Forge Quest

Forge Quest by Atlassian was exactly the nudge I needed to revive one of my old-but-loved Forge apps. My app, Postman Doc.

Comment

Here’s a cleaned-up and professional rewrite of your text, keeping the tone friendly, informative, and aligned with typical Atlassian or developer hackathon writeups:

🧠 Inspiration

Forge Quest by Atlassian gave me just the spark I needed to revisit one of my earlier—but still beloved—Forge apps. Postman Doc had been sitting dormant on the Atlassian Marketplace, marked as deprecated due to outdated Forge APIs and UI components. Life got busy, and Forge moved fast. But this hackathon motivated me to breathe new life into it and bring it up to today’s standards.

🚀 What It Does

Postman Doc lets teams embed public Postman API documentation directly into Confluence pages. No more switching between tabs or pasting screenshots—just drop in a Postman public link, and the app fetches and renders the live documentation, styled seamlessly to match Confluence’s look and feel.

This helps reduce friction between developers, PMs, and API consumers by making API info instantly accessible where the team works.

🔧 What’s New

As part of Forge Quest, I modernized Postman Doc with:

  • ✅ Migration to UI Kit 1 for better consistency and accessibility
  • 🔍 Searchable Postman collections right inside Confluence
  • ⚠️ Smart error handling via ModalDialog
  • 📱 Layout and responsiveness improvements for various screen sizes

🛠 How It Was Built

The original version was built using early Forge APIs. For this update, I:

  • Migrated the UI to Forge UI Kit 1, using components like Form, TextField, DynamicTable, and ModalDialog
  • Used Forge backend functions to fetch and parse Postman’s public JSON docs
  • Implemented collection search and robust error states
  • Refined the UX for a native Atlassian feel

🧩 Challenges

  • Adjusting to UI Kit 1's patterns vs. older custom-rendering logic
  • Ensuring smooth performance and layout handling across varied Confluence screen sizes
  • Making the app reliably parse and render docs across different Postman public link structures

🏆 Accomplishments

  • Revived a deprecated Marketplace app with a full modernization
  • Brought the app up to current Forge development standards
  • Simplified the UX while maintaining all core functionality
  • Delivered a more seamless experience for Confluence users working with APIs

📚 What I Learned

  • UI Kit 1 is more capable and accessible than I had initially thought
  • Migrating older Forge apps can be straightforward with the right structure
  • Community events like Forge Quest are powerful catalysts for dusting off and improving legacy projects
  • A clean UI and well-thought-out architecture make Forge apps easier to maintain in the long run

🔮 What’s Next

  • 🔐 Support for private Postman collections via API keys or OAuth
  • ✍️ Enable inline editing or annotation of API docs within Confluence
  • ⚙️ Add customization options to control how much doc detail is shown
  • 🔗 Explore Jira integration to link API endpoints directly to epics or tasks

Built With

Share this project:

Updates