The Illinois app is built on Rokwire, an award-winning open source platform created to encourage collaborative work and innovation in technology, research, discovery, and user experience. With various MongoDB databases and APIs at its core, this robust ecosystem allows for information in different formats to be transformed and passed back and forth. This means that dining menus, monetary transactions, schedules, demographics, event details, health screening questions, and other information can be gathered and delivered to app users seamlessly through a single interface.
At the heart of the Illinois app are integrated data systems from across campus and service providers that enable a diverse range of features:
- Meal plan and cash balances through TouchNet
- Laundry services through CSC Laundry
- Building entry through HID
- Menus and nutrition information through CBORD
- Class schedules and ID details through Banner
- Campus recreation events through Fusion
- Medical appointments through Medicat
- Housing information through StarRez
- Wayfinding and building amenities through Archibus
- Sports scores and stats through Sidearm Sports
- Bus stops and schedules through MTD
Contribute
Rokwire uses the Dart language and the Flutter framework for building blocks that control the core functionality of the Illinois app and other mobile projects. We welcome contributions from campus and across the world to strengthen and expand the code base. Get started with the Rokwire wiki and the main repository.
Building Blocks
- Create new building blocks to integrate your data
- Enhance current building blocks for better functionality
Illinois App
If you’re eager to help us improve the Illinois app, scan the list of integrations to determine what you’d like to add or brainstorm with your students to identify what might help them navigate college more easily.
- Propose new features or enhancements
- Report your unit’s needs
- Use current building blocks to implement designs
- Route data flows more efficiently
Front-End Development
- Enhance user experience
- Address accessibility
- Hone a human-centered design
Create
The Rokwire open source platform is available to anyone for free under the Apache 2.0 software license. An individual, a business, a campus, an organization, or a community—and everything in between and beyond—can use the platform and the existing infrastructure to create a mobile app that can be customized to suit the available data and local services.
The Safer Illinois app—built using Rokwire as part of a COVID-19 mitigation strategy for fall 2020—was adapted by organizations including the University of Wisconsin, the University of Nebraska, and the Smithsonian Institution. Because they didn’t have to start from scratch, these groups deployed their own apps quickly.
Other projects built on Rokwire include tools for OSF Healthcare and the Mayo Clinic, a predictive model for eating meals for the Personalized Nutrition Initiative, and a program to mentor youth for the City of Champaign.
What could an app do for you?