Google Summer of Code 2018 Ideas

The Mifos Initiative has been accepted as a Mentoring Org for 2018

The 2018 Google Summer of Code has now concluded. Stay tuned for our official wrap-up and reflections posts on our blog.

Get Stoked - End Poverty. One Line of Code at a Time.



2018 Google Summer of Code - Get to Know Mifos

We're looking forward to participating in Google Summer of Code for our sixth year. In 2017, we worked with 12 interns from across the world who are continuing to make substantial contributions to our community. We hope to continue building our next generation of contributors who are joining in our movement to fight poverty through open source software. We want you to be part of our mission of creating a world of 3 Billion Maries.  

Students in 2018 will have the option to work on a variety of projects related to our front-end Web App built on top of the AngularJS framework, and a variety of other apps including our Android-based field officer app and client banking app, and modules like our data import tool. 

In addition, we'll be working with students on both our Apache Fineract 1.0 platform for financial inclusion and Apache Fineract CN application framework for digital financial services. 

  

2018 GSOC Mentors

We have a talented and passionate group of mentors from across our global community who are eager to help guide the next generation of HFOSS contributors. These mentors come from various backgrounds - partners deploying Mifos, financial institutions using Mifos, volunteers, and even former GSOC students but they all share a common goal of ending poverty one line of code at a time!

Mentor

Project

Location

Time Zone

MobileIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
MobileIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
WebIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
User 'Former user' not found
PlatformIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
PlatformIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
MobileIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
PlatformCameroonWAT (GMT +1:00)
PlatformIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
WebIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
PlatformUSACST (GMT -6:00)
WebIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
MobileIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
WebIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
TentativeIndiaIST (GMT +5:30)
PlatformUSAEST (GMT -5:00)
PlatformSerbiaCET (GMT +1:00)
PlatformKenyaEAT (GMT +3:00)
PlatformUSAPST (GMT +8:00)
PlatformindiaIST (GMT +5:30)
Fineract CNCameroonWAT (GMT + 1:00)
Fineract CNCameroonWAT (GMT+1:00)

Guidelines

  • Getting started Read about setting up the code and understand the basic concepts around MifosX.

Expectations

Students working on Mifos X will be expected to:

Prerequisite Skills

Basics

  • Be a quick learner
  • Be well-behaved, act in good faith and be of good humour.
  • Troubleshooting Wizard
  • Passion for writing beautiful code
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Knowledge of developer tools
    • such as: a text editor, source control, how to build software
    • experience with specific tools will also help, such as: Eclipse IDE, Git

Mifos includes wide variety of technologies, we do not expect a student to be expert on all of these. But it will be helpful if you have some experience in some of these. Helpful skills (specific technology requirements vary with project chosen):

  • Java, Spring, MySQL, Jersey & Hibernate
  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript (JQuery), AngularJS & Material Design
  • JUnit, REST-assured

Source Code

Apache Fineract CN (Gen 3)
Mifos X and Apache Fineract 1.0 (Gen 2)

Hints

Project Ideas

All 2018 projects will be related to the Mifos X Web App, our mobile apps including our Android Field Operations app, our Mobile Banking app, or our Mobile Wallet App or our Online Banking App. Some projects will also center directly around the Apache Fineract platform for financial inclusion and additional tools, features, our modules on that and our brand-new Apache Fineract CN application framework for digital financial services. These apps and modules are built on top of the Apache Fineract platform, the world's only open platform for financial inclusion and is banking delivered as a service via the cloud. Apache Fineract is a true platform in which the back-end is cleanly separated from the front-end and all core platform services are exposed through an API making it easy develop new applications on top of the Apache Fineract platform. 

Fineract CN REST API Documentation

Mentors
CategoryApache Fineract CN
Overview & Objectives

Our newest generation architecture, Apache Fineract CN has a set of REST APIs that are not documented yet. Given that the architecture is microservices-based, Spring REST Docs will be the chosen tool of choice to overcome limitations of static documentation:

  1. Live documentation that is accurate, based on Test-driven development and does not need to be maintained manually in parallel to the source code which actually defines the REST API, and therefore can stay in sync
  2. It will be live and you won't have to set up a REST tool such as e.g. Postman & Co. to "explore" it. 

The goal of this project is address this by using Spring REST Docs

Description
  • Familiarize yourself with Spring REST Docs
  • Create working v1 code demonstrating feasibility of approach
  • Propose it to the community (mailing list), and react to feedback
  • Implement the API Docs
Helpful SkillsJava, Spring MVC Test, Spring REST Docs, Asciidoctor, REST, Git, Gradle
ImpactEasier to consume Fineract CN REST API for front-end/mobile etc. developers.
Other Resources
  1. Spring MVC Test : https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/testing.html 
  2. Spring REST Docs : https://spring.io/guides/gs/testing-restdocs/ 
  3. Asciidoctor : http://asciidoctor.org/ 
JIRA Taskhttps://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/FINCN/issues/FINCN-6

Fineract CN SMS & Email Notifications

Mentors
Category

Apache Fineract CN

Overview & Objectives

The SMS/Email Notifications service would be a microservice developed on Apache Fineract CN to enable MFI members to get notified on events occurring on their accounts.

Members have an array of events which can occur on their accounts such as;

  • Account creation for a member
  • Update address for a member
  • Update contact details for a member
  • Upload update and delete a member’s identification card
  • Activate lock, unlock and reopen a member account
  • Upload and delete member’s portrait
  • Upload,update and delete a member’s document

The objective of this project is to build functionality which will enable the MFI staff enable notifications which the member chooses when creating their account.

Description

There are a number of SMS Campaign APIs out there like Twilio to send SMS notifications to members. Also, there are tools out there to send emails to members such as SMTP server.

  1. Develop the smsemail notifications microservice
  2. Incorporate the smsemail into demo-server
  3. Incorporate UI in fims-web-app where-in MFI staff selects the notifications and frequency the member has to receive them.
Helpful SkillsJava, JavaScript, Spring Boot, REST, Git, Gradle
ImpactThis Project Will Enhance Know Your Customer (KYC) In Apache Fineract CN
Other Resources
  1. Gmail With SMTP Server : https://sanaulla.info/2017/09/15/using-gmail-as-smtp-server-from-java-spring-boot-apps/
  2. Twilio SMS Sender : https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/messaging/send-messages
  3. Apache Fineract CN Customer : https://github.com/apache/fineract-cn-customer
JIRA Taskhttps://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/FINCN/issues/FINCN-5

Fineract CN Mobile 2.0

Mentors
CategoryMobile - Apache Fineract CN 
Overview & Objectives

Just as we have a mobile field operations app on Apache Fineract 1.0, we have recently built out on top of the brand new Apache Fineract CN micro-services architecture, an initial version of a mobile field operations app with an MVP architecture and material design. Given the flexibily of the new architecture and its ability to support different methodologies - MFIs, credit unions, cooperatives, savings groups, agent banking, etc - this mobile app will have different flavors and workflows and functionalities. 


Description

In 2017, our Google Summer of Code intern built the initial version and baseline set of functionality. In 2018, the student will work on the following tasks:

  • Add Multiple account login and maintain session of the account.
  • Add Passcode feature to avoid the everytime login.
  • Sync Adapter to sync clients and client data that is assigned to him.
  • Add Kotlin support in app and initially change the retrofit models in kotlin.
  • Add review screen in every new records creation form.
  • Edit Loan application feature if loan is not approved 
  • Add new data views in different different pages like customer detail page according to API, same as in loan, deposit account details 
  • Add feature to take high quality picture and compress with the same quality for uploading (Uploading feature already exist, student need to enhance picture quality)
Helpful SkillsAndroid development, SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, Spring, OpenJPA, Rest,
ImpactAllows staff to go directly into the field to connect to the client. Reduces cost of operations by enabling organizations to go paperless and be more efficient.
Other Resourceshttps://github.com/openMF/Fineract-CN-mobile
JIRA Taskhttps://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/FINCN/issues/FINCN-7

AngularJS Web App Enhancements

Mentors
CategoryWeb - Mifos X Web App
Overview & Objectives

Our AngularJS Web App is the standard application on the Mifos X distribution that provides all the core functionality for the most common methods of financial inclusion and products and services. It's also the starting point for any partners looking to customize or extend the UI. It's constantly being improved based on user feedback, better performance, and to integrate new design standards.

Description

In 2017, our Google Summer of Code intern re-designed and optimized a number of key workflows, wizards, an screens throughout the app. . This project would continue by making additional UI enhancements including:

  • Optimize the client, group, and center records
  • Optimize the loan and summary savings pages
  • Implement additional Wizard user interfaces 
  • Improve the collection sheet UI
  • Improve the drill down navigation
  • Extend the notifications framework with additional notifications at https://goo.gl/HZsE75
  • Improve interface for role-based dashboards.
  • Improve the screens for our surveys framework

List of tickets which will be part of project can be found at https://github.com/openMF/community-app/projects/3

Helpful SkillsJavascript, CSS, HTML5. AngularJS and Bootstrap (CSS framework) is plus
ImpactEnhanced User Experience, Intuitive application design
Other ResourcesUsability and Design

Web UI for Microfinance Institutions on Fineract CN

Mentors
CategoryWeb - Fineract CN Web App
Overview & Objectives

While the current Mifos X stack caters to one operational methodology and has one distinct user interface and navigational flow, Fineract CN and it's broader applicability enables many different operational workflows to be supported and will have different flavors of the web UI. 

For the brand new Apache Fineract CN architecture, the web UI for the first use cases has been built out to support a teller-driven credit union operational methodology. The user interface and navigational flows for such an operational model is very different from that of a microfinance institutinon with group and center-based operations whereby the loan officer travels out to the customers rather than the customer goes to the branch office.

The UI that will be built out for this project will be very similar to the UI that was found in the current Gen 2 Mifos X web app as well as the original Gen 1 web app with support for viewing group and center hierachies, having a different drilldown navigational flow, etc. 

A number of these UI elements will still need the requisite support on the back-end. 

Description

Intern will implement the front-end UI screens for the Fineract CN web UI for the following functionalities and use case:

  • Center & Group Creation
  • Center Summary and Details Page
  • Group Summary and Details Page
  • Group/Center Meeting Page
  • Group, Center Listing View
  • Drilldown navigation via Groups/Centers
  • Collection sheet user interface
  • Transferring clients between groups
  • Group loan creation UI
  • Group loan UI
Helpful SkillsJavascript, CSS, HTML5. AngularJS and Bootstrap (CSS framework) is plus
ImpactReference UI for microfinance institutions on Apache Fineract CN
Other ResourcesUsability and Design
JIRA Taskhttps://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/FINCN/issues/FINCN-8

Self-Service User Administrative Portal

Mentors
CategoryWeb - Mifos X Web App
Overview & Objectives

Now that we have a robust mobile banking and online banking application which allows for users to self-create their own accounts, we need to add better back-end administrative support for staff of the financial institution to manage their self-service operations including user management, notifications to clients, task management, logo uploads, etc. 

Description

This project would involve primarily front-end development of the new UI screens and development of additional APIs on the Apache Fineract back-end to support the following use cases:

  • User Management - creation of new users, reset of user password, user activity tracking, searching of users, freezing/closing of self-service user accounts
  • App configuration - upload of custom logo, look and feel, about app details.
  • Customer Support/Communications - schedule campaigns to be delivered as in-app notifications, respond to incoming client support requests
  • Task Management - view and respond to pending tasks - new loan applications, loan disbursements, etc.
Helpful SkillsJavascript, CSS, HTML5. AngularJS and Bootstrap (CSS framework) is plus
ImpactImproved usability and staff control for self-service operations.
Other Resources

Browser-Based Offline Access (UPDATE)

Mentors
CategoryWeb - Mifos X Web App
Overview & Objectives

For this project, we require an intern who is qualified and willing to work core HTML5 offline functionality. If we able to add offline support in community-app then we can have same application working on all browsers with offline support and need of a desktop app will not be needed.

Description

The project will involve the following. It will be a continuation of the 2016 Google Summer of Code project worked on by Mohit.

  • We can use IndexDB for storing data offline and once connected synchronize it, store actions that happened in same sequence and then fire against server.

  • We can store some data in JSONs as key-value pair and offer pre-sychronize which will fetch data as JSON for creating clients and other actions in offline mode.

  • Currently, HTML templates load from server everytime we refresh our application. As, discussed we should have some sort of template caching with expiry headers.

  • We can make some template made available offline using application cache.

  • With Template cache which is angular component. It looks for template in cache if not in the cache, it will load from server and then put in cache.

  • Mimic synchronization back and forth mimic how you store, how you date it out.
Helpful SkillsJavascript, CSS, HTML5. HTML5 Offline support knowledge i.e - Service workers, Sw-toolbox, IndexedDB wrappper - Dexie.js
ImpactOffline Functionality to Community App
Other ResourcesDetailed Information

Android Field Operations App Version 5

MentorsIshan Khanna
CategoryMobile - Mifos X Android Field Operations App
Overview & Objectives

We have released several versions of our Android app for field officers to go out in the field to process transactions, create clients, etc. Most recently in 2017, our Google Summer of Code interns added new functionalities to support capture of signatures, implementation of the collection sheet UI, support for a four-digit passcode, refactoring, additional offline support, and more. 

This project would continue that work and transform it into Version 5 - by extending offline synchronization, adding additional functionalities, and continuing the MVP architecture. 


Extend our existing Android Field Operations App from Version 4 to Version 5 with

  • Extending offline support throughout additional areas of the application. Currently we have feature to select various thing like client and group etc and sync. Now we don't want this anymore. 
  1. Write Sync Adapter to sync the clients, savings, loan accounts etc in background that is related to signed in user.
  2. Write Sync Adapter to sync the local updates that user make while in offline mode.
  3. Feature Sync local update log in case user want to check.         
  • Redesigning some of the navigation and workflows
  1. Redesign the client create work flow, Currently we have single form to create a client that should be split in many form and for making forms we will use material design stepper: https://github.com/stepstone-tech/android-material-stepper
  2. Redesign the group create in step wise as mentioned above in client section and add an option to attach clients while creating new group.
  3. Redesign the center create in step wise as mentioned above in group and add an option to attach group while creating new center.
  4. Redesign the apply loan and savings application in step wise. 
  • Enhance Individual collection sheet.
  • Enhance Collection Sheet.
  • Integrating the notifications framework
  • Integrating SMS communications (Sms Communication will be in the form of in-app push notifications. User will receive a push notification is three case:
    1. Triggered (when user has applied for a loan and the loan get approved then user will receive a notification)
    2. Scheduled (when we want that user should receive a notification on a scheduled date and time).
    3. Direct (when users receives a notification when loan payment is overdue or a happy birthday wish on his birthday)
    )
  • Enabling views for task list and reports
  • Improving the user interface for capture of surveys.
  • Improving data scoping and role-based permissioning
  • Unit and Integration Testing

This would all be on top of the corresponding APIs on the Mifos platform.

Helpful SkillsAndroid development, SQL, Java, Javascript, Git
Impact

Allows staff to go directly into the field to connect to the client. Reduces cost of operations by enabling organizations to go paperless and be more efficient.

Other Resources

https://github.com/openMF/android-client

Architecture overview: 
Code style conventions guide:

Mojaloop Integration with Apache Fineract

Mentors
CategoryPlatform - Apache Fineract CN Integrations
Overview & Objectives
Mojaloop is "open-source software for building interoperable digital payments platforms on a national scale. It makes it easy for different kinds of providers to link up their services and deploy low-cost financial services in new markets."
At the Mifos Initiative, we believe that Mojaloop nicely complements the Mifos/Apache Fineract stack whereby we provide the core banking infrastructure for client and mobile wallet account management, a financial ledger, and portfolio account management needed by each Digital Financial Service Provider to uniquely identify accounts and initiate and record transactions on financial accounts. 
While Mojaloop provides an open source platform enabling an internet of payments providing secure, low-cost, interoperable payments utilizing the following components: 
Mojaloop includes four components: an interoperability layer, which connects bank accounts, mobile money wallets, and merchants in an open loop; a directory service layer, which navigates the different methods that providers use to identify accounts on each side of a transaction; a transactions settlement layer, which makes payments instant and irrevocable; and, components which protect against fraud.

Gates Mobile money is rapidly transforming financial inclusion by providing more immediate, impactful, affordable, and secure financial services to the client. Mobile money platforms like M-Pesa offer the client unparalleled value in terms of convenience, security and the possibility of new services and products that are more in line with real-world financial habits.  For financial institutions and their clients to fully scale mobile money and leverage its potential, it needs to be fully integrated with their core-banking system.

Description

In order for the Mifos and Apache Fineract communities to test out and demonstrate the complementary aspects of the Mojaloop open payments platform and protocol with Apache Fineract and Mifos X for account management we need to install and setup the various components along with the respective integrations in a lab environment.

This lab environment would demonstrate a number of use cases with Apache Fineract and Apache Fineract CN being installed as the system for different digital financial service providers in the context of a microfinance institution, agent banking system and mobile wallet system, , GSOC intern Daniel Carlson, built out an initial mobile money integration module which supports capturing in real-time the transactions that occur in the mobile money system via the APIs along with a web interface for initiating transactions to occur via mobile money.

This project would work extend upon this module to continue genericizing it to support the mobile money APis of other countries and to complete the integrations for mobile money systems or aggregators in East Africa from countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda s M-Pesa, TigoCash, MTN Money, AirtelMoney, Beyonic, etc.

Helpful SkillsWeb Services, Java, SQL , JavaScript , Git, Spring, Node.js, REST, Interledger
Impact

Reduced cost and friction in transferring money - allowing the base of the pyramid to become part of the digital economy. 

Other Resources

Mifos Mobile - Android App Version 3.0 

Mentors

Satya Naryan, Ishan Khanna

CategoryMobile - Mifos X 
Overview & Objectives

In 2017, our Google Summer of Code intern extended our mobile banking app from an initial alpha 1.0 to a solid 2.0 release. It is all built on top of the Apache Fineract 1.0 client-facing APIs to enable self-service channels for clients to interact with their own data and transact in a self-service manner. Previously all Mifos operations were performed by back office staff. Now clients can authenticate themselves, view and edit their account details. and make repayments or transactions between their own accounts.

It is now possible for them to have direct banking apps that they can utilize including smartphone-based mobile banking, USSD-based mobile banking, and online banking via a web app.

Description

The initial application was developed in 2016 and then extended into a mature application in 2017. Detailed user stories and wireframes outlining implementing the following functionalities have been documented. Work will involve both development of the Android application as well as work on the back-end to extend the existing self-service RESTful APIs. New features to be added for 2018

    • Support for applying for for savings accounts
    • Support for viewing share accounts
    • Support for adding guarantors
    • Support for customer support/chat
    • Integration with an external payment system
    • Dashboards/visualizations
    • Support for editing user details. 
    • Support for viewing reports
    • Support for surveys
    • Allow user to import QR Code from gallery for adding a Beneficiary
    • Unit and Integration testing

Integrate with the corresponding APIs on the Mifos platform.

Helpful SkillsAndroid development, SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, Spring, OpenJPA, Rest,
Impact

By providing an extensible mobile banking app, allow a member/client in having a self-service channel allowing them more direct control and visibility into their financial livelihood.

Other Resources

User Stories - https://goo.gl/3xuUko

Wireframes - https://goo.gl/3xuUko

Customer Self Service APIs - https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Customer+Self-Service

Source Code: https://github.com/openMF/self-service-app


Mobile Wallet 2.0

Mentors

Satya Naryan, Ishan Khanna

CategoryMobile - Mifos X 
Overview & Objectives

In 2017, our Google Summer of Code intern created a lightweight and extensible mobile wallet framework to support the basic use cases of a mobile wallet as documented in the Level One Project mobile wallet requirements. This extensible framework should support both merchant and client use cases as well as be capable of integrating with a Fineract or Fineract CN back-end.

Description

The initial mobile wallet framework along with 2 reference apps, PixieCollect and MifosPay, were developed in 2017. In 2018, the intern would work on deeper integration with Fineract and adding in use cases specific to customer requirements in the community. New features to be added for 2018 include: 

    • Integration with additional mobile money providers
    • Support for merchant payment transactions
    • Deeper integration with Fineract 1.0
    • Integration with a payments solution like Mojaloop or Stellar
    • Improved support for peer to peer transactions
    • Customer support/communications features. 
    • Improved viewing of account details and transaction history


Helpful SkillsAndroid development, SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, Spring, OpenJPA, Rest,
Impact

By providing an extensible mobile wallet framework, allow partners a complete reference stack of back and front-end applications to offer digital financial services to clients.

Other Resources

Mobile Wallet Framework: Source Code | Issue Tracker | Gitter Chatroom

Mifos/Fineract Chatbot & Adapter 

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

For many of our users today, chat is a much more familiar form of user interface for them and it would be valuable to provide an extensible chatbot connected to Mifos/Fineract that could be used to both provide customer support as well as allow clients to directly interact with their accounts. See this post from ThitsaWorks for more: https://medium.com/@thitsaworks/chatbots-the-emergent-and-effective-tool-in-financial-education-f6e63baf9188

Description

This project will include both leveraging other open source libraries and components to build the chatbot and building the adapter to the chatbot for MIfos/Fineract which will act as the interaction between chatbot and Mifos. It will take the replies from chat and feed them into Mifos. The program will sit in between Mifos and Chat.

Main components needed are:

  1. NLU (natural language understanding) /NLP (natural language processing)
    This componentcomponent is probably a good candidate for integrating a suitable existing OS project. 
  2. Chat platform and/or protocols
    To establish the communication between user and the bot logic the project could either leverage (at least) one of the major chat platforms (e. g. Facebook messenger etc.) and/or use open source protocols like XMPP or IRC. It's probably best to evaluate existing chat frameworks/client libraries 
  3. Fineract adapter
    This is the part where most of the student's attention is needed (see use cases below). The student would have to evaluate to which extent a chatbot framework could be integrated or if there are better arguments to develop something Mifos specific.

Note: only Apache license compatible libraries/frameworks/components can be used.

It will cover the following use cases: 

  • Enquiry of Loan Details
    • Mifos/Chat adapter will allow authenticated user to enquiry details of loan based on loan ID.
    • Check user/client authentication
    • Get MFI name, 9-digits loan ID (xxxxxxxxx), 9-digits clients ID (xxxxxxxxx) if it is an authenticated user/client.
      • Allow authenticated user/client to query loan details:
      • Status of loan
      • Outstanding principal and interest
      • Next due date, due principal and interest
      • Previous payment date, principal and interest (the last transaction of loan)
      • Loan maturity date
      • Overdue loan principal and interest (if have)
      • Number of days in arrears for loan
      • Penalty fees/charges
      • Client activation date
      • Loan disbursed date/amount/interest
      • First repayment date
      • Saving balance
      • Saving interest (to date amount)
      • Next meeting date
    • Enquiry of Savings Details
      • Saving activated date
      • Saving balance
      • Saving interest (to date amount)
      • Last active transaction date
    • Notifications through Chat Adapter
      • Notification will be sent thru Mifos/Chat adapter to respective clients on the following events occur on their accounts. 

        • Client account activation
        • Client account rejection
        • Loan disbursal
        • Loan close
        • Next due principal and interest (1/2 days in advance)
        • Payment posted (there may have delay due to data entry)
        • Next meeting date
        • Saving deposit
        • Saving withdrawal
        • Saving close
        • Update/delete details of clients (address, phone number, NRIC number)
        • Update/delete details of group (group name, group leader, loan officer name)
        • Upload documents
    • Enquiry about Loan Products
      • Check user/client authentication
      • Get MFI name, 9-digits clients ID (xxxxxxxxx)
      • (Provide a list of available loan products of MFI)
      • Allow authenticated user/client to query loan product details based on selected product:
        • Loan term
        • Interest rate
        • Max and min allowed amount to borrow
        • Number of installments/repayments
    • Enquiry about Group Information
      • Mifos/Chat adapter will allow authenticated user (group leader) to enquiry on group member details.
      • Check user/client authentication.
      • Get MFI name, group leader name, group ID, center ID, branch name, (Is a group leader?)
      • Allow authenticated client(group leader) to query group details:
        • Next meeting date
        • Clients who have overdue loan
    • Enquiry about Branch Information
      • Mifos/Chat adapter will allow authenticated user(branch manager) to enquiry on branch details.
      • Check user/client authentication
      • Get MFI name, branch manager Name, user id/name, Branch Name, (Is a branch manager?)
      • Allow authenticated branch manager to query branch details:
        • Number of clients of his/her branch
        • Expected disbursement principal (today)
        • Outstanding principal and interest
        • Saving balance
        • Number of clients awaiting for disbursal (today)
        • New registered clients (today)
        • Prospective clients (as of today)
        • Number of clients (dormant) as of today
        • Number of village/bloc/ward in a branch


Helpful Skills

SQL, Java, Git, Spring, OpenJPA, Rest

Helpful: technical knowledge of (any) chat protocol (e. g. XMPP, IRC), experience with NPU/NLP

Impact
Other Resources

AI/NLU services
Google: https://dialogflow.com/
Facebook: https://wit.ai/
https://botkit.ai/
https://www.ambiverse.com/
https://github.com/ambi-verse/nlu-api-client-java

Frameworks
https://github.com/howdyai/botkit
https://github.com/nitroventures/bot4j
https://dev.botframework.com/
Has a lot of information on integration with chat platforms/protocols: https://github.com/BotMill

NLP/NLU components and tools
https://opennlp.apache.org/
https://deeplearning4j.org/java-ai
https://github.com/AIMLang/aiml-java-interpreter
https://nlu.rasa.ai/

Tutorials
https://dzone.com/articles/building-an-intelligent-chatbot-using-botkit-and-r
https://dzone.com/articles/beginners-guide-to-creating-chatbots-using-dialogf-1
https://tutorials.botsfloor.com/

Other
Extensive comparison: https://chatbotsjournal.com/25-chatbot-platforms-a-comparative-table-aeefc932eaff
Seems outdated, maybe helps with some insights/inspiration: http://www.zionsoftware.com/products/jbuddy/botframework/

Fineract CN Mobile Banking App 1.0 

Mentors
CategoryMobile - Fineract CN
Overview & ObjectivesJust as we have a client-facing mobile banking app for our generation 2 Apache Fineract 1.0 platform, we need to provide a reference mobile banking app on top of the Apache Fineract CN architecture which allows a client to securely authenticate against the microservices architecture and interact with his/her accounts. 
Description

Use cases would be similar to those of the initial mobile banking app built on Apache Fineract 1.0. A secure manner and point of access for clients to access data is still being designed. Potential use cases to include

    • Authenticate securely against the system to view own client data
    • UC 1. Client signup with basic data, and spot verification either with OTP to mobile number or Aadhaar verification
    • UC 2. Customer can enter customer's other details like address, family, work, income/expense details, once this data is verified from back office, customer can't edit any of these data 
    • UC 3. Apply for loans
    • UC 4. Repay EMI
    • UC 5. Preclose his/her loans
    • UC 6. Log support request
    • UC 7. Upload documents like photo of electricity bills, voter id, passport etc, once documents are verified and accepted from back office customer cab't edit , delete the verified documents, but customer can upload new documents


Helpful SkillsAndroid development, SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, Spring, OpenJPA, Rest,
Impact

By providing an extensible mobile banking app, allow a member/client in having a self-service channel allowing them more direct control and visibility into their financial livelihood.

Other Resources

User Stories - https://goo.gl/3xuUko

Wireframes - https://goo.gl/3xuUko

Customer Self Service APIs - https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Customer+Self-Service

Source Code: https://github.com/openMF/self-service-app


Online Banking App 2.0 (UPDATE)

Mentors
CategoryWeb - Mifos X Online Banking App
Overview & Objectives

In 2017, we built out v1.0 of our online banking app, an AngularJS web app powered by self-service APIs allowing for account creation, logging in, viewing of account details, transfering between savings accounts, repaying loans via savings accounts, applying for new loans, and more.

This project will extend off that to add new features and continue polishing the UI.


Description

Add addtional functionalities to online banking app including:

  • Incoming notifications
  • Support/chat messages
  • Viewing Reports/Account Statements
  • Adding Guarantors
  • Applying for new share accounts. 
  • Changing between multiple languages
  • Uploading a new client photo 
  • Additional dashboards visual
  • Integration with third party transfers 
  • Surveys User Interface. 
Helpful SkillsAngularJS development, SQL, Java, Javascript, Git
Impact

Allows a member/client in having a self-service channel allowing them more direct control and visibility into their financial livelihood.

Other Resources

Self Service APIs - https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Customer+Self-Service

Source Code - https://github.com/openMF/web-self-service-app

Complete Details can be found here: Self Service Web Application

Further Ideas: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KXDSrBkuYA9g694-DE4qf1QKFcAhWwA-HNnn9YAucbk/edit?usp=sharing

Accounting Module Enhancements

Mentors
CategoryPlatform
Overview & Objectives

Mifos X and the Apache Fineract platform already provide a range of sophisticated financial accounting needs, however for organizations that use it as both their core banking system and accounting system all in one, they continue to need other features. While Mifos X never intends to replace an ERP or accounting package, we do want to continue to add additional functionalities that provide the necessary integration with the portfolio and general accounting functionality to support a financial institution's core operations.

Several features have been requested by users and partners that we've grouped together as one task. Applicants should be familiar with the stack as well as the accounting and financial services domain.

Some of this work will include finalizing and incorporating existing pull requests and contributions that have been made by partners.

Description

These enhancements will all be built into the Apache Fineract platform as part of or enhancements on top of the existing accounting module which provides full configuration of the chart of accounts, support for cash and accrual accounting, automated integration with the portfolio accounts and financial mappings, and single and compound journal entries to the general ledger. New enhancements include:

  • Recurring Journal Entries (see spec below)
  • Bank Reconciliation
  • Fixed Asset Register
  • Improved End of Period Processing
Helpful SkillsHTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, Javascript, SQL
Impact

Better internal control and financial transparency

Other Resources

Collateral Management Module

Mentors

Maek Twain, Avik Ganguly

CategoryPlatform
Overview & Objectives

As financial inclusion evolves, more loan products are collateral-based and require more detailed tracking of the asset (gold, property, etc.) along with its value, and its depreciation.

Some institutions also require tracking collateral as off-balance sheet items.

Description

The practice of putting up collateral in exchange for a loan is used as part of the lending process between businesses for some time now. The Collateral Management Module (CMM) implements the issuance, validation and processing of collateral transactions between two members of an MFI. In a swap transaction between Party A ( Lender ) and Party B (Borrower ),

  1. Both parties make and agree to a collateral agreement ( Base Currency, Form of agreement, Quantify amounts such as minimum transfer amounts, Appropriate collateral, Delivery timing, Interest rates payable for cash collateral )
  2. A makes a market-to-market (MtM) profit and B makes a corresponding MtM loss
  3. Borrower presents collateral to Lender
  4. Borrower redeems loan from Lender
  5. Lender returns collateral to Borrower
Helpful SkillsHTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, SQL  
Impact

Clients and Small Businesses are able to take out higher value loans when they can offer up different forms of collateral. This is essential as MFIs move beyond just group loans and to individual lending.

Other Resources

Insurance Claims Module

Mentors
CategoryPlatform
Overview & Objectives

A crucial part of financial inclusion is micro-insurance and the ability for clients to safely manage risk in their lives. Mifos X will not fully handle the entire lifecycle of an insurance product but it should integrate with microinsurance system and track the key parts of the process that relate to the core banking system - collection and pass through of the premium and tracking claims and processing of these.

Description

This project would involve building out a separate module that tracks claims being made by a client, likely leveraging the CRM functionality being build to track activities. It will integrate with APIs to enable processing of the claim and tracking what proceeds must be paid out to the client.

It will involve creating a new module with data model, UI screens and business logic that leverages Mifos X APIs

Tasks involved include:

  1. Implementing a flag at the client level to denote if a person is deceased - if deceased, all loans would go into different status where all income, interest, fees, etc should stop accruing.
  2. Utilize Data Tables to enable a user to initiate an insurance claim with details of the claim and corresponding updates to follow up on the claims process. Must limit this data table only to the clients with the corresponding flag so it's not displayed for all clients.
  3. Processing of Claims - the insurance claim can either go directly to the client or directly to the Financial Institution. If directly to the FI, the outstanding amonst should be offset by the claim - it could be automatically applied using a new different payment of insurance claim. Corresponding accounting entries need to get passed as well.
    1. If there is money to be refunded to customer, they must have a savings account as can''t like journal entry to customer directly.
  4. Closing of Account - once claim has been processed and outstanding balance settled, should implement a different status such as Closed - Deceased or Closed - Via Insurance Claim

This will also be helpful for intern;

An insurance claim is a formal request made to a Financial Institution asking for a payment based on the terms of an insurance policy. It would be nice for MFIs to provide a range of insurance products such as Health insurance, property insurance, casualty insurance, etc so that their members claim these. The insurance claims module has the following workflow;

  1. Member claims insurance
  2. MFIs verifies and validates member claims
  3. MFI provides coverage/compensation to the insured.
Helpful SkillsHTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, SQL  
Impact

Clients are able to lower their risk and have a much larger safety net when they have affordable access to insurance policies.

Other Resources

See http://www.openunderwriter.com/

See Insurance Product

Configuration Wizard

Mentors
CategoryWeb - Mifos Web App
Overview & Objectives


A critical barrier to greater scale and reach of the Mifos X software is the time to deploy and ease of onboarding new financial institutions Spinning up a new instance and tenant of Mifos X in the Cloud is rather trivial but Mifos X is a core banking system and a user struggles to independently get the system up and running in spite of having access to documentation or local support.

  • Provide a self-guided configuration wizard to help financial institutions more quickly and more independently set up and configure the Mifos X system for the first time. 
  • Ideal goal is to allow a financial institution to fully configure Mifos without any manual intervention or support from an individual - from signing up for the cloud to moving into production, they should be able to do everything on their own.
Description

This project would involve building into the Mifos X Web App a self-guided configuration wizard.

Upon initial log-in, user will be prompted with a wizard as part of the Community App that will walk them through the first stages of configuring Mifos. The wizard which is optional and can declined, should provide the user the necessary prompts to guide them through the administrative setup of their organization and hierarchical structure, configuration of staff and roles and permissions, configuration of financial accounting, creation and configuration of loan and savings products, configuration of reporting and initial data entry. 


  • Wizard should provide both overlays on the screen as well as advance user to specific areas of the application. 
  • Wizard should refer to and reference documentation and video tutorials as much as possible.
  • Wizard should follow steps outlined in the Initial System Setup and Pre-Configuration Plan


Helpful SkillsHTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, Javascript, SQL  
Impact

Financial institutions can more easily adopt the software and increase the scale of our social mission.

Other Resources

See


Extend Surveys & SPM Framework

Mentors
CategoryPlatform & Web
Overview & Objectives

Financial Inclusion providers need a comprehensive view into the overall livelihood of their client both for better risk analysis, credit scoring, as well as social performance management.

Description

We have the back-end in place for a surveys/social performance management framework that allows the import of XMLs for the PPI (progress out of poverty index) SPM scorecard. We need to implement a front-end UI for viewing and recording PPI surveys as well as a UI in which to create new surveys from scratch (similar to Question Groups in an older version of software).


1) Build out the UI for creating survey from available PPI scorecard
2) Capture/record surveys from a given entity in the web app
3) View recorded surveys from the web ap
4) Interface to create new surveys from scratch via the UI

See Resources below for specs/wireframes.

Helpful SkillsHTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, SQL  
Impact

Ability to measure social impact and have one single point of information on a client within the platform.

Other Resources

Scalability & Performance Enhancements for Supporting Millions of Clients

Mentors
CategoryPlatform
Overview & Objectives

As Mifos X has matured as a core banking platform, it's been adopted and used by larger institutions serving hundreds of thousands and even millions of clients. Partners operating cloud-hosted subscription models are also supporting hundreds of thousands of clients across their multi-tenant installations. We need to benchmark, analyze and improve the performance and scalability of the system.

Description


Enhancements to the back-end platform will include parallelization of all the jobs with a configurable amount of concurrency, look at the explain plans of the queries being used in the jobs, paginate input queries for jobs, put lazy fetching where required, node-aware scheduler and cache, office-wise configurable jobs to distribute job-load across servers and write some tests to prove that the concurrency will work for a decent amount of scale.

In addition, you'll provide some metrics which can help mid-sized MFIs (those having around a million active loans) in adopting Mifos X.


Helpful SkillsJava, Javascript, Spring, JAX-RS, JPA,
ImpactHigher outreach to the unbanked by supporting larger institutions and scaling more rapidly.
Other Resources


Static Analysis of Apache Fineract CN (UPDATE)

Mentors
CategoryFramework - Apache Fineract CN
Overview & Objectives

As our product is core banking platform and our clients are financial institutions, we strive hard to make our code base as secure as possible. However, due to ever increasing security threats and vulnerabilities, it is the need of hour that we analyse our code base in depth for security vulnerabilities. During pull request merge process, we have a process in place wherein we do peer code review,QA and integration tests. This practice has been very effective and our community is already reaping the benefits of such a strong code review process. However, we should test our code against the standard vulnerabilities which have been identified by reputed organisations like Mitre to gain more confidence.It has become a critical part of independent and partner-led deployments

Description

We can make use of opensource tools like JlintFindbugs , SonarQube or frameworks like  Total output Integration Framework (TOIF) - used by companies dedicated to produce military grade secure systems. 

It would be worthwhile, if we can dedicate one GSOC project for this analysis. The student would be responsible to analyse the findings, generate reports, identify if it is really a bug and then submit a fix after consultation from the community. Of course, the student needs to demonstrate some basic understanding of security vulnerabilities( like buffer overflow etc) and should have some academic level of experience working with static analysis tools.


Helpful SkillsJava (Spring/JPA/Jersey), SQL , JavaScript , Git, Apache POI
Impact

Improved security keeping the integrity and privacy of the underbank's financial data intact.

Other ResourcesStatic Analysis of Apache Fineract Project- A GSOC project idea

Ad Hoc Reporting Module/Business Analytics (OLAP)

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

Develop ETL scripts to create OLAP cubes (fact and dimension tables in MySQL). This will allow managers to perform ad hoc slicing and dicing of their data 
to answer important questions about their operations.

  • Create ETL scripts and tests
  • Create a Mondrian schema to work with Saiku Analytics

This project would extend off of the work of a previous GSOC intern in building out integration with Saiku. 


Description

The data and information housed in the centralized Mifos database is critical to the operations and management of a financial institution. While Mifos X ships with more than five dozen standard report and has multiple ways to build custom reports, non-technical staff who don’t know SQL queries nor the structure of the database struggle to be able to access new reports on the fly. Integration with Saiku would allow for ad-hoc reporting or more simply a drag and drop interface for management and non-technical staff to easily slice and dice and create reports on the fly.

Helpful SkillsDatabase Management Systems, MDX, SQL,
ImpactData 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

Front Desk Service Module / Experience Module

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

Before booking a loan, the customer needs to require and assess the details of the loan he is enquiring for and there is no way to personally judge it, based on the parameters, Sales staff right now is using different external loan calculator and loan product schemes are not documented. We need a frontend experience service with personalized match to loan products.

DescriptionThe staff or customer should be able to enter their requirements before applying for a loan, like Loan amount, what kind of loan product he is interested in, and based on a questionnaire or a survey he should be presented a view where loan products are personally matched based on recommendation engine.After setting basic loan parameters, customer should be able to get a quote and then will be transferred to CRM given by Ankit Sharma
Helpful SkillsANDROID UI, Integrating Backend Service, MIFOS X
ImpactStreamlined sales, Staff and Customer Better Interaction
Other Resources

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18rS0gVWkjQvNdRnNj40uKNl32zuTh-uuzNv161n6YrY/edit?usp=sharing

Machine Learning Build Model and Predict Module

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

In the current version of the MIFOS X/Apache Fineract there is no way where we can infuse the product to machine learning straight to the Algorithms and then start predicting around certain entities and models or domains with integration of finocial.ai we can now do that by including a lib which will send data to the existing cluster running a finocial.ai and letting the partners/FI to decide what kind of learning tool they want to use and generate a POJO or MODEL and thus start predicting using that MODEL

Description

Major use cases are predicting BAD Loans Or GOOD Loans, Predicting Fraud ,RISK and many other predictions which FI wants to do on certain Domain, Logic where FI can utilise to understand customer in a better way.

FINOCIAL.AI Provides better way Personal profile data, spending history, social media data, transaction data, asset information and demographic data can provide a much more holistic view of a prospective client, instead of past credit scores. In this age of data abundance, the financial services industry can take advantage of new data sources when approaching a decision to approve a purchase or a credit card application, stop a withdrawal or recommend new financial products.

Helpful SkillsJAVA, Integrating Backend Service, MIFOS X, Apache Fineract, FINOCIAL.AI
ImpactStreamlined Operations, Better RISK Management, Automated Response Mechanism
Other Resources
http://portal.finocial.org

 Integration of Egalite Agent Banking App (REMOVED)

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

Agent Banking has become a key new delivery channel to increase reach, lower cost, and broaden the depth of services available. We will be taking over the Egalite codebase that's being donated to the Mifos Initiative by BFSI Consulting - it's a fully functional Android-based app for agents that works with any core banking system. This project would involved extending the application so it fully integrates with and works on top of the Mifos X platform

Description

The current codebase is stand-alone and can integrate with any core banking system. This project will involve converting it to work on top of Mifos X by leveraging the Mifos X APIs for all functionalities that exist in Mifos X and adding in APIs for the functionalities that aren't present in Mifos X but in Egalite. The project will consist of the following:


1) Integrate the existing web service into Mifos X
2) Extend the webservice to use Mifos related data
3) Modernize the front end by using Material design
Helpful SkillsAndroid, REST, Java
Impact

By enabling branchless banking, the costs of serving the poor are dramatically lowered, outreach can be extended to rural offerings, and brand new products and services that are more relevant can be delivered.

Other Resources

 Self-Service - USSD App Development 

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

This has a dependency on the Self-Service backend API's being available 

Description

Develop USSD App that allows clients to:

  • Login
  • View Own Accounts (deposits and loans)
  • View Own Accounts' Transactions (deposits and loans)
  • Initiate Transactions from own account (repayments, deposits, transfers)

1. Loans

  • Apply loans
  • Check loan balances
  • View summary of last few transactions

2. Savings

  • Check balance
  • Withdraw (To mobile money
  • Transfer

3. Other Services on the USSD menu

  • Can add the service that is useful to the mifos users/customers


Helpful SkillsUSSD, Java, SQL, Finite State Machine (FSM)
Impact

Allows a member/client in having a self-service channel allowing them more direct control and visibility into their financial livelihood. Enable members of the society on-demand access to their.financial records even with basic mobile handset

Other Resourceshttp://mycloudcode.com/category/ussd/

 Mobile Money Integration Phase 3 

Mentors
CategoryPlatform - Apache Fineract CN Integrations
Overview & Objectives

Mobile money is rapidly transforming financial inclusion by providing more immediate, impactful, affordable, and secure financial services to the client. Mobile money platforms like M-Pesa offer the client unparalleled value in terms of convenience, security and the possibility of new services and products that are more in line with real-world financial habits.  For financial institutions and their clients to fully scale mobile money and leverage its potential, it needs to be fully integrated with their core-banking system.

Description

In 2016, GSOC intern Daniel Carlson, built out an initial mobile money integration module which supports capturing in real-time the transactions that occur in the mobile money system via the APIs along with a web interface for initiating transactions to occur via mobile money.

This project would work extend upon this module to continue genericizing it to support the mobile money APis of other countries and to complete the integrations for mobile money systems or aggregators in East Africa from countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda s M-Pesa, TigoCash, MTN Money, AirtelMoney, Beyonic, etc.

Helpful SkillsWeb Services, Java, SQL , JavaScript , Git
Impact

Great efficiency, reduced risk for clients, more impactful and relevant products & services.

Other Resources


Client Impact Portal Phase 2

Mentors
CategoryPlatform
Overview & Objectives

Microfinance institutions usually work with various external parties, such as funders or investors. Using the data that is available in MifosX we would like to offer those stakeholders a seperate portal showing accurate and high-level information about the institution that would otherwise be reported manually by the institution. This information helps them in their decision making processes, but also enables them to assess the broader impact they are having with their funding.

Description

To develop a portal that aggregates information from different Mifos X deployments and report on predefined social and operational metrics

Objectives:

  • Implement back-end logic in MifosX required to make information available to the client impact portal
  • Implement UI and back-end logic of the Client impact portal
Helpful Skills SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, Web Services, Scripting (Bash/Perl/Ruby), Regexes & Parsing
ImpactFunders and investors are vital for almost all MFI's, providing them with accurate information on the impact they are making with each of their MFI's is something they highly value and that enables them to assess whether they want to further support the MFI's moving forward to enable growth of the MFI.
Other Resources

2014 GSOC Client Impact Portal Project

Vision for Generic SPM Framework for Mifos X (PPI)

Background on Client Impact Portal

Credit Bureau Integration Phase 3

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

Because of regulatory reasons or to do background check of a client (risk management), MFIs depend on credit bureaus. As part of it, MFI must submit client details to credit bureau and also need to pull client information from credit bureau before approving any new loans to a client.Mifos X can be integrated with a popular CBs in India and from other regions (based on the demand).

Description

During the 2016 Google Summer of Code, Nikhil Pawar, completed the credit bureau integration module with integrations for the major credit bureaus in India. This project will continue extending the functionality of the module and work on integrations with the major credit bureaus in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The major functionality will be sending the data to CBs on regular intervals in the format CB expects. And option to pull the client’s information from CB whenever loan officer/branch manager/ user wants to view the information for a particular client.

Helpful Skills SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, Web Services, Big Data (Hadoop, Hive)
Impact

The credit report shows account information such as repayment record, defaults, type of loan, amount of loan, etc. of the customer. This information facilitates prudent decision-making when the credit underwriter processes the loan application. This help MFI to reduce the risk of bad loans and reduces the multiple lendings to same person from different MFIs.

Other Resources

Detailed requirementshttps://goo.gl/aZWMZa

Mifos Credit bureau Integration. (Risk calibration Module -RCM)

Source Code: https://github.com/apache/incubator-fineract/pull/215

ETL-Based Data Migration Tool for Loan Performer to Mifos X

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

Data migration can be one of the most challenging and time-consuming phases of an implementation of a core banking system. It's often a barrier to financial institutions moving on to new and better more modern systems. It's critical to cleanly migrate over the historical data of a client and their transactions. Often the legacy system data needs to be cleaned up and transformed before it can be migrated into Mifos X and is one of the most costly and time-consuming phases of a deployment. We have an existing data migration tool for migrating from Mifos 2 to Mifos X that utilizes the Pentaho Kettle ETL tool.

This project would extend the existing Mifos 2 to Mifos X Kettle-based migration tool to provide a standard migration tool from Loan Performer - a low-cost, widely adopted system in use by hundreds of microfinance institutions throughout Africa and Latin America. It would provide one standard tool that any partner or financial institution could use for migrating from that specific system - it wouldn't require new tools to be made each time a migration is done.


Description

Extend the existing Kettle-based Mifos to Mifos X migration tool

  • Write ETL scripts to get data and transform data it from Mambu format to Mifos format
Helpful SkillsJava (Spring/JPA/Jersey), SQL , JavaScript , Git, Pentaho, Kettle,
Impact

It has many impacts

  1. This drastically reduces the time to set up of initial configuration/data of Mifos X for organization adopting this system as MIS.
  2. It widely opens the market that Mifos X is applicable for as it lessens the burden of converting from Loan Performer - a system that is widely used but not as modern and sophisticated as Mifos X.
  3. It dramatically lowers the cost of implementing a system like Mifos X by reducing the complexity of the deployment
  4. It increases transparency by ensuring financial institutions using Mifos can retain the full history for their clients.
Other Resources

http://nayan.github.io/move-to-mifosx/

https://github.com/openMF/move-to-mifosx

Basic CRM Functionality - Inquiries/Complaints Module

Mentors
TBD
CategoryPlatform - Apache Fineract 1.0
Overview & Objectives

Right now Mifos X contains core client management functionalities including tracking basic demographic information, know your customer information, document management, and survey collection through data tables. As financial institutions, serving the poor begin to offer a more in-depth and diverse range of financial inclusion products, the need for more robust client management and in-depth client understanding has grown. Their core system needs to provide more and more CRM-type functionality that compliment the portfolio management and financial/social reporting that the Mifos X provides.

This project will work to deliver the initial set of customer relationship management functionalities including a module for tracking inquiries, complaints

Description

This module will have a request management functionality. A request can be of 2 types: Complaints and Service Requests. Each request must be against a customer and optionally against an account of the customer. Each request will go through a simple workflow.

Actions that can be performed on a request:

Assign -> will change status to "assigned"

Start Work --> will change status to "in progress"

Close --> will change status to "closed" (with a sub-reason code)

At each step user can enter comments.

The customer summary screen will have a link to view the requests of the customer - along with a summary and current status - with options to click-through to get the complete history of each request.

Helpful Skillsfamiliarity with Mifos X tech architecture, angular js,node js, java,Spring, Backend Integration
Impact

Deepening the client relationship and ensuring fair, responsible, and transparent financial services to the poor is a core piece of the industry's roadmap for financial inclusion. Providing customers the ability to voice their concerns and feedback about the services they're receiving provides a simple yet powerful tool to protect the client. Empowering the financial institution with the ability to track these inquiries and overall maintain a more holistic relationship tracking entire lifecycle of their clients gives them a much better ability to understand their clients and respond to their needs with appropriately designed services and products.

Other Resources

JPOS Integration - Point of Sale Cash Out

Mentors
CategoryPlatform - Apache Fineract 1.0 Integration
Overview & Objectives

Integrate MifosX with an opensource Point of Sale (POS) called JPOS.

Description

Use case would be to get a debit transaction (cash withdraw from checking account) thru the POS device /local runtime with 2FA.  In India, the ability to get cash out through a point of sale network is provided for under RBI regulations. In production there will likely need to be an intermediate "Merchant Acquisition" or "Payment Processor" in between a single POS and MifosX Instance, but this could be abstracted out as a payment gateway only (primarily data mapping). The implementation target is the ability to do a 2 factor authentication on a POS device running JPOS (emulator ok), input account number (via some simple method), then be able to do a (cash-out) account withdrawal in real time to the MifosX account. Additional use cases would be to implement a transaction for payment for goods. i.e. enter specific goods, then do payment from MifosX account to Merchant Account (probably also in Mifos).

Helpful Skills

Familiarity with API work. Understanding of transactional flows.

Java.

Two-factor authentication - see other project idea .


Impact
Other Resources

https://github.com/jpos/jPOS/

Security Penetration testing

MentorsMark Reynolds
CategoryPlatform
Overview & Objectives

We believe the Mifos X platform is super secure and impenetrable. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to prove us wrong, and help close gaps you may find.

Description

Beyond a one time exercise, you should integrate (some of) the tools you've used into our build chain so that, even after you've gone, tools flag up future newly introduced potential vulnerabilities.

Helpful SkillsCandidates applying for this project would ideally have prior experience in penetration testing, and document this in their application.
ImpactRe-assuring the more Entreprise-y type Mifos clients that they can safely bet on Mifos X as an MFI platform.
Other Resources

https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Main_Page

https://code.google.com/p/zaproxy/

http://wapiti.sourceforge.net

Run FindBugs & related tools for some serious static code analysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetration_test

Mifos ID/Profile - Single Sign On for Community Infrastructure

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

This project would seek to create one unified ID/login and profile for community members similar to the OpenMRS ID. It would achieve the following two primary objectives:

  1. One unified profile and identity for community members in which they can share with the community who they are and also build reputation and recognition. This ability to discover and self-identify with other community members is difficult when we have so many different tools and profiles to maintain.
  2. Single Sign On for our various collaboration and community infrastructure tools listed below.


Description
  1. Identifying a single sign-on authentication protocol that ties together authentication of our various community collaboration tools: 1) Atlassian Studio - JIRA, Confluence, JIRA Agile, 2) Social Q&A - AnswerHub 3) Mailing Lists - Mailman (administered through SourceForge 4) Source Code Version Control - GitHub 5) Continuous Integration - Jenkins 6) General Community Website (mifos.org) - Wordpress 7) Partner Directory
    1. This could be built out independently, tie into some OpenID protocol, or leverage one of our existing tools for this authentication - Atlassian Studio/Crowd or AnswerHub or another common OpenID protocol. 
  2. Design and implement a dashboard to handle the creation of this unified ID
  3. Design and create a common profile tied to this ID with basic information and photos that is searchable by the community.

Design a profile

Extra Credit:

Helpful SkillsLDAP
Impact

Impact is two-fold:

  • Common unified profile and identity can help to grow collaboration and participation in the community. By being able to simply share who you are or discover who's in your community, we can deepen the bonds of community which motivates each member to participate more often and invest personally in the health of the community. Building reputation and recognizing efforts of each type of community member (users, partners, volunteers, etc) in a tangible way also helps to increase participation.
  • Single sign-on will it make much easier for community members to collaborate and communicate. Right now there is often a high barrier to signing up for the various tools - SSO will make that process easier but also encourage others to more regularly be involved.
Other Resources

Scalable Mifos X deployment on OpenShift: Automated Continuous Delivery, Scripts, Documentation (UPDATE)

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

Create a POC of a scalable MifosX implementation on OpenShift. Also publish a whitepaper with details of this set up.

Description

Mifos X was built to be cloud ready from the ground up. One of the most popular deployment environments for MifosX has been on Amazon EC2, however due to country specific regulation, many implementors are forced to seek alternative models that can scale as effectively. The aim of this project is two-fold:

  • Propose a scalable deployment model for Mifos on the OpenShift PaaS. Your application should highlight a starting point with some details of your planned deployment architecture, as Mentors would be not giving you step-by-step instructions in this project, just "nudge" you along; you would be expected to learn about how to deploy Mifos yourself and by autonomously using the documentation available and help from the public mailing list and IRC channel, and figure out the details of the Cloud deployment.

  • Propose how the above proposed model could be contributed to Mifos in the form of e.g. ready-to-run "configurations" etc. allowing ANYONE to deploy THE LATEST VERSION of Mifos in the Cloud themselves, and then implement this approach in practice. (Contrast this with a "one-off exercise", e.g. taking the current Mifos X WAR file, and UI, and manually making some changes to it, and then manually deploying that to some Cloud PaaS - this would not be sufficient for this project's expectations.)

  • Implement a Continuous Deployment "Devops" EXAMPLE instance of this scalable blueprint using the latest nightly Mifos build artifacts.

  • Publish a high level whitepaper of the same, which can be used as a reference for local implementors, who would additionally take care of provisioning their own hardware. This documentation should be ideally high-level, and what it described much be automated; only providing lengthy step-by-step manual instructions would not be sufficient for this project's expectations.

To prepare for this project, applying students must demonstrate at least that they have already successfully locally built and ran a Mifos X REST back-end server and UI, populated the database etc. as well as provided a simple pull request proposing some minimal deployment related improvement.

Note that we now believe that a Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a more suitable foundation for this project than a raw Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform (such as Openstack, offered by public cloud provider such as e.g. Rackspace; or Azure, or raw Amazon EC2). This is because a PaaS, such OpenShift, already come with relevant features such as built-in, managed, supported and monitored HTTP load balancing (e.g. OpenShift comes with HAProxy).

We are aware that OpenShift out-of-the-box currently does not provide supported clustering for the MariaDB/mysql database used by Mifos (there is documentation for un-supported example based on an OpenShift template and suggested descriptions on blog posts, or also this one based on Severalnines.com; similarly one could deploy the commercial Percona XtraDB Cluster product). However at this point we believe that this would not be required, and that proper configuration on OpenStack of the already existing cache facility (incl. distributed cache invalidation) available in Mifos X will add more value at signficantly less operational complexity.

You may need to develop some minor "adjustments" for Mifos X to work well in a PaaS. For example, writeable directories may be limited, and configuration changes may be needed to pick up allowed data directories from an environment variable configuration (but consider multi node distribution in this cluster setup!). Also a cloud PaaS like OpenShift may not support "always running" instances, and scheduled jobs may have to be configured to be kicked off via an explicit HTTP "wake up" request from a cron job.

While OpenShift should already take care of automatic distribution of Mifos code (WAR) updates among nodes in the cluster, you may also have to consider distributed configuration in a cluster. Normally all Mifos X configuration should reside 100% fully in the database only, and as such this may be a non-issue. If however there are any customized configuration files, then perhaps something like the Spring Cloud project could be of interest to ease distributed configuration management.

We are aware of other PaaS product similar to OpenShift, such as notably Cloud Foundry, or even Heroku (closed source..) but would suggest to use OpenShift.

Helpful SkillsContinous Integration, UNIX, OpenStack, experience with any public cloud (AWS etc) and Percona Server is a plus, plus some minor Java coding required to adapt Mifos code to be able to pick up the database configuration from the OpenStack provided environment variable (and possibly automated Cache configuration tuning on OpenStack).
ImpactImproves deployment options for Mifos. Would be very helpful for specialists in African countries who deal with strict regulatory controls in hosting data outside their region
Other Resources

OpenShift https://www.openshift.com

Old Mifos mailing list posts related to related things, search e.g. "mifos google app engine", and find as this one as well as this one.

Mifos X on "Enterprise Stack" - IBM WebSphere and Oracle WebLogic tests & documentation (UPDATE)

Mentors
Overview & Objectives

Mifos X today is typically used on Tomcat (with Jetty known to work). For a certain class of users, testing it on "Enterprise Stack" application servers (meaning IBM WebSphere and Oracle WebLogic) is desirable - this project would properly test Mifos X on these configurations, make any adaptations to the code which may be required, and produce easy to follow documentation or even small tools helping future users how to go about this.

Description

This project could be combined with and taken up by the same candidate as the Enterprise database project.

Helpful Skills

Java, Application Server configuration, WAS classloading crap tricks, documentation writing.

Use Cargo, Arquillian etc. for automated testing against WAS & WLS containers?

ImpactEnable Mifos X to be considered by users wanting it to run (only) on an Enterprise stack


Other Resources

Vendor pages

Custom Fantastic Mifos Project

Is there something missing from this ideas list that you want to do? Let us know! Send your project proposal(s) to the developer mailing list.