App
To receive and send data within the BBH App, a bespoke API was created using the existing Laravel (PHP) backend.
Laravel is an excellent framework for building APIs as it quickly and easily allows for setting up all the elements required for an API.
The apps API also had to communicate with external integrations, such as Zing Cover Insurance, Salesforce and Loqate.
Web
BBH wanted to provide cycle retailers (such as Evans cycles) the option to be able to hire bikes in store.
To achieve this, a bespoke B2B web application (built in React) was made in conjunction with an API that would allow cycle retailers the ability to manage their own ‘dock’ within the store.
The main app API was then also modified to allow these ‘retail docks’ to appear within the BBH network so customers could find and hire from them.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS)
To increase Brompton Bike Hire’s (BBH) audience and reach, they wanted to partner with mobility platforms (Mobility as a Service) such as Mobilleo and Whim. To achieve this, BBH would need to provide the partners with an API that would allow the partners' customers to find docks and hire and reserve bikes from within the BBH network.
To achieve this I created a ‘Global’ API that the partners developers could integrate within their own App/Website system to send/receive data via the BBH API, thus being able to hire and reserve bikes.
The API was built into the already existing Laravel (PHP) backend.
The format of the API was dictated by the OpenAPI Specification at Whim