Third party integration standards
Third party applications must be procured with a view to being integrated within liverpool.gov.uk. liverpool.gov.uk has been developed to be the single point of user interaction with citizens online and is designed to provide a consistent look and feel for these interactions.
There are three levels of integration Digital Services would expect for applications on liverpool.gov.uk. They are listed below in decreasing order of desirability.
If a supplier cannot meet the requirements for Level 1, they should then attempt to meet Level 2 and subsequently Level 3. The levels of integration are not meant to be restrictive and Digital Services will endeavour to work with any third party supplier to help create the best level of integration.
Level 1 - full integration
Level 1 integration is achieved when a third party application supplier has documented web services (e.g. SOAP, JSON) or APIs which allow direct access to the application’s functionality. In this instance, Digital Services would develop HTML and web application code within liverpool.gov.uk that leverage the functions exposed by the web services or APIs to seamlessly integrate the application’s functionality into the website.
Level 2 - integration via third party code or controls
Level 2 integration is achieved when a supplier does not have a directly accessible API or web service, but is able to supply code or controls that can be included on the website to allow access to the application’s functionality. For example, these could be JavaScript controls, or .NET User Controls with supporting binaries that integrate the functionality of the application into the existing website.
IFRAMES can also be used to include third party pages within the existing liverpool.gov.uk site, but this is to be highly discouraged as it limits the control over the styling and design and can cause cross-site scripting issues.
Level 3 - standalone third party applications
If the third party application can only be supplied as a standalone application without integration services as detailed in Level 1 or 2, then Digital Services would expect the application to allow web design to be amended to match that of liverpool.gov.uk. For example, this could be achieve by configurable HTML templates, CSS or .NET Master pages which allow the HTML implemented by the application to match the style and design of liverpool.gov.uk, including the use of applicable logos. Digital Services would work with the third party supplier to ensure the resulting application design reflects that used throughout liverpool.gov.uk.