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User Interface

Plugin Framework > Architecture > User Interface

Plugins are based on modern web technology (i.e. HTML + CSS + JavaScript). The main content that you’ll create will render in a webview.

Plugins should be designed to be responsive and adapt to a variety of screen sizes to accommodate a great user experience for both Banno Mobile and Banno Online users.

Download the Mobile Apps for the Garden demo institution

The Banno Mobile apps for the Garden demo institution are available on Google Play and the App Store.

Plugin access requires logging in

Plugins are only accessible to users via the banking Dashboard after logging in.

If a plugin is enabled for a user they are able to add it directly to their Dashboard, but they will not be able to access the plugin from outside the Dashboard context.

Alternatives to plugins

Plugins have a specific look-and-feel, work well for many situations, and are an excellent way to extend Banno’s user interface.

However, if you wish to extend Banno’s UI in ways which do not fit the typical pattern for a plugin, then you may want to consider creating an External application with a different link type.

Other link types

For more information on other link types, see these topics on Knowledge.Banno.com:

Anatomy

Plugins are rendered as UI summary cards on the Dashboard of our apps. An optional primary action leads users to a full screen webview.

Card face

Card face sections

  • 1. Card title

  • 2. Ellipsis menu

    • The ellipsis menu opens a menu for the card. More on this in the Card menu section.

  • 3. Webview

    • The webview contains your web app’s content.
    • Its size is determined by the Initial height in your plugin configuration.
    • The web address to be loaded is determined by the External Application in your plugin configuration.

  • 4. Primary action button (optional)

    • This natively-drawn button leads to a full-screen embedded webview of your External Application.
    • The action button Label and the expanded view External Application are determined by your plugin configuration.
    • If there is no primary action button configured, the bottom edge of the webview becomes the bottom edge of the card.
Plugins are limited to customizing the webview portion of the Card Face. In addition to the web interface, the action button can also be used in order to direct users to a full-screen embedded view of your application which will allow you to utilize a larger portion of the user’s screen.
Scrolling within the card face

Plugins should not require scrolling within the card face, because this leads to a poor user experience of 'scrolling-inside-of-scrolling' within the Dashboard.

  • NOTE: Scrolling is not necessarily restricted, but it is also not officially supported, so there may be differences in behavior between Banno Online, Banno Mobile (Android), and Banno Mobile (iOS).

The expanded view is where you can show more detail beyond what would fit on the card face.

Alternative to Primary Action Button

An alternative to configuring a primary action button is to use the @jack-henry/banno-plugin-framework-bridge JavaScript module to route click events (such as triggering the Expanded View).

Web vs. mobile

Plugins are available to users on both desktop and mobile applications, without any modification to your plugin. However, you should keep in mind that the experience is slightly different.

Web

In the web interface, the card face uses the webview to display information to the user. Tapping the action button will open a larger, full-screen webview which you can use to render larger content. In order to navigate back to the dashboard, users use the browser’s back button.

Mobile

In the mobile interface, the card face uses the webview to display information to the user. Tapping the action button will open an additional, larger webview within the existing mobile view. Closing the larger view returns the user to the mobile dashboard view.

Expanded view

Expanded view sections

Pressing the primary action button in the card face displays a full-screen view of content in the expanded view, which includes the following.

  • 1. Plugin title
  • 2. Done button
    • This button closes the modal view that contains the webview. This is not configurable.
  • 3. Webview
    • The webview contains your web app’s content.
    • The external application to be loaded is determined by your plugin configuration.

Web vs. mobile

Example: Web
Example: Mobile

Card menu

  • 1. Card title
  • 2. Icon
  • 3. Organize Dashboard
    • All card menus contain a button that navigates the user to where they can change the dashboard card order.

Organize dashboard

Why isn't my plugin showing for the user?

Plugin cards might not be shown by default.

Also note that the user can change their dashboard configuration, so plugins may appear in the Add a card menu within the Organize Dashboard control.

Transitions between the card face view and the expanded view

The images below illustrate the transition from card face view to expanded view and back in Banno Online and Banno Mobile, for both the action button and plugin bridge approaches. You can click any image below to view it at a larger size.

Action button transition - Banno Online

The user presses the plugin's action button to transition to the expanded view, then presses the browser's back button to return to Banno Online.

Action button transition in Banno Online
Action button transition - Banno Mobile - iOS

The user presses the plugin's action button to transition to the expanded view, then presses the Back button to return to Banno Mobile.

Action button transition in Banno Mobile in iOS
Action button transition - Banno Mobile - Android

The user presses the plugin's action button to transition to the expanded view, then presses the "X" button to return to Banno Mobile.

Action button transition in Banno Mobile in android
Plugin bridge transition - Banno Online

The user presses the "See more details" link in the plugin to transition to the expanded view, then presses the browser's back button to return to Banno Online.

Plugin bridge transition in Banno Online
Plugin bridge transition - Banno Mobile - iOS

The user presses the "See more details" link in the plugin to transition to the expanded view, then presses the Close button to return to Banno Mobile.

Plugin bridge transition in Banno Mobile in iOS
Plugin bridge transition - Banno Mobile - Android

The user presses the "See more details" link in the plugin to transition to the expanded view, then presses the "X" button to return to Banno Mobile.

Plugin bridge transition in Banno Mobile in android

Theming

Plugins should render themselves in a pleasing way that matches the theme configured for your financial institution in Banno.

There are two different ways to retrieve the configured theme for your financial institution: (1) the Institutions API and (2) the Identity Token (when authenticating a user).

If you do not want to use the Banno theme data and instead prefer to render your content using generic light and dark mode support, then you’ll have to take appropriate action on a per-platform basis.

Institutions API

The Institutions API is offered as part of the Consumer API and is the best way to retrieve the theme data for your financial institution.

Part of the Institutions API is the themes` endpoint to retrieve the themes configured for an institution. You should use the theme values returned from this API to create styles to match your plugin’s design to the themes configured for your financial institution in Banno.

In practice, financial institutions do not modify their theme on a frequent basis. This means that developers can retrieve the theme info, offline, then make that theme a static part of the configuration of the plugin for that specific institution.

This has the added benefit of being in line with our guidance on caching for performance (where possible).

Light theme vs dark theme selection

The Banno UI uses the system settings / browser settings to determine whether to show the light theme or the dark theme.

The user cannot directly choose a theme. They can only indirectly change the theme by changing their settings to light mode or dark mode.

The user user cannot have light mode enabled with a dark theme, nor can the user have dark mode enabled with a light theme.

External resources

Handling dark mode and other color schemes

Responsive and adaptive web design

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Last updated Thu Aug 29 2024