Last updated Oct 28, 2024

Atlassian Connect FAQ

What is Atlassian Connect?

Atlassian Connect is a distributed app technology for extending Atlassian applications such as Bitbucket Cloud, Jira, and Confluence. Atlassian Connect is built for a world where software runs wherever, whenever, and however. Atlassian Connect apps extend Atlassian applications entirely over standard web protocols and APIs, such as HTTP and REST. This frees developers from traditional app platform constraints, giving them new choices of programming language and deployment options. Regardless of delivery model or location, Atlassian applications can be extended with Atlassian Connect apps, so developers can be confident their apps can solve anyone's business problem.

Where are the docs?

You've found them!

The primary documentation for Atlassian Connect is here. Individual tools that you can use with Atlassian Connect, such as atlassian-connect-express, may provide additional documentation.

What other information resources exist?

What products support Atlassian apps?

Atlassian apps can be written in:

How can I request new features for Atlassian Connect?

If there's a feature you'd like to see added to Atlassian Connect, such as a new module type or a particular REST method, please let us know. Submit new feature requests, bugs, and feature votes in the Bitbucket Cloud issue tracker.

How does Atlassian Connect work?

An Atlassian Connect app is simply a web application that describes itself with an Atlassian app descriptor file. That descriptor includes authentication settings and declares the app's capabilities. Capabilities take the form of modules. A module specifies an HTTP resource exposed by the app and the place where that resource interacts with the Atlassian app.

What languages, frameworks, & hosts will be supported?

Because your remote app is decoupled from the Atlassian application, using only HTTP and REST to communicate, you are free to build in any language, use any framework, and deploy in any manner you wish.

Does Atlassian provide hosting for apps?

No. You may choose from the many great PaaS or hosting providers.

How are Atlassian Connect apps supported by Atlassian?

Atlassian Connect apps receive the same level of support that traditional apps do today. Atlassian supports the platform, the SDK and the documentation. Vendors are responsible for supporting the apps they build and the customers who use those apps.

How should app vendors support their customers?

Vendors must provide a support channel when listing on the Marketplace. That support channel should be an issue tracker or ticketing system where a customer can file and track issues. An email address is insufficient. We can provide a Jira instance for vendors who wish to use it for support and issue tracking. Atlassian believes in a policy of transparency, and that information should be open by default. As such, we encourage (but do not require) you to make your tracker open to the public.

In the future, there may be SLAs around support tickets for some or all vendors.

What are the support requirements for app vendors relative to Atlassian?

If Atlassian files a support ticket in your system, we ask for next-business-day response time, and resolution time as quickly as possible. We reserve the right to disable your app and remove it from the Marketplace if problems cannot be resolved.

What are the service requirements for an app?

There are currently no service-level agreements enforced for apps in the Atlassian Marketplace. However, in cloud products, the service level is very important to customers. We intend to measure each app's current status and uptime and make that information available to customers, similar to the way that cloud products do. We encourage app providers to strive for 99.9% uptime.

What policies must apps observe about customer data?

As an Atlassian Connect developer, you must be responsible with the data entrusted to you by your customers. Atlassian Connect developers must create and display a Data Security & Privacy Statement and include that in your Marketplace Listing. Including simple and easily described information about your service in your Data Security and Privacy Statement will reassure your customers that you are acting as a professional and trustworthy provider of hosted software.

For reference, here are Atlassian's relevant policies:

Your policy may cover the following areas:

What does this mean for a new app developer?

We expect that new developers, both commercial and internal, can start with Atlassian Connect. They will use sandboxed UIs and remote APIs, which provide much more stability over time. If you are integrating Atlassian tools with another service or remote application, this is the ideal path for development.

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