In a recent discussion with Ravi Sagar and Milind Gautam, we explored the Atlassian Forge platform, establishing it as the definitive path forward for application development within the Atlassian cloud ecosystem.What is Atlassian Forge?
Atlassian Forge is the recommended, essential cloud-native development platform for creating apps and plugins for Jira and Confluence Cloud.
The fundamental advantage of Forge is its serverless nature. As Ravi Sagar explained, developers are able to concentrate on the code itself to solve a specific problem. They do not need to worry about managing the underlying server infrastructure, storage, or how the code will run, as Atlassian takes responsibility for maintaining and deploying the code across various Jira and Confluence instances.A Look Back: The Development Platform History
To understand the shift to Forge, it helps to review the history of plugin development:
- Legacy SDK (Java-based): For many years, plugins were developed using a Java-based Atlassian SDK, primarily for Jira Data Center and on-premise deployments. However, this approach is no longer recommended, as Jira Data Center is being phased out.
- Connect Platform: When Jira Cloud was introduced, the Connect platform was developed. The core idea here was that developers had to build and host their applications on their own external servers, which would then connect to their Atlassian Jira Cloud instances.
The current recommendation from Atlassian is for everyone to transition to Forge.Why Forge is Mandatory for Cloud Apps
Milind Gautam confirmed the understanding that Forge is a serverless platform that eliminates the need for server management. For developers starting their work in Jira Cloud, Forge is currently the only available option for building internal applications or "things that will sit within Jira".
Alternative Methods for External Integration
While Forge is mandatory for internal plugins, external integrations or tools that fill gaps without writing a plugin can still be created using the Jira REST API. This API documentation helps developers interact with Jira from external applications or scripts built in any language. However, any application intended to run inside Jira must be developed using Forge.
The platform is not considered difficult to get started with, and developers can leverage Atlassian’s tutorials to begin building. Forge signifies a necessary move toward modern cloud-based solutions following the deprecation of Jira Data Center.
