Make a mobile app for a website that handles money

[hb code for life]

This is my first post in this forum so I apologize in advance if this question is not suited for this forum.

Ok, I want to make an mobile for my university website and many features that the website lacks.

Among all the features the one that I am most concerned about is the money transfers.

The students would be able to login into the app with their student credentials and there link their account with a bank account, and be able to pay their fees directly instead of spending hours in line to do so in the university.

I am just a beginner who has been programming in C++ for quite some time now and know the basic of HTML, CSS and very little of Javascript. Worth noting that I am in my fresh year of college.

What I am needing is sort of a road map, what do I have to have to learn, which programming languages, courses to take, technologies to use, things that I need to be aware of, to make this app and add the possibility to handle money to pay the college fees in a one-click way for all the students.
Any guidance will be much appreciated.

[tangor]

@ hb code for life ... Welcome to Webmasterworld!

Check out payment processors and banking requirements, plus security regulations, etc. Get that out of the way before you start coding... When MONEY is involved you have MANY other considerations that must be addressed.

[not2easy]

Hi hb_code_for_life and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

A stand-alone mobile app to process payments is going to take a good deal of time to get to a start. I would guess that you want all people to be able to use your app so you would need a version for Windows and Android devices at the Google Play Store and an OS/iOS app at the Apple App Store. Those two vendors spell out the requirements that your app would need to meet to be available for download. For the average beginner, it can take years to master the coding you would need. And you will still need to go through the other steps listed to qualify to accept payments.

There are other means to accomplish the same thing but though it would be faster and simpler, you still need to understand your responsibilities to people who agree to pay you for services. You will probably need to meet local and national requirements for any location where you might have clients. You would likely need to have a Merchant account with a bank to process your payments.

Once you get through all that you could conceivably go the same route as many other businesses and learn to use WordPress securely. There are many simple plugins to help you process payments once you have all the other details set up.

There really is not a simple road map to tell you what to do, it takes your own decisions to gather the requirements and fulfill them, deciding which options work best for you each step of the way. Read what you can to learn about operating a business. Hopefully, since you are in college you will be planning to take some business courses along the way to learn about how to manage your business and how to create a business plan.

[hb code for life]

Thanks for your answer, really appreciated it.

No, I just need it for my university, maybe 4 thousand people will be using. It is a mobile app from the university website that adds a feature that enable students to pay their fees (thus the money transfer).

[lammert]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld hb_code_for_life!

It may be helpful if you explain which country you are in. Depending on the country, people are used to different payment methods and banks offer different gateways for processing. Spending hours in line to do a university payment is not something I have encountered in the countries I lived. The only students I have seen lining up was in the cafeteria :)

[hb code for life]

I actually never spent hours waiting to pay the fees as I have a scholarship, but I know it happens occasionally for those who pay.

My country: [en.wikipedia.org...]

[NickMNS]

My country: [Cape Verde]

It sucks to be you, ;). The land of some the best Jazz singers, Cesaria Evora and Carmen Souza, add to that beaches and mountains a beautiful weather. Note where I live it likely wont reach more than 11 degrees C today.

It is a mobile app from the university website

It sounds like you don't need to create a native app, but instead simply need to build a page or section of the website that is optimized for mobile phones. Ideally the entire website should be mobile friendly, but that is a topic for another thread. As for the payment processing, typically you would use 3rd party service for this, such as Paypal/GooglePay. You simply setup an account add their code to the page and your good to go. Now whether they provide services in Cape Verde is a different issue.

[not2easy]

Is the university site built on a common CMS platform such as WordPress or is it a static site or some custom build? I ask because for WP there are multiple options for payment processing which only require credentials for the processor connection.

[hb code for life]

hahahahahaah yeah it sucks

I want to create a native app though, or hybrid with react, start with android maybe, I was just searching how I should begin (android studio appeared everywhere), thus I guess I need to learn Java.

I think there is a company here in Cape Verde that offers services that I wouldn't need Paypal/GooglePay.

I googled a lot of stuff and came to a conclusion that I will first need to strengthen my knowledge about web development, learning about frontend, backend, databases, all that stuff. Then go into mobile development where I plan to go directly into hybrid apps.
This is just a basic road map I formed in my head as I was searching the web. Any insights on this?

Side question: How do you quote someone else's answer, like you did with mine in this forum.

[not2easy]

How do you quote someone else's answer, like you did with mine in this forum.

That Welcome link I posted above gives you all the inside information. ;)

There is a place to go for learning all the basics you need, search for w3schools and try it out. It is always free to learn there and you choose the parts you want to learn more about. The WebmasterWorld forums discuss problem solving but we don't feature in-depth tutorials.

[hb code for life]

Hadn't seen this reply:

Is the university site built on a common CMS platform such as WordPress or is it a static site or some custom build?
I ask because for WP there are multiple options for payment processing which only require credentials for the processor connection.

I am not sure but I don't think it was built on such platforms, I think it is regular website, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP etc

[hb code for life]

A final thought: So I basically have to learn web development, frontend, backend, database, then learn the same stuff for mobile development and only then start researching on how to implement payment processes. Right?

[not2easy]

No reason to limit your research. Waiting until you need to have a key piece of information could cause you to spend time learning to do something that is included with or unique to the payment processing. Better to have a basic understanding of the 'parts' and then start filling out the skills you find you will need. Learning skills is never wasted time. Even if you don't need it today, you may find a perfect use while working on a different project. To move your project ahead, outline your steps, fill in the unknown information, then you can dedicate time to learning what you will need to know and use. Just my personal opinion.

My first website almost 20 years ago included accepting payments. That part of the process has not changed a lot over the years but today there are more and better options.

BTW, to understand how the university site was built, just look at the source code. In your browser you should see the option under 'View' to View Source.

[hb code for life]

OK, thanks for all your insights guys, really appreciated it. I Will begin working as soon as I can.