API Description

What does the API facilitate?

The API allows members and leaders of local churches to created random groups of people to connect up with. Church leaders can set certain constraints on how the matching is carried out and the matching logic attempts to match as many fully unique groups as possible at all times. The API is meant to be consumed primarily by a mobile application and possibly also by a web application.

Who are the users of the service and what can they do?

The API is used by two different types of users:

1. Church leaders sign up their local church and become the administrators for that local church. They may configure certain constraints which determine how members of their church are matched into groups and when and how often that happens.
2. Church members are invited by their church leaders to join the system and become part of their local church within the system. They are then matched with other members of their local church by the system and the system initiates or facilitates communication between church members.

In terms of authorisation, a church leader is a church member with additional permissions, i.e. a church leader can participate in the matching but can also control settings which apply to his local church in the system.

What is the workflow for church leaders?

1. A church leader signs up in the system providing some details of his or her church.
2. The church leader sets constraints for the matching within his or her local church, e.g. group size, group makeup, frequency of matching, icebreaker/discussion questions, etc..
3. The church leader enters names and email addresses of church members to be invited.

What is the workflow for church members?

1. The church members receives an invite to join Hello Neighbour via email.
2. The church member clicks on the invite link and can provide additional details as well as set a password.
3. The church member is notified of matching having occurred and retrieves the group details as well as any icebreaker or discussion questions which may have been provided.
4. The church member may then initiate contact to organise a group meeting of the newly matched group.

Future considerations

1. The system may integrate directly with text chat, audio or video conferencing applications.
2. Local churches may have several leaders/administrators.
3. Local churches may be registered once but register their members in subdivisions.
4. Members may change church affiliation.
5. Matching may optionally occur across groups of churches.