History: JackHenry.Dev

Context for this page

This page is intended to provide a quick history of the home page for the developer docs site, JackHenry.Dev.

The history provided here is primarily focused on the home page itself, and is very much written from the perspective of Jack Henry Digital’s Developer Relations (DevRel) team.

Hopefully most of the important iterations are captured in this page. However, you’ll notice that the early history is (ahem) spotty due to the mists of time and a lack of focus on ‘archival’ tasks.

Alas.

Prototype: JHA.Dev

2019 - September/October

• Chad Killingsworth and Mackenzie Kizer teamed up on this version.
• The URL was expected to be https://jha.dev.
• This page existed mostly to have a place for the parked domain name, and to show that the jXchange microsite https://openeip-sg.centralus.cloudapp.azure.com/OpenEIP/ServiceGateway could be proxied to a pretty path like /OpenEIP/ServiceGateway.

Unreleased Design

2020 - February

• Sorry, I don’t have a better screenshot of what this would have looked like. Wasn’t as nostalgic in the beginning…mostly focused on shipping. This is a screenshot from a Photoshop mockup, I think.
• This unreleased design was designed by Chad Jordan.
• I think this design may have been based on a concept for a redesigned JHU (Jack Henry University).
• This splits the JHA.Dev world into three realms: Banno, jXchange, and Geezeo.

Official Launch: JackHenry.Dev

2020 - April 20

• This was the design that we launched with on April 20, 2020.
• The main URL changed to https://jackhenry.dev and is why we tend to talk about this as "JackHenry.Dev" (although https://jha.dev is handled as a redirect for compatibility reasons).
• This continues the split into three realms: Banno, jXchange, and Geezeo.
• This was a redesign by Chad Jordan based on feedback from Josh Sadler (see the unreleased design above).
• Implementation was by Cody Loyd and Elliott Campbell.
• Launch announcement on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevWithTheHair/status/1252409505087807489
  • First bit of feedback (from a friend, for context): https://twitter.com/emarley/status/1252424067031826432

2020 - June 3

• Nothing changed visually, but this was when we added Google Analytics to the site.
• Google Analytics was configured per Bryan McCarty.

Visual Refresh

2020 - November 12

• This design was created and implemented by the Visual Logic team: Andrew Sladky, Matt Johnson, et al.
• This design helped explain a bit about who/what Jack Henry is all about.
• This design splits the JackHenry.Dev world into the Digital realm (exemplified by the Banno Digital Toolkit) and the Enterprise realm (exemplified by the jXchange Service Gateway).
• Each major feature of the Banno Digital Toolkit is represented by a ‘baseball card’ with an icon and name for the feature, along with quick links to key areas of that feature’s developer docs.
• The Design Guidelines card is meant to drive folks to our sibling site, JackHenry.Design https://jackhenry.design which focuses on the Design side of things.

Plugin Framework Demo Video

2020 - December 8

• This design introduced what we have called a sidekick element to go along with the hero element at the top of the page.
• The sidekick has a call-to-action for 3rd party developers to watch a demo video of the Plugin Framework.
• The video stars Scott Wittrock, runs for 18m10s, and shows how to integrate Calendly as a hypothetical plugin to schedule a call with a specialist at an FI.
• The video is hosted on the same Wistia account where the https://discover.jackhenry.com/digital videos are hosted.

Guides for the Consumer API

2021 - February 1

• This retains the same basic design, but adds a quick link to Guides for the Consumer API.
• Guides were a then-new type of content first added by Sam Couch.
• Unfortunately I don’t have a screenshot for this specific change, but you can actually see the Guides quick link in the very next historical section.

New Card Order for the Digital Toolkit

2021 - March 24

• Previously, the Consumer API was the first card shown for the Digital Toolkit. Unfortunately, many 3rd party developers completely overlooked the Authentication Framework docs (which are foundational to all parts of the Toolkit).
• This keeps the same basic design as before, but re-arranges the card order in an attempt to try to draw attention to the existence of the Authentication Framework.

Migration Warnings for Demo Video

2021 - April 2

• The content of the demo video for the Plugin Framework shows a code example that uses the deprecated unversioned authentication endpoints. This caused some confusion for folks since the accompanying materials had been updated to use the newer v0 authentication endpoints.
• This changed added a warning to folks that they should get the latest info from the Simple Plugin Example’s updated code and also from the migration guide that helps folks understand the differences between the unversioned and v0 auth endpoints.
• The demo video was still useful to illustrate the basic concepts (and inspire folks), even if the specific details had changed since that video was created.

Add Card for Admin API

2021 - July 8

• This keeps the same basic design as before, but adds the Admin API as a new feature for the Digital Toolkit.
• Formerly referred to as the “Platform API”, the Admin API focuses on the back office, administrative side of Banno (e.g. Banno People, Marketing, CMS, etc). It’s essentially the sibling of the Consumer API (which focuses on the consumer, retail side of Banno e.g. Banno Online/Mobile).
• The introduction of the Admin API was a nice opportunity to have Andrew Sladky (Visual Logic) prepare a new icon for the Consumer API to emphasize the similar-yet-distinct relationship between the two APIs.

Remove Card for Sketch Library

2021 - September 23

• This change removes the Sketch Library ‘baseball card’ from the JackHenry.Dev homepage.
• There were two reasons for doing this:
  • The Sketch Library had been coming soon for more than a year by this point.
  • The Design team, in general, was migrating from Sketch over to Figma so it was not even certain that there ever would be any Sketch Library for 3rd party usage.

Use Cases for the Digital Toolkit

2021 - September 30

• This design change was influenced by several factors:
  • We determined that the cards were generally useful for 3rd party developers, but only if they already knew what they needed and were looking up specific reference material.
  • We also realized that is was a common occurrence for 3rd party developers to overlook important docs such as the Quickstarts, despite quick links being front-and-center on the home page.
  • Unfortunately, the cards were ineffective at communicating how the various pieces of the Toolkit can be used for specific business needs.
  • The combination of the above resulted in the DevRel team getting many requests to ‘discuss the Digital Toolkit’ which really ended up being ‘walk us through the docs on a live video call’.
  • We needed to give 3rd party developers a ‘walk through’ of the docs, but in a way that was self-service and scalable.
• We decided to address the problem of the ‘walk through’ by building Getting Started pages for each major feature of the Digital Toolkit.
  • The Getting Started pages link to the doc pages which are relevant for that part of the Toolkit.
  • In essence, the purpose of those pages is to answer this question for each feature of the Digital Toolkit:
    • “You have your API credentials, now what should you do?”
• The new design for the cards:
  • Focused the attention on the use cases for the Digital Toolkit i.e. which specific business needs are addressed by which features of the Toolkit.
  • Removed the many quick links which were overlooked by 3rd party developers (and cluttered the home page).
  • Led 3rd party developers to read the Getting Started pages, thus providing the ‘walk through’ that developers craved in a way that is self-service and scalable.
• This design change was created and implemented by the Visual Logic team: Andrew Sladky, Matt Johnson, et al.

Payments-as-a-Service

2021 - December 13

• This change adds the Payments-as-a-Service card to the JackHenry.Dev homepage.
• Karthikeyan Prabakaran and Byron Williams teamed up on this version.

Enterprise REST APIs

2021 - December 16

• This change adds the Enterprise REST APIs card to the JackHenry.Dev homepage.
• Paige Rappe and Jerald Medlock teamed up on this version.

(NEW) Plugin Framework Demo Video

2022 - February 21

• The video is narrated by Jaime Lopez, runs for 9m42s, and shows how to build a plugin using the Simple Plugin Example code from GitHub.
• This video replaces Scott Wittrock’s old video, in place.
  • The video is hosted on the same Wistia account where the https://discover.jackhenry.com/digital videos are hosted.
• The sidekick has been updated with new call-to-action text copy to match the updated demo video.

Interim - Before Launch of Self-Serve API Credentials

2022 - March 24

• This update is an interim step towards the launch of self-serve API credentials for the Digital Toolkit.
• The Watch the Plugins demo is moved to the hero element at the top of the page.
• The sidekick element is updated with a new visual design and a call-to-action.
  • Currently, that CTA is Register now and points to the Digital Toolkit Meetup on the Jack Henry Events page.
  • In the near future, that CTA will change to kick off the self-serve flow where developers can create a developer account which will include access to the Digital Toolkit with a test user, API credentials, and plugin configuration for the Garden demo environment.

Contact Form and Video Showcase

2022 - May 6

• This update includes a contact form (connected to HubSpot) which pops up from the “Let’s talk” or “Send us a message” call-to-action buttons.
  • Technical questions about the Digital Toolkit go to the Developer Relations team
  • Inquiries about “joining the Jack Henry ecosystem” go to the Sales/Marketing/Strategy teams, where appropriate.
• The video showcase has links to the current set of videos relevant to the Digital Toolkit
  • Talk About Plugins
  • Fintech-focus: Pave Your Own Way with the Banno Digital Toolkit
  • Unlock Embedded Fintech for a Competitive Edge

Sign up for API Credentials - Digital Toolkit

2022 - June 16

• This update launches the ability to self-serve API credentials for the Digital Toolkit.
• Developers can sign up for a JackHenry.Dev developer account which lets them create in the Garden demo FI:
  • a test user
  • Consumer API credentials
  • plugin configuration

New Brand (“One Jack Henry”)

2022 - August 1

• This update launches along with the new “One Jack Henry” branding for https://www.jackhenry.com.
• This visual refresh was implemented by the Visual Logic team: Andrew Sladky, Matt Johnson, et al.
• This design also matches the sibling site https://jackhenry.design.

Use Case for jXchange

2022 - August 17

• This update rewords the jXchange card in a ‘use case’ format.
• This rewording brings the style of the jXchange card in alignment with the style used by the Digital Toolkit cards.

SymXchange

2022 - August 23

• This replaces the existing Enterprise REST APIs use case card with a card for SymXchange.
• The similarity between jXchange and SymXchange is emphasized via:
  • Intentionally using the same icon.
  • Intentionally similar use case title.
• The descriptive text is different for the SymXchange card to emphasize what makes SymXchange unique (e.g. the ability to run PowerOns).

Simplified links to JackHenry.Design

2023 - May 9

• This simplifies the header to link to https://jackhenry.design.
• Linking to only the JackHenry.Design homepage reduces the need to ‘chase’ broken links.

Video Gallery

2023 - July 31

• This adds a “View all videos” link to https://jackhenry.dev/videos/.
• The idea is that the Video Showcase is used to display the 3 videos we wish to promote on the homepage, while the Video Gallery is meant to be an archive of all videos which have existed on JackHenry.Dev (whether that’s the homepage or content within a docs site).

Digital Onboarding and Plinqit webinar

2023 - August 10

• This adds the Digital Onboarding and Plinqit webinar to the JackHenry.Dev homepage.
• The “Let’s talk about plugins” video is moved to the Video Gallery.

Visual Refresh (Light and Dark Mode)

2023 - October 12

• This design was created by the Visual Logic team (Andrew Sladky) and implemented by the Developer Relations team (Jim Honeycutt).
• This new look-and-feel better matches the look-and-feel of JackHenry.com, Banno.com, and the Knowledge Base.
• This introduces dark mode support to the homepage.
• The navigation header is simplified to “Docs” (which has Digital Toolkit, jXchange, SymXchange, Payments, Design System) and “Learn” (which has Videos).
• The documentation sections get a simplified look and are separated into Digital Toolkit, Cores, and Payments.

Search on the Homepage

2023 - October 13

• This update adds search on the JackHenry.Dev homepage.
• The search is powered by Pagefind.
• The search is federated across multiple Jack Henry developer doc sites so that 3rd party developers can search across the Digital Toolkit, jXchange, and SymXchange docs sites.

Data driven homepage

2024 - January 16

• This update keeps the same basic look-and-feel.
• However, the key difference is that the homepage is data-driven from a configuration file, which means we can make adjustments to the text, links, and their placements on the page, and then re-generate the homepage without having to dig into the HTML/CSS/JavaScript every single time we make a change.

Data Broker and ODI

2024 - February 26

• This update adds a new Data sub-section to the Docs section of the homepage.
• This update adds Data Broker and Operational Data Integration (ODI) as new options under that Data sub-section. This helps ’elevate’ the importance of data in Jack Henry’s tech modernization strategy.

Use Cases (across Jack Henry)

2024 - April 22

• This update adds Use Cases which are a cross-cutting concern for Jack Henry as a whole.
• One great benefit of this update is that we are no longer ‘shipping our org chart’ with the design and layout of the JackHenry.Dev homepage.
  • The first 3 Use Cases we shipped as an MVP, are very foundational to the products and services offered by Jack Henry:
    • Payments
    • Identity
    • Accounts and Transactions
• The basic idea is to help 3rd party developers understand, at scale, answers to non-obvious questions such as “I see that I can get accounts, balances, and transactions from the Digital Toolkit, jXchange, and SymXchange. Which one should I choose?”

Developer Conference - (Save the Date)

2024 - June 7

• This adds a call-to-action for folks to view the event page for the first-ever “Jack Henry Developer Conference”: https://jackhenry.dev/developer-conference/
• As of this wiki entry, it’s a “Save the Date” notice until we get the registration page set up via Cvent (similar to the way Cvent is used for registration for Jack Henry Connect).

Developer Conference - New Logo

2024 - June 26

• This switches out the placeholder image in favor of the official logo for the Jack Henry Developer Conference.

Developer Conference - Registration Open

2024 - August 16

• This lets folks know that registration opened.
• This changes the call-to-action to “Register now to get your ticket”.

New Navigation - Side bar and Mega Menu

2024 - November 5

• This replaces the “Docs” and “Learn” navigation header items with a side bar navigation.
  • The side bar navigation has “Learn” and “Docs” sections.
  • The side bar navigation brings previously hidden menu items to the forefront, while also making better use of horizontal space (especially on wide screens).
• This uses a standard hamburger button that is consistently available across the JackHenry.Dev homepage, as well as jhDocs-powered docs sites.
  • The hamburger button has a mega menu of items which are available on the side bar on the JackHenry.Dev homepage.
  • The mega menu makes it easier to navigate to another jhDocs-powered docs sites from within an existing jhDocs-powered docs site.

Elevate the Developer Programs

2024 - November 6

• This adds a “Developer Programs” section to the side bar navigation and mega menu.
• This allows us to elevate these two developer programs:
  • Vendor Integration Program (VIP)
  • Technical Account Manager (TAM)

Special Notice for ISO 20022

2024 - November 18

• The FedWire conversion to ISO 20022 as a requirement for wire transfers is a big deal with a specific, hard deadline.
• As such, this ‘ad’ is a call-to-action for developers to read this important information on JackHenry.Dev: https://jackhenry.dev/open-enterprise-api-docs/iso20022/

Early Bird Registration for Jack Henry Devcon 2026

2025 - July 25

• This lets folks know that registration opened for Jack Henry Devcon 2026.

Digital Core Docs

2026 - February 6

• This adds the Digital Core docs to JackHenry.Dev: https://jackhenry.dev/digital-core-api-docs/