Case Study: Custom REST API Integration @ Casino M8trix

The Project

Casino M8trix is a popular casino and entertainment hub in the Silicon Valley region of northern California. In addition to table games, they also feature a number of restaurants and events to attract customers.

After starting a major new initiative, their Progressive Jackpots which offer wins for various hands from a jackpot drawn from all the table games, they wanted to feature this prominently upon their website. Having worked with AUQ on multiple projects previously, knew exactly who to turn to.

The Problem

CasinoM8trix wanted to show a real time view of the jackpot amounts and the trigger hands for each game, with updates once per hour. They were already displaying this information on monitors in the casino, but that used a custom feed provided by a third party. We needed to determine a way to hook into that feed so as to display the information on the website. The challenges were:

• Communication: While AUQ is used to working with customers across the USA, communication was somewhat challenging because Casino M8trix is located in California, while the third party providing the feed is on the East Coast. Since any change to the service the other company provided required explicit approval from the executive team at the casino, we had to be very flexible in the hours we worked so as to keep the project moving.
• Data Format: The format that the data was provided in was very different from the way Casino M8trix wanted it displayed. In addition, while their are actually two separate jackpots, the data we were provided had most of the data “limped together,” so we had to separate the data before working with it.
• Design: There were many different ways in which the data could be displayed. The client knew how they wanted it grouped, but had no specific ideas beyond that.
• Speed: There were many different games involved, and the jackpot totals changed frequently. We needed to limit the number of network and database calls so as not to lower the performance of the site.

The Process

We took a two pronged approach to this project. The designer created Figma mockups that were then discussed with the client and developers to determine first the best way to present the data, and then refine the details until Casino M8trix was happy with both the appearance and the functionality.

Simultaneously, the development team was working out the best way to access and work with the data. The data provider was willing to make the data available as a REST API endpoint, as long as we were willing to accept the data formatting they were using. We used WordPress’s built in functions to authentication with the API and retrieve the data, in order to maximize compatibility with future versions of WordPress compare to performing these tasks natively in PHP. After extensive array manipulation, the data is stored in the database and refreshed at one hour intervals. Between refreshes, the data is cached in memory to speed performance, again using native WordPress functions wherever possible.

The Outcome

While the three-way communication and approval process did indeed prove challenging, the end result works very quickly and smoothly, with the data being displayed on both the Home page and in more detail on a page dedicated to the jackpots themselves.

Mobile View