Development

Front-end Application

GOV.UK Frontend was used for the user interface, following their guidelines for presenting data and information. Where custom components were required (e.g. tabs and dialogues), existing examples via the GOV.UK Frontend backlog were used as a reference. The GOV.UK Design System is for everyone. See Design for more information.

The NCC front end was built using Angular with angular-cli: a modern JavaScript framework that doesn't require a specific type of web server. The Moment.js JavaScript library was used for date formatting.

The source code for the NCC front-end is hosted in a public GitHub repository. It was registered under an MIT licence and so "Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to certain conditions."

Development Tool - Atom

Application Link - http://ncc.hackney.gov.uk/ (internal only)

NCC API

Rest APIs are developed using C# language on a Microsoft .Net Framework. APIs are the business tier of this application and communicate to back office system e.g. Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Gov Notify component, Single Sign On, Paris payment and Universal Housing.

We have made sure, where possible, to use the existing Hackney API end points which have been developed on other projects such as Manage a Tenancy and Pay My Rent so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel. The NCC API is developed specifically to this project's requirements. Some endpoints within this project can be reused for future projects eg. Gov Notify API, Single Sign On.

Development Tool - Microsoft Visual Studio 2017

Code Location - https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/LBHNCCApi

API Link- http://api.hackney.gov.uk/lbhnccapi/swagger/index.html (internal only)

Gov Notify Service

The Gov.uk Notify service API was used to send links to callers via templates we created e.g. link to direct debit form, link to the rent refund form, link to the rent payment methods page on the Hackney website. Communications can be sent by email or SMS. The service has two components:

Gov Notify Admin

This is where we create all the email, SMS and letter templates. Dynamic placeholders in the templates can be populated using the API. The Admin tool also allows us to manage user permissions, send tests and view a dashboard of the last 7 days' reports.

Gov Notify API

The Gov Notify API provides the data set up using the Admin tool and, most importantly, the dynamic data needed to pass through those templates in order to send the email and SMS. See screenshots below.

Direct Debit email template from Gov Notify Admin tool.

We have two services setup on Gov Notify Sandbox and Live.

Our API setup for NCC Front end for call centre agents to trigger the email and sms templates. It also provides all the templates setup on the Gov Notify Admin tool.

Development Tool - Gov Notify Admin tool for template. APIs are developed as per above.

Single Sign On

The SSO component was developed as part of this project. This was developed using Microsoft ASP.Net as we couldn't achieve this functionality in AngularJS to provide the user (i.e. agent) login details. This component not only grabs the user login details but it authenticates on Hackney Active Directory and CMR 365 to make sure they are part of the CRM Licence as well.

Development Tool - Microsoft Visual Studio 2017

Code Location - https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/LBHNCCApi

API Link- http://api.hackney.gov.uk/lbhnccapi/swagger/index.html (internal only)

Back-end Data

Microsoft Dynamic CRM

All the call logs captured by NCC agent is stored in CRM via NCC front-end. CRM is also used to retrieve all the citizen and transaction information which are copied over-nite from the main back office system Universal Housing.

Universal Housing

The Universal Housing module UHW is used to add the Action Diary Notes via our API. The allows the back office to view notes added by the call centre agents.