Overview
Integration Options
This page provides guidance on how to select the most suitable integration option(s) for your business.
Fourthline provides the following options:
Requirements
Before selecting an integration option, carefully define the scope and requirements for your use case(s).
We advise bringing together all relevant stakeholders, in particular your compliance team, to understand their needs and reach agreement.
Consider the following key questions:
- In which markets will you onboard new clients?
- What are the local compliance requirements in each market and how will you fulfill them?
- Do you want to use a mobile app or web browser?
- How much development effort do you want to invest in integration and maintenance?
- What level of flexibility and configurability do you require?
- What level of UI customizability do you want?
- How quickly do you want to launch?
Comparison
Compare the following factors across the different integration options:
| Factor | App Drop-in | Web SDK | App Components | API only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integration effort | Low | Low | High | Very high |
| Maintenance effort | Low | Low | High | Very high |
| Configurability | Medium | Medium | High | High |
| UI customizability | Medium | Medium | High | Very high |
| Fraud detection | High | High | High | Medium |
| Conversion | High | High | Medium | Depends on your implementation |
| Time to market | Low | Low | High | Very high |
| Website changes | N/A | Medium | N/A | N/A |
Supported solutions
Explore which solutions and modules you can integrate with each integration option.
Supported solutions
The integration options support the following solutions and modules:
| Solutions & modules | App Drop-in | Web SDK | App Components | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document Photo Document Liveness |  | | | |
| Document NFC | |  | | |
| Secondary Document | | | | |
| Selfie Photo Selfie Liveness | | | | |
| Digital Proof of Address Geolocation Physical Proof of Address | | | | |
| Client details Tax details | | | | |
| Qualified Electronic Signature | | | | |
| Bank Account Verification | | | | |
| AML Screening AML Monitoring | | | | |
| Client Authentication Document Authentication | | | | |
Tip
If you're unsure which approach is right for your integration, contact Fourthline's Solution Engineering team to discuss the key implementation decisions.
App Drop-in
Fourthline's App Drop-in provides data and image capture functionality for your Android or iOS mobile app. It is suitable for most Business Partners due to ease of integration, and low development and maintenance effort.
It takes care of all interaction with the client, collects the relevant data (e.g. identity document, selfie, geolocation), and uploads it to Fourthline for processing. You never handle sensitive personal data .
Fourthline provides the UI , which is built in line with industry-standard best practices for user experience (UX):
- The UI provides guidance to clients on how to complete their journey, real-time feedback, and image-quality detection to maximize conversion .
- You can localize the text and customize fonts and colors to match the look-and-feel of your brand.
- We continually update the UI to meet evolving regulatory requirements and market trends in interfaces and UX.
The user journey and flow of modules is orchestrated by the drop-in. We collect analytics data to continually improve conversion and UX.
The drop-in uses a streamlined API flow. You can also easily level up from single products to multi-product solutions with no additional API requests.
The API flow for a European Identity Verification is as follows:
Click to magnify
App Drop-in API flow
The drop-in specifications are as follows:
| Specification | Android SDK | iOS SDK | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum supported version | API 24 | iOS 13 | |
| Approximate app size impact | ~11MB | ~12.5MB | Increase in app download size (App Store / Google Play) |
Operating system specifications:
- Minimum iOS version: 13
- MRZ detection in the document scanner requires minimum iOS 13.
Device specifications:
- Any device running the minimum supported OS version with a functioning camera is supported. For optimal performance, we recommend using a device capable of capturing high-quality images.
Fourthline also offers 3 cross-platform plugins:
- Cordova
- Flutter
- React Native
The plugins require the following additional modules:
| Module | Android | iOS |
|---|---|---|
| Adapters-Json | 237 KB | N/A |
| Bridge | 1.7 MB | 3.4 MB |
More information
For more information, including a UI overview and implementation details, see App Drop-in.
App Components
App Components are standalone functionality modules for Android and iOS mobile apps. If you build custom user journeys, with your own UI , business logic, and orchestration, components reduce development time and effort. They capture images and data for you to upload via the API, leveraging Fourthline's data extraction AI services.
Fourthline provides the UI for the components, which you can customize in the same way as the App Drop-in. You can dynamically adjust functionality during flows, e.g. disable the tilted photo step.
This option is suitable if you want to build highly customized flows. It gives you a high level of control over your app implementations, but reduces development effort compared to API-only integration.
| Module | Required | Android SDK | iOS SDK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document & biometrics capture |  | 1.1 MB | 4.1 MB |
| NFC chip capture | | 4.9 MB | 2.6 MB |
| Data collation | | 211 KB | 4.1 MB |
| Analytics | | 218 KB | 3.9 MB |
| Client guidance | |
Some challenges you may encounter with Components implementations include conversion rates, version updates, maintenance, fraud detection, and complexity when introducing new products.
Fourthline also offers three cross-platform plugins:
- Cordova
- Flutter
- React Native
The plugins require the following additional modules:
| Module | Android | iOS |
|---|---|---|
| Adapters-Json | 237 KB | N/A |
| Bridge | 1.7 MB | 3.4 MB |
The API flow for a European Identity Verification is as follows:
Click to magnify
Components API flow
Web SDK
Fourthline's Web SDK smoothly redirects clients from your website (desktop or mobile) to a new browser window on their mobile device (hosted by Fourthline on a secure, private subdomain) via QR code or SMS. Alternatively, you can embed the SDK in your mobile site. It is suitable for most Business Partners due to ease of integration, and low development and maintenance effort.
Like the App Drop-in, the Web SDK provides data and image capture functionality and takes care of client interaction, orchestration, and analytics.
The Web SDK leverages our mobile-responsive, best-practice UI and you can customize the appearance to match the look-and-feel of your brand. You can also configure the language and level of formality before starting workflows or dynamically during flows.
Fourthline supports a wide range of browsers at the pace of vendor implementation of required APIs:
- At a high level, we support browsers that expose the following APIs:
MediaDevices,MediaRecorder, andGeolocation. - Browsers that aren't supported trigger an error at the start of the flow. The client can try a different browser without needing to restart the entire flow.
The API flow for a European Identity Verification is as follows:
Click to magnify
Web SDK API flow
More information
For more information, including a UI overview and implementation details, see Web SDK.
API only
With API-only integration, you capture and upload data and images, build your own UI , orchestrate the entire user journey, and implement analytics.
This option is suitable if you have an existing mobile app or website that you built and own, with no UI components from other vendors. It offers a very high level of customizability and configurability.
The API flow for a European Identity Verification is as follows:
Click to magnify
API-only flow
Support
If you have any questions, contact Fourthline's Solution Engineering team.
Updated 20 days ago