Building a Confluence Macro with Forge

Overview

I built a Confluence macro using Atlassian Forge that displays personalized information including user name, page comments count, and theme settings. This project helped me learn the fundamentals of Forge development and Confluence app integration.

What I Learned

• Setting up a Forge project structure with frontend (frontend/index.jsx) and backend (resolvers/index.js) components
• Using Forge's UI Kit components like Heading, Text, and Lozenge from @forge/react
• Working with Confluence's REST APIs through @forge/bridge and @forge/api
• Managing app permissions and scopes in the manifest.yml

Key Features

• Personalized greeting using Confluence user data
• Comment count display for the current page
• Theme awareness (light/dark mode detection)
• Macro export functionality for different content types

Technical Implementation

• Used React hooks for state management and API calls
• Implemented resolver functions for backend communication
• Configured ADF (Atlassian Document Format) exports
• Set up proper authentication using asApp() context

Challenges Faced

• Understanding Forge's security model and permission scopes
• Managing asynchronous API calls properly
• Handling different Confluence contexts (user, page, theme)
• Setting up proper error handling for API responses

Next Steps

• Add more interactive features
• Improve error handling
• Add unit tests
• Implement caching for API calls

Built With

• atlassian
• confluence
• forge
• javascript
• react