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Integration of RESTFul API to Student Information
System for Secured Data Sharing and Single
Sign-on
Philip Alger M. Serrano
College of Computer Studies
Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges
Nabua, Camarines Sur, Philippines
pamserrano@cspc.edu.ph
Joseph Jessie S. O˜
nate
College of Computer Studies
Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges
Nabua, Camarines Sur, Philippines
josephjessie97@cspc.edu.ph
Abstract—Growth in the usage of REST APIs has been
witnessed in recent years. Many businesses and companies,
such as social media sites and online services, used API to
interoperate with other benefits. REST was considered the most
logical, efficient, and widespread standard in the creation of
APIs. Hence, the main focus of the study is to develop a Web-
Based Student Information RESTful API. This paper utilized the
incremental model in the development of the system. A survey
was used to validate the problems encountered in acquiring
student information and determine the software quality based on
ISO 9126 software quality metrics. Survey questionnaires were
distributed to the system developers as the study respondents
following the total population sampling technique. A five-point
Likert scale was used to quantify the survey result and weighted
mean to analyze and interpret the result. Based on the analysis
and interpretation, the system developers recognized that the
system is Acceptable with an average weighted mean of 4.44.
This study also developed a profiling system that is connected
to the Single Sign-On (SSO) API. The profiling system serves
as the data source of student information of the REST API.
Besides, the portal and the REST API were utilized by various
information systems such as ID Generation Management System
(SIGS), Event Management System (EMS), Faculty Performance
Evaluation System (FPES), and Smart Card-based attendance
and monitoring.
Index Terms—RESTFul API, Unified Student Information,
Single Sign-on
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, API has been widely recognized in busi-
nesses and web services. All industries use APIs or application
program interfaces as a vital tool in securely sharing the
data and information to other services. It allows enterprises
to innovate and develop new ideas by sharing existing data
and information. Several API types emerged, one of which
is REST or Representational State Transfer [1] [2]. REST
or REST API is a web service architecture that offers a
communication link between online platforms or systems.
REST API is a norm used to build a network-based software
system as an architectural instrument. In REST API, data
are being transferred using the HTTP Protocol that is cost-
effective in terms of internet traffic and in a way that is easy
to use.
Maleshkova et al. [3] stipulated that the utilization of REST
APIs still necessitates manual undertakings, which is the
development of a static system suited only for a specific
process and hard to be reused. However, the study of Wulf
et al. [4], titled Service Innovation through Application Pro-
gramming Interfaces - Towards a Typology of Service Designs,
conceptualized APIs as an approach for service innovation that
enables organizations to build digital platforms or to distribute
data and applications. In support, Neuman et al. [5] also
asserted that it has good support and technical features such
as data formats, HTTP verbs, and URI structures. Besides,
Heryandi [6] developed an API that enables the application to
communicate with existing academic information systems and
deliver a notification to the parent.
REST APIs have been utilized in various application fields;
the study of Hsieh et al. [7], Nugroho et al. [8], and Risanen
et al. [9] developed a RESTful API for ezCrum, Oil Palm
Plantation Monitoring System, and IP Multimedia Subsystem,
respectively. These studies used the standard HTTP methods
known as verbs to represent operation in retrieving and ap-
pending resources and generating JSON String results. REST
API was also utilized in information systems of colleges
and universities, such as academic information [10], lecturer’s
assessment [11], e-learning [12], and dormitory monitoring
[13].
Security [14] has also been an intrinsic part of RESTful API;
the study of Huang et al. [15] presented a token-based user
authentication mechanism for data exchange in RESTful API.
In which every request in REST API will require a new unique
token. In terms of session time, every API request will only
be given a limited amount of time, and the token generation
is shrouded during packet transmission. Also, Serme et al.
[16] introduce a REST safety protocol to ensure stable service
communication of REST API.
In a state college in the Philippines, rapid digitization of
systems and processes has been observed over time. Student
Information was being managed, accessed, and stored using
an information system named Student Information and Ac-
counting System (SIAS) by individual users, depending on the
978-1-6654-0167-8/21/$31.00 © 2021 IEEE
administrator’s permission. However, the College’s pilot Stu-
dent Information and Accounting System is outsourced, which
causes barriers in reusing data and information to other newly
developed information systems. Al-Alawi [17] stipulated that
outsourcing’s key drawbacks are lack of management control
over outsourced activities, protection, confidentiality risks,
quality concerns, hidden costs, and establishes’ reassigned
teams.
Currently, system developers of the state college access the
student information by downloading an excel file generated
from the system and consumes a lot of effort and time.
Hence, the study’s primary focus is to develop a Web-Based
RESTful API for Student Information, which will benefit other
information systems in sharing resources and connectivity
to improve the delivery of all the college services digitally.
Specifically, this study has the following objectives, (1) vali-
date the problems encountered by the system developers in
acquiring student’s data; (2) develop a Web-Based Student
Information RESTful API for data sharing and single-on;
and (3) determine the software quality in terms of efficiency,
functionality, reliability, usability, and security based on ISO
9126.
The developed software could help to alleviate the prob-
lems encountered in developing a system that uses student
information. The software will not handle other information
required by system developers. The system will solely control
the personal information of Students. The system will also
provide login authentication API to interoperated information
systems. Accounts, tokens, and limits on sessions will also be
issued to ensure the data’s security.
II. METHODOLOGY
As this study is in line with software development, a
software development methodology will be followed. Then
part of the evaluation process will employ a descriptive-
quantitative research method.
A. Software Development Methodology
In software engineering, the software development life cycle
(SDLC) is a structure imposed on developing a product [18].
In this study, the researchers will utilize the Incremental
Model [19]. In this Model, a first version of the software will
be produced and incrementally adding functionalities to the
previous release. This process will continue until the complete
system is achieved. The incremental model includes four (4)
phases: requirements, design and development, testing, and
implementation.
•Requirements. In this phase, identification of system and
device functional specifications will be carried out by the
researcher.
•Design and Development. After the identification of
requirements, the system functional design and the de-
velopment process will be executed.
•Testing. After the successful development, the system
will be tested according to the ISO 9126 software quality
metrics.
TABLE I
FIVE-POINT LIK ERT SCA LE
Rate Verbal Interpretation Range
5 Highly Acceptable 4.6 – 5.0
4 Acceptable 3.6 – 4.5
3 Slightly Acceptable 2.6 – 3.5
2 Unacceptable 1.6 – 2.5
1 Highly Unacceptable 1.0 – 1.5
•Deployment. Once the system already passed the tests
conducted, the system will be deployed and will be
utilized.
B. Sampling Technique
The sampling technique will ensure that the respondents’
population is adequate and will produce accurate survey re-
sults. Total Population Sampling will be used as a sampling
technique such that the respondents have a particular set of
characteristics.
C. Respondents
The respondents of this study are the faculty/developers who
are developing institutional information systems. A total of 5
faculty/developers will validate the problems encountered in
acquiring student data used in other institutional information
systems. They will also validate the system based on ISO 9126
software quality metrics.
D. Software Quality Metrics
A questionnaire will be given to the respondents to validate
the problems encountered in acquiring student information.
Another to test the software quality. Analysis of the proposed
method based on ISO 9126 software quality metrics [20] in
terms of efficiency, functionality, reliability, usability, main-
tainability, portability.
E. Statistical Analysis
The collected data will be analyzed using descriptive statis-
tics for the survey conducted to seek the problems being
encountered by the developers. Evaluation of the software
quality will use a Likert scale to quantify the survey result
using questionnaires and statistically analyze using weighted
mean.
F. Evaluation
Five-point Likert Scale [20] was used to measure the survey
questionnaire’s outcomes and evaluate and interpret the final
result statistically shown in Table I.
III. RES ULTS AND DISCUSSION
Since this study follows the Incremental Model, the result’s
discussion will follow the phases of the Incremental Model.
Fig. 1. Profiling Portal
A. Requirements
To validate the problems encountered in acquiring student
information from the Student Information System, the re-
searchers conducted a survey assessing the ways and medium
on how to use student information in other information sys-
tems of the institution. The result of the survey shows that
a hundred percent (100%) of the respondents perceived that
the Student Information and Accounting System (SIAS) could
provide data such as student information in exported Excel
(XLS) or Comma Separated Values (CSV) format. However,
a hundred percent (100%) of the respondents are not satisfied
with the SIAS method, exported XLS/CSV in acquiring these
data. Respondents also encountered problems obtaining these
data, such as encoding special characters such as ”˜
n”, for-
matting, whitespaces, level of authorization, and the system’s
non-disclosure of the database itself authorities. Respondents
also suggest that these problems could be improved by sharing
the database or developing a REST API.
B. Design and Development
With the problems stated in the requirements, the web-
based API’s functionalities have been identified by validating
these problems to the respondents. One of the difficulties
encountered is the non-uniformity of characters and formats
of student information in the Student Information and Ac-
counting System (SIAS) hence, the researchers also developed
a profiling portal for students, as shown in Figure 1. The
profiling portal is connected to the Single Sign-On (SSO) of
the College, allowing students to log in using their institutional
email provided by Google Services. The profiling enables the
student to update their information such as signature, personal
information, photo, etc., anytime and anywhere. The profiling
portal will be the source of web-based student information
API.
In the design and development of API, CodeIgniter 4 was
used to build the REST API. CodeIgniter is an Application
Development Platform-a toolkit. CodeIgniter allows develop-
ers to build projects much faster than you might by providing
a rich collection of libraries for commonly required tasks, as
well as a simple interface and logical framework for accessing
these libraries if you were writing code from scratch.
C. Process of API Request
Shown in Figure 2 is the graphical representation of the
API request process, the administrator will provide an en-
crypted application and secret key to the client application.
The application and secret key will be the unique credentials
by the client application in order to login through the API
Auth when requesting to the API. When the given credentials
Fig. 2. API Process
was validated by the API Auth, the request will then be
processed to the API by getting student information through
the profiling server. Once the required information was ready
to be released, the API Auth will return back the requested
information together with the access token.
D. API Functionalities
In this section, the RESTFul API will be discussed. REST-
Ful API consists of various request format such as the follow-
ing:
•Information by Email. API Client could get the student
information by sending a request through the student’s
email address. The API will send back the student in-
formation and photo in base64 image format shown in
Figure 3.
•Information by Student ID Number. API Client could
also get the student information by sending a request
through the student’s ID number. The API will also be
sent back to the student information and photo in base64
image.
E. Testing and Evaluation
The researchers conducted various tests on the system using
the ISO 9126 software quality metrics in efficiency, func-
tionality, reliability, usability, maintainability, and portability.
Based on the survey result shown in Table II in terms of
Functionality and Portability, the system is highly acceptable
with a weighted mean of 4.92 and 4.75, respectively, that
means that the system and the REST API perform the tasks
required, prevent unauthorized access, and can comply with
portability standards. In terms of Efficiency, Reliability, Us-
ability, and Maintainability, the respondents perceived that the
system and REST API is acceptable with a weighted mean of
4.5, 4.25, 4.12, and 4.12, respectively, which shows that the
system and REST API respond quickly, capable of handling
errors, can be used without much effort, can be easily modified
and can be easily moved to their environments. Overall, the
respondents recognized that the system is Acceptable with
an average weighted mean of 4.44, which manifests that the
system performs all the expected functionalities determined in
the requirements phase and is recommended for utilization.
F. Deployment
The Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges utilized the Web-
based Student Information REST API on September 21, 2020.
The REST API was integrated into ID Generation Manage-
ment System (SIGS) [21], Event Management System (EMS),
TABLE II
EVALUATI ON RE SULT
Classification Weighted Mean Interpretation
Efficiency 4.5 Acceptable
Functionality 4.92 Highly Acceptable
Reliability 4.25 Acceptable
Usability 4.125 Acceptable
Maintainability 4.125 Acceptable
Portability 4.75 Highly Acceptable
AVERAGE 4.4 Acceptable
Faculty Performance Evaluation System (FPES), and Smart
Card-based attendance and monitoring.
IV. CONCLUSION
Growth in the usage of REST APIs has been witnessed
in recent years. Many businesses and companies, such as
social media sites and online services, used API to interoperate
with other services. REST was considered the most logical,
efficient, and widespread standard in the creation of APIs.
This study investigates the problems being encountered by
the system developers in acquiring student information at
Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges. The issues encountered
were validated by conducting a survey on what they currently
perceived in developing student information through the Stu-
dent Information and Accounting System (SIAS).
Upon validation, the result shows that a hundred percent
(100%) of the respondents perceived that the Student Infor-
mation and Accounting System (SIAS) could provide data
such as student information in exported Excel (XLS) or
Comma Separated Values (CSV) format. However, a hundred
percent (100%) of the respondents are not satisfied with the
SIAS method, exported XLS/CSV in acquiring these data.
Respondents also encountered problems obtaining these data,
such as encoding special characters such as ”˜
n”, formatting,
whitespaces, level of authorization, and the system’s non-
disclosure of the database itself authorities. Respondents also
shared some possible actions to alleviate these problems by
sharing the database or developing a REST API.
Hence, the researchers developed a profiling system that
gathers student data such as photos, signatures, and other
student information by following the incremental model as
the study’s software development methodology. The system
was also linked to the Single Sign-On API of the College
using the official institutional email. The system could also
provide a REST API that offers various request services such
as information by email, Student ID number, and others.
To validate the system’s software quality, the researchers
initiated a survey of the system developer of the College. The
system was evaluated based on ISO 9126 software quality met-
rics in terms of efficiency, functionality, reliability, usability,
maintainability, portability. Based on the survey result, most
system developers recognized that the system is Acceptable
with an average weighted mean of 4.44. Accordingly, the
Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges utilized the Web-based
Student Information REST API on September 21, 2020. The
REST API was integrated into ID Generation Management
Fig. 3. API Result by Email
System (SIGS), Event Management System (EMS), Faculty
Performance Evaluation System (FPES), and Smart Card-
based attendance and monitoring.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank everyone behind this study’s success, especially
our family, colleagues, and friends, for the unending support.
We would also like to show our gratitude to the Camarines
Sur Polytechnic Colleges’ System Developers and the Office
of the MICT in sharing their cooperation and support.
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