Atlassian Forge Adventure

An epic Forge dev journey! Armed with the UI Kit and Forge Bridge spells, I quested from “Hello World” to REST API calls—solving Confluence & Jira challenges and unlocking magic along the way.

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🧭 Inspiration

As a first-time adventurer in the realm of Forge, I began my journey by studying the “Getting Started with Forge” documentation from the hackathon resources. With no prior experience, this guided path helped me quickly gain momentum and feel ready to tackle real-world app-building quests.

🧙‍♀️ What it does

My journey began with a Confluence content macro that displayed a friendly Hello World message and the number of page comments via the REST API. It also allowed export to Word and PDF using Atlassian Document Format (ADF). For this step, I earned the Hello Confluence badge.

The second app, part of the Novice Level quest, was a space page app that rendered in the Confluence sidebar. It showed the user’s public name, the space key, and their current theme (light or dark). This stage earned me the Forge Quest - Novice badge.

At the Apprentice level, I built the Jira Weather Gadget App — a dashboard gadget that lets users select a city and displays current weather fetched from the OpenWeather API. The configuration view uses RadioGroup, useForm, and resolver-based fetch. The gadget view features a polished layout with Heading, Image, Box, and Inline components. This app unlocked the Forge Quest - Apprentice badge.

🛠 How I built it

  • UI Kit and Forge React for the interface

  • Forge Bridge and @forge/api for API calls

  • Resolvers for secure external data fetching

  • Environment variables for API key management

  • Permissions for external fetch and images

  • ADF + export for content rendering in Word/PDF

  • Jira dashboard gadget module in manifest.yml

  • Manifest.yml with permissions like read:user:confluence

  • Tunnel + deploy/install flow for live preview

🧩 Challenges I ran into

  • Grasping the Forge app lifecycle — especially the differences between deploy, install, and tunnel

  • Configuring ADF export correctly for dynamic content and enabling Word/PDF download

  • Resolving and using context values (like content IDs and space keys) reliably

  • Working with external APIs like OpenWeather

  • Learning to securely pass data through resolvers and manage environment variables

  • Debugging API quirks like display name mismatches and inconsistent location data

  • Building dynamic forms with useForm

  • Designing clean, responsive layouts with xcss, Box, and Inline

  • Managing required permissions for fetch, images, and user data access

🏆 Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • Completed 3 fully functional apps: 2 for Confluence, 1 for Jira

  • Integrated REST APIs via Forge Bridge and secure resolvers

  • Implemented context-aware UI with dynamic config views

  • Enabled Word/PDF export using Atlassian Document Format (ADF)

  • Worked with external APIs (OpenWeather) using env variables

  • Designed responsive UIs using UI Kit, xcss, and layout components

  • Gained cross-product experience in both Confluence and Jira

  • Earned 5 badges: 🏅 Forge Quest - Apprentice, 🏅 Forge Quest - Novice, 🏅 Hello Confluence, 🏅 Welcome, and 🏅 First Emoji

📚 What I learned

  • How to read and use context data like extension.space.key, accountId, etc.

  • The difference between forge deploy, forge install, and forge tunnel

  • How to build secure, modular Forge apps with resolvers and permissions

  • Working with ADF for Confluence page export to Word/PDF

  • Using environment variables to securely store API keys

  • Integrating external APIs (OpenWeather) and handling async responses

  • Building for multiple Atlassian products in a single journey

  • How to build secure and modular Forge apps

  • Styling and layout with UI Kit, xcss, Box, Inline, etc.

  • Real-time debugging and development with forge tunnel

  • Deploying apps and managing upgrades via CLI

🚀 What’s next for Atlassian Forge Adventure

The journey continues toward Journeyman level! I'm planning to explore advanced Forge UI customization, multi-page apps, and potentially connect Forge to other cloud services. Who knows — maybe even face a boss battle with OAuth2!

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