ForgeStart

Two Jira apps built with Atlassian Forge: one to learn, one to launch.

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🚀 Inspiration

I was inspired by the Atlassian Forge Quest as a structured and hands-on way to get started with Forge development. The tiered challenge system motivated me to learn by building — starting small and gradually adding complexity. The idea of creating functional, serverless apps directly inside Jira was exciting, especially knowing I could focus on solving problems without managing infrastructure.

⚙️ What It Does

This project includes two apps built at different levels of the Forge Quest:

1. Hello World Jira Project Page (Novice Level)

A simple app that adds a custom project page to Jira, displaying a "Hello World" message. It demonstrates the basics of Forge — including setting up the app, configuring the manifest, and using UI Kit components.

2. Weather Gadget for Jira Dashboard (Apprentice Level)

A custom Jira dashboard gadget that shows real-time weather information for a user-specified city. It fetches data from a public weather API and displays it using Forge's Custom UI, offering a clean and dynamic widget directly on the dashboard.

🛠️ How I Built It

  • Built using Atlassian Forge.
  • Used UI Kit for the Hello World app to quickly get familiar with basic Forge concepts and deployment.
  • Built the Weather Gadget using Custom UI (React) to support dynamic content and external API integration.
  • Used a public API (e.g., OpenWeatherMap) to fetch real-time weather data.
  • Configured app permissions and resolvers to enable secure API requests from the frontend via Forge backend functions.
  • Deployed and tested apps in Jira Cloud using the Forge CLI.

🧩 Challenges I Ran Into

  • Understanding the Forge context model: Learning how context is passed to modules (like dashboard gadgets) and how to use it effectively took some trial and error.
  • Designing a responsive UI inside the dashboard gadget: I had to experiment with layout and styling to make sure the weather data displayed clearly and fit neatly within the dashboard space.

🏆 Accomplishments That I'm Proud Of

  • Successfully built and deployed both novice and apprentice-level apps on Forge.
  • Learned how to connect external APIs securely using Forge's architecture.
  • Created a working, real-time dashboard gadget that enhances Jira’s functionality.
  • Gained confidence with both UI Kit and Custom UI.

📚 What I Learned

  • How to structure and deploy apps using Forge.
  • Differences between UI Kit and Custom UI, and the use cases for each.
  • How to integrate external APIs using Forge resolvers.
  • Managing app permissions and scopes within the manifest file.
  • How to work within the limitations of the dashboard UI to build clean, user-friendly components.

🔮 What's Next

  • Add more features to the weather gadget, like multi-day forecasts or location auto-detection.
  • Explore Forge Storage API to persist user preferences.
  • Build higher-level Forge Quest apps, including automations and workflow extensions.
  • Experiment with Confluence modules and build cross-product integrations.
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