ease the ability to get that data in cleanly and quickly into Mifos X. | ||||||||
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Business Analytics (OLAP) (refresh)
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TODO: Refresh or modify in context of Mifos X (smaller database/data warehouse)
- Create a Mondrian schema
- Improve ETL scripts along the way
| Mentors | KojoG |
| Overview & Objectives | Extend the Mifos Business Intelligence data warehouse to create OLAP cubes. This will allow managers to perform ad hoc slicing and dicing of their data
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| Description |
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| Helpful Skills | Database Management Systems, MDX, SQL, |
| Impact | Data drives a microfinance institution - the more powerful and robust analytical tools management has, the better they can tailor their services and outreach to impact the poor most effectively. |
| Other Resources | Saiku Analytics Demo - demo.analytical-labs.com Wikipedia OLAP Article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olap Introduction to OLAP - http://www.db-class.org/course/video/preview_list Gentle Introduction to MDX - http://www.iccube.com/support/documentation/mdx_tutorial/gentle_introduction.html |
Mifos X self-contained package incl. Embedded Database (refresh for Mifos X)
| Mentors | Michael Vorburger |
| Overview & Objectives | Mifos uses MySQL 5.1 as its primary database. We want to achieve :
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| Description | This sub-project would port / apply our MIFOS-5157 Installer-free simple launcher from classic Mifos to Mifos X, and then look at how to extend such a package to run without any existing external database as planned in MIFOS-4926 (which MIFOS-5157 doesn't cover). The first thought that comes to mind is to achieve this with a pure-Java in-memory database such as H2 or Derby. However, in order to avoid maintaining & supporting 2 different databases for Mifos, we'd like to base this on https://github.com/vorburger/MariaDB4j. While we are at it, we should also replace the classic GPL mysql driver by the LGPL MariaDB Client Library. Do some Googling, Search Mifos JIRA, mailing list for more information. Identify some small problems related to this project and submit patch (if possible), Come up with a good plan and start a discussion on developer mailing list. Mifos has abstraction from underlying database using: |
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| Impact | For many microfinance institutions who lack technical skills, installing Mifos X is a burden that prevents them from using this software to more efficiently serve the poor. Often they get lost in the installation process when having to separately install java, their web server, MySQL, and then deploy Mifos. A self-contained package acting as a simple one-step installer for Mifos would help make the software more accessible to more organizations and allow for MFI to more easily test the software and see the immense value it provides. |
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XBRL Reporting Integration
| Mentors | TBDKojoG |
| Overview & Objectives | Enable MFIs to automatically generate XBRL format reports - the common reporting standard being adopted by the microfinance industry.
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| Description | XBRL is gradually being adopted as the reporting and data standard for microfinance. This project would involve building out the reports to generate in the necessary XBRL-compliant format as well as an external client needed to map the data in Mifos to the proper XBRL taxonomy. MIX Market is leading adoption of XBRL as a data standard. By having one common reporting format, MFIs can save substantial time in generating end of period reporting to funders, regulators, associations, etc. |
| Helpful Skills | HTML, XML, SQL, Pentaho |
| Impact | MFIs need capital to lend out to their clients. In order for more MFIs to grow and provide more responsible financial services to the poor, they must be able to transparently report to funders and regulators. Adoption of a common reporting format and automation of flow of data will allow MFIs to successfully report their financial, operational and social performance using less of the valuable time of management staff to generate these reports. As well-run, fully transparent, microfinance institutions, they'll then have more readily available access to the funders and sources of capital to expand financial inclusion in their region. |
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