Media and community Case study
Also: Public safety and government
TheHopeLine: crisis-support community platform
A long-running ASP.NET website, agent CRM and mobile app for a youth crisis-support organisation: topic pages, live chat, prayer requests, reports and reminders.
- Client
- TheHopeLine
- Service
- Web apps, Mobile apps, Integrations
- Years
- 2011–2026 (15 years)
- Stack
- Azure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, iOS, Android and 8 more
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, Web
Overview
TheHopeLine is a non-profit crisis-support service for students and young adults, with topic resources, live chat with trained coaches and a prayer community. We have worked on its software since 2011: the public website, an agent CRM used by the people who answer chats, reports, the ThePrayerZone mobile apps and the integrations around them, through several platform moves over fifteen years.
The challenge
The site, the CRM and later the mobile apps all had to stay in step with one set of data while the platform underneath changed: a community-server base, then ASP.NET on new hosting, then ASP.NET Core and a unified API.
What we built
- Public website pages and features: topic pages, a shopping cart and donation flow, video uploads and voting, podcasts, forums and blogs, social sign-in and user profiles
- An agent CRM for handling guests and volunteer applications, with partner and resource tracking and mental-health and abuse-report forms
- Reporting for agent activity, user demographics and resource use, moved from SQL Server Reporting to Telerik reports, with drill-down reports and filters
- LiveChat integration with the CRM, with chat reports by group and agent, replacing a custom chat sign-in
- A chatbot that opens as a pop-up and walks visitors through multiple-choice topics, with mobile layouts
- ThePrayerZone: a prayer-request community on the web and as iOS and Android apps, with sign-up and profile screens, push notifications and scheduled prayer reminders, on a unified API
- SMS integration with the CRM and email through SendGrid
- Platform moves: from the original community-server base to Visual Studio 2010 and cloud hosting, later to ASP.NET Core, with SSL, user roles and security updates
- Ongoing ticket-based maintenance: report changes, new pages, bug fixes and design updates
How a system like this fits together
Reference architecture: crisis-support community platform
Simplified reference architecture, not a client schematic.
- Visitors browse the public website, agents use the CRM, and the ThePrayerZone iOS and Android apps call the same ASP.NET application over REST.
- A live chat is embedded on the site; chats run through LiveChat and are linked to records in the CRM.
- The application sends email, such as ThePrayerZone notifications, through SendGrid.
- The CRM sends text messages through an SMS gateway (2sms).
- Data is kept in SQL Server through stored procedures; Telerik reports run over it, and a scheduler sends prayer reminders and admin notifications.
Technology used
| Layer | Choice | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Azure, with AWS Elastic Beanstalk trialled | the CRM and the websites |
| Mobile | iOS and Android apps for ThePrayerZone | prayer requests, profiles and push notifications |
| Application | ASP.NET, later ASP.NET Core | website, CRM and the API behind the mobile apps |
| Data | SQL Server with stored procedures | users, chats, prayer requests and report data |
| Reporting | SQL Server Reporting, then Telerik Reporting | agent, user and resource reports with drill-down |
| Integrations | LiveChat, SendGrid, an SMS gateway | chat, email and text messages |
What happened next
- Delivered
The work described above was delivered to the client.
- Operational facts
- Our work on this project spanned 2011–2026.
- It was maintained and extended over 15 years.
Screens
Could this be your project?
- You need a web application with user accounts, admin tools and reporting. Website and web app development
- You are planning an iOS or Android app, or have one that needs a stronger back end behind it. Mobile app development
- You work in media and community and want a team that has built for it before. Media and community work
Questions about this project
How long did this project take?
Our work on it ran from 2011 to 2026.
What technology was used?
Azure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, iOS, Android, ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, C#, SQL Server, WordPress, Telerik Reporting, LiveChat, SendGrid.
Was it maintained and extended over time?
Yes. Our work on this project was maintained and extended over 15 years, from 2011 to 2026.
What the client says
Jatinder is one of the most talents programmers I have worked with and the pleasure has been all mine. I look forward to many more projects together.
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