phenix-contact-centre-2-api
ASP.NET Web API 2 backend for the Contact Centre 2 CRM application, serving contact/customer data, duplicate-contact management, audit, and real-time updates via SignalR.
Health score
0 to 100 across seven weighted factors; nothing is hidden. Green is 75 and above, amber 50 to 74, red below 50. How scoring works.
Facts
| Languages | csharp |
| Frameworks | ASP.NET Web API 5.2 (OWIN), Entity Framework 6.2, SignalR 2.4 |
| Runtimes | .NET Framework 4.6.2 |
| Tests / CI | good / CI in place |
| Last commit | 2026-06-23 |
| Owner | Owner unknown (mapping to be curated) |
| Domain | Contact centre and CRM (system generated; curate in repo-owners.json to override) |
| Product area | Phenix |
| Hosted | On-prem Deployed to our own machines
|
| Releases | 3 release pipeline(s): \marketing\contact-centre-2\phenix-contact-centre-2-api Stealth; \marketing\contact-centre-2\phenix-contact-centre-2-api master; \marketing\contact-centre-2\phenix-contact-centre-2-api release |
| Integration | rest, wcf, signalr |
| Source | Open in Azure DevOps |
Risk flags
Each flag links to its glossary definition.
Dependencies in context
Entanglement
kernel Bound into the core by 3 mechanism(s).
- Pinning dependency: application-framework, phenix-feature-service
- Speaks WCF (client)
- Shares core database sqlserver:ContactCentre
Detaches when its pinning dependencies are cut or multi-targeted (application-framework, phenix-feature-service); and when its WCF surface gains a modern interface or its WCF calls move to one; and when the shared database group it belongs to gains an owned API or completes schema separation (sqlserver:ContactCentre).
Depends on / used by
Capability duplication
Part of the Contact centre family (survivor): Current generation API
Migration playbooks
Generated from this repo's assessment data: what is feasible, what blocks it, and the steps in order. Ratings: green means actionable now, amber means sequence other work first, red means blocked, grey means not applicable.
ZDD adoption
Needs workFeasible through the Workflow Engine's rolling drain, but real preparation is needed: dual-version discipline, better tests, or schema care before at-will release is sensible. Legacy runtime: the rolling drain works (stealth releases prove it) but relies on fix-forward risk rather than dual-version safety. Shares sqlserver:ContactCentre: schema changes move in convoy.
- 2 system(s) depend on this repo; during a rolling deploy they will talk to old and new versions at once, so responses must stay compatible
- Consumes WCF contract packages: never take a breaking client bump mid-feature, and treat obsolete warnings as migration debt
- Shares sqlserver:ContactCentre with 8 system(s): destructive schema change is prohibited in a single release; expand and contract only
- Feature flags come from phenix-feature-service (WCF-only): flag reads themselves are a legacy dependency to watch
- Adopt the four-stage discipline from the ZDD engineering standard: pre-deployment compatibility, deployment, feature activation behind a flag, post-release cleanup.
- Make every change dual-version safe: backwards-compatible APIs (new major version for breaking wire changes), expand and contract for any schema change, and consumers tolerant of unknown fields.
- Audit serialized data: anything in Redis, queues or shared caches must deserialize cleanly across adjacent versions.
- Wrap behaviour changes in feature flags so code deploys dark and release becomes a business decision, not a deployment event.
- Route deployments through the Workflow Engine's automated drain, deploy, health-check, return cycle (the path proven by the first automated production run in mid-2026).
- Verify with area-scoped regression rather than the whole-platform cycle, and watch error rates after rollout with automated rollback on alert.
SQL Server exit
Blocked by a shared core databasesqlserver:ContactCentre, sqlserver:DataWarehouse are shared, so this system cannot change engine on its own: every sharer moves in convoy. The stage 4 work (named owner, declarative schema, owned API) has to land first; after that, the steps below apply to whatever slice this system ends up owning.
- sqlserver:ContactCentre is shared with 8 other system(s) and is a core database
- sqlserver:DataWarehouse is shared with 3 other system(s)
- Inventory the schema and query surface of sqlserver:ContactCentre, sqlserver:DataWarehouse: tables, stored procedures, triggers, cross-database joins and anything else engine-specific.
- Confirm the target: PostgreSQL (relational model; keep transactions and joins, swap the engine).
- Replatform to modern .NET first (see the recommended actions): current PostgreSQL and MongoDB drivers and EF Core providers target modern .NET, and doing one risky change at a time is cheaper than doing two.
- The repo already uses Entity Framework: swap the provider (Npgsql for PostgreSQL) behind the existing model, then burn down the provider-specific differences the test suite finds.
- Stand up the target alongside SQL Server, backfill with an ETL pass (pgloader or an export/import job), then dual-write or replicate until parity is proven.
- Move reads to the target, watch correctness and latency, then cut writes over and keep SQL Server read-only until confidence is earned.
- Decommission the SQL Server database and remove the connection strings and firewall paths that pointed at it.
Containerisation
Feasible after replatformingAppropriate, but the .NET Framework runtime has to go first; container work rides along with the replatform rather than preceding it.
- .NET Framework only runs on Windows; practical (Linux) containers need modern .NET
- Replatform to modern .NET first (see the recommended actions). Containerising then becomes routine.
- Add a Dockerfile and make the app read all configuration from environment variables and the secrets manager, never from machine-local files.
- Log to stdout and expose a health check endpoint so ECS can supervise it.
- Adopt the shared ci.yml pipeline template with the container parameters (awsRegion, containerAfterBuild, ecsTerraformRepo), which is exactly how the estate's existing AWS services deploy.
- Define the service in the Terraform repo, deploy to a non-production environment, then shift traffic and disarm the deployment-group release pipeline.
Recommended actions
Rotate the credentials committed to phenix-contact-centre-2-api
Risk flags indicate credentials or keys in source (hardcoded-credentials). Rotate now and enable secret scanning in CI; this is independent of all other work.
Impact: Closes a live security exposure at near-zero cost
proposedReplatform phenix-contact-centre-2-api to modern .NET
Runs on .NET Framework 4.6.2, out of mainstream support. Blocked until stage 2 cuts: application-framework, phenix-feature-service. Shares sqlserver:ContactCentre, so batch it with its database group (stage 4).
Impact: Unblocks 2 dependent system(s)
proposedAssessment notes
phenix-contact-centre-2-api
Purpose
Backend API for the "Contact Centre 2" CRM web application. Serves contact and customer data, booking details from the data warehouse, duplicate-contact detection/merging (ManageDuplicates), audit trails, validation logic, and pushes real-time updates to the UI via SignalR hubs.
Tech stack
C# on .NET Framework 4.6.2. ASP.NET Web API 2 hosted with OWIN, Autofac DI, AutoMapper, EF6 (EDMX model ContactCentre2016Entities), SignalR 2.4, AWS Cognito authentication (TC.Cognito.Auth.Client, AWSSDK Cognito packages), JWT. Legacy packages.config NuGet format throughout.
Deployment
Included as prod_application with 3 releases. Build pipelines: phenix-contact-centre-2-api, ... develop, ... release (no YAML in repo — classic pipelines). Release pipelines under \marketing\contact-centre-2\: Stealth, master, release.
Dependencies
Internal packages map to estate repos: TC.ConnectionBroker.* (tc-connectionbroker), TC.Exceptions (tc-exceptions), TC.Phenix.ApplicationFramework (application-framework), TC.UserAccount.ServiceClient (backoffice-useraccount-service), TC.AddressLookup.ServiceContract (backoffice-address-lookup-service), TC.CardPayments.* (card-payments), TC.Phenix.Feature (phenix-feature-service), TC.TaskReminder.ServiceContract (phenix-task-reminder-wcf). Also customer-portal service contracts and TC.Phenix.Services.Client. External: AWS Cognito for identity.
Data stores
SQL Server ContactCentre database via EF6 (shared with phenix-contact-api and contact-centre v1), a data-warehouse SQL source for contact booking details, and Redis caching via TC.Cache/ConnectionBroker.Redis. A test connection string with plaintext webuser credentials is committed in app.config.
Integration points
REST (Web API 2 with CORS), SignalR hubs for real-time client push, and WCF clients (ConnectionBroker.Wcf, card payments, task reminder, address lookup service contracts).
Code health
Nine test projects covering most source projects, so coverage discipline is good for its era. README is boilerplate. Last commit 2026-06-23 — still actively maintained. No pipeline YAML; builds rely on classic ADO definitions.
Modernisation risks
Full-framework ASP.NET Web API on .NET 4.6.2 with EF6 EDMX and OWIN/SignalR 2 — a substantial migration to ASP.NET Core is needed. packages.config and old Autofac/AutoMapper versions add upgrade friction. Shares the ContactCentre database with several other services (schema coupling). Committed plaintext test credentials should be removed.