Roadmap & Timeline

After 23 years of developing software development and systems integrations, Bill Forsyth, Solutions Architect, conceives and documents the core concepts underlying what is now theHub, a universal API built on universal data models, that covers millions of business cases out-of-the-box.

* "theHub" is used throughout even though various names have been used over the years.

With a plan to build theHub out over time, with practical needs and usage to be driven by building apps and other solutions on it, development begins.

TheHub becomes operational for the first time, running just 3 small web services and 12 API endpoints. Services that were operational included Media (later "Files"), Party (later "People" and "Orgs"), Team (later subsumed into "Orgs")

GameDay, the first app built on theHub, is complete. GameDay is a mobile app that brings together real-time data on players, teams, colleges and universities, conferences, stats, schedules, and social media feeds, to allow fans to closely follow their sports teams and players through the app.

Services relied upon include Access (authentication and session management), People, Orgs, Team, with support for colleges and universities, conferences, players, events, locations, stats, and more.

theHub functionality is expanded to support the first significant business app on theHub, an SBA loan origination system. The 13 services included People, Orgs, Projects, Work Efforts, Requirements, Places, Agreements, Products, Access, Geographic Boundaries, Contact, Tracking, and Files.

A full blown loan origination app, a SaaS MVP, is developed for Live Oak Bank and running on theHub as sole backend, with automated workflow and dashboard that enables loan originators and applicants to share information and documents easily, providing checklists for different loan types, tracking of all interactions in real-time, with notifications. It was called "a home run" by the chief loan originators. The owners of Live Oak used the concepts as the basis for what eventually became nCino.

theHub functionality expands to support an app for Maxium, a gaming company operating on a tiered commission system. theHub was used as the API-based backend of the Maxium back-office user experience, to track relationship hierarchies between members, to run through month-end calculations, using gameplay data pulled from a third-party gaming platform, to post those commissions, and report on them.

theHub functionality expands to support user experiences, both web app, and text message-based, for international remittances between Haiti and the U.S. in conjunction with Trans Global Cash. New services added to theHub: Payments and SMS (cell network communications).

theHub was used as the sole backend for an app that allows easy browsing of new published foreclosures. A solution was created that would scrape foreclosure notices, and store in theHub the resulting information, including all owner, attorney firm, property, address, asset, and mortgage information. The app user experience was then built on theHub.

New services added: Real Estate, Assets.

theHub was used as the sole backend for a web app that simplified the process of finding and hiring a guide (boat and captain) for saltwater fishing trips. Allowed guide customers to search for guides by various criteria, contact them, hire them, and give guides a thumbs up (or down), and a review. Allowed operators of the guide network to track transactions and activity.

With the rise, and subsequent dominance, of REST API web protocol, theHub endpoints were changed from their original XML-RPC implementations, to be proper REST API.

The "Box It Up" SaaS offering was developed with theHub as the sole backend. The business service consists of the ability for customers to use an app to seamlessly store clothing or other small items temporarily in storage, seasonally for example, and have them returned at a later date, with Box It Up handling everything from sending boxes for packing, to pickup, to storage, to later return delivery.

User experiences on theHub includ customer facing app(s), and back-office web app, to track requests, bill the customers, process payment for customers, track items in storage inventory, and more.

New services added to theHub: Orders, Billing, Invoices, and Inventory.

Purposly, a platform that allows agencies to manage digital content, create "mobile sharing apps" to promote and collect donations, share those with content to social media, and to manage and track campaigns, was developed with theHub as the sole backend.

theHub API serves as the backend for the "mobile sharing apps", and the back-office user experience, where digital agencies can manage campaigns, content, and apps.

Services used extensively: Party, Orgs, Payments, Project (for campaigns and "mobile sharing app" configurations), and Files.

FDM developed and operated a comprehensive GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) solution on theHub that was used by fifteen banks.

Comprehensive services added to theHub included Risk (risks, controls, and risk ratings), and other services used extensively are Projects (assignments, recurring tasks, risks, controls, assessments, etc.), People, Orgs, Places, and Products (bank products, information assets, vendor products).

Count of API endpoints reaches 625.

First Digital Merchants, LLC (FDM) was formed to develop and market First Digital Platform (now theHub), and business apps that run on it.

FDM developed and operated the CRG web app on theHub, to simplify, standardize, and automate bank compliance, that included many innovations that greatly simplified and automated the process of relating individual bank operations, with regulations, assessments, and checklists. With over 94 built-in assessments, and just under 800 checklists, all automatically tied to the proper regulations and bank functions, nothing else comes close.

Services heavily used and enhanced: Function, Bank Function, Risk, Risk Ratings, Projects (assessment and checklist templates, functions), and Regulations.

By responding to the needs of the solutions and SaaS apps developed on it, theHub has now blossomed into a comprehensive, unified set of 37 domain areas, with 871 API endpoints, and indeed covers millions of business cases through its universal data model and universal API...and it continues to grow and become stronger.

Formerly used for internal development only, theHub is now accessible to anyone in the world with a subscription.

The REST API documentation for all of theHub's 950+ API calls are defined in OpenAPI and available as Swagger docs.

Created a connector to theHub from Bubble.io.

Created and released the Pricing Service and GeoBoundaries Service, with 24 new documented API endpoints, and 9 entities.

Created and released theHub for Google Workspace, consisting of libraries/SDK's that enable easy access to theHub from Apps Script, and a catalog of Sheets that sync with theHub and enable creation of AppSheet apps built on theHub.

Squan Taxi in Manasquan New Jersey went live on theHub with a comprehensive business system with three apps: Dispatcher, Driver, and Reconciler.

Created and released the comprehensive Budgets Service and Schedules Service, with 109 new documented API endpoints, and 26 new entities.

theHub has now blossomed into the world's first comprehensive business system, covering 26 major business domains, and 254 subdomains, with 343 entities and 1,148 fully-documented API endpoints.

Props.us in New York, New York, a performance-driven content platform plans to go live in November on theHub with a comprehensive business system with two apps: Insertion Orders (covering complex IO agreeements, and associated campaign budgets, regional spend, payment schedules), and BusinessManager (to manage service offerings, pricing, clients, and more.)