Reengineering the System with Nintex/K2 Low-Code Platform
According to Software Development Times magazine, 2021 was the year of low-code platforms. Let's talk about how we assisted a customer in accelerating page loading on the specialized Nintex/K2 platform.
Customer
K2RU specializes in business process automation using the Nintex and K2 platforms. Their solutions allow for interface development and integration without the need for programming.
Objective
Speeding up the user website so that each page would load in no more than four seconds.
Characteristics of the project
We organized team management to ensure all members worked comfortably, had a clear understanding of their tasks, deadlines, and the quality criteria. Additionally, communication during some meetings occurred in three languages, as the team comprised specialists from four countries.
What we did
Diving into the platform's specifics. We spent approximately 2 weeks getting to grips with Nintex/K2 and exploring its capabilities. We also assessed the previous contractor's work and analyzed the logic that was implemented before our involvement.
Forms are the building blocks of the IT system on the Nintex/K2 platform. Previously, each page of the website was one large form with numerous buttons, pop-up windows, and other elements, making it cumbersome and slow to load. Our task was to break down the existing structure, creating a "framework" where smaller forms could be placed. For simplicity, let's compare it to a set of nesting dolls. Before Nintex/K2, all "toys" were placed in one space, taking up a lot of space. We needed to stack them properly, without compromising each doll's integrity.
Analytics. We analyzed business aspects of the current product and determined the requirements for its upgraded version. We had a constraint—not to change the business processes, so we carefully examined the form content and interactions with internal and external users.
Development. We segmented the process into several phases.
- Decomposition. We took ready-made bulky forms and broke them down into logical parts, where necessary, we reworked some rules or added new ones. If we were to rebuild the entire structure from scratch, we would have to be very cautious and slow. However, the customer needed to optimize the website's performance as quickly as possible.
- Developing a React application and transferring the low-code form functionality to it. We decided to integrate the website with React to further streamline the product. Writing a conventional API was not feasible, and the interaction between the frontend and Nintex/K2 server was a challenging task. We structured it using frames.
- Creating a backend to ensure the proper functioning of the React application and its interaction with the low-code part.
Results
We collaboratively decomposed over 30 forms and integrated the Nintex/K2 platform with a React application. The result was:
- reducing page loading speed to four seconds or less;
- making the interface more user-friendly, enabling smooth navigation between the website sections.
Technologies
Nintex/К2, React, ASP.NET, Microsoft SQL Server