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InfoQ Homepage News Q&A with Atlassian product marketing specialist Dave Meyer on Connect 1.0 and Atlassian Verified

Q&A with Atlassian product marketing specialist Dave Meyer on Connect 1.0 and Atlassian Verified

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Atlassian have launched their new product Atlassian Connect 1.0 to build add-ons for Atlassian applications like JIRA, Confluence, HipChat and a certification program for developers called Atlassian Verified.

InfoQ spoke to Dave Meyer, product marketing specialist at Atlassian.

InfoQ: Can you please tell us about the Atlassian Connect? What was the need of producing this product?

We built Atlassian Connect to make it easier for any developer to build a powerful add-on for JIRA or Confluence OnDemand (our software-as-service issue tracking and collaboration applications). As our hosted service has grown, we needed to build a development platform that could scale with it. With Atlassian Connect, rich add-ons for JIRA and Confluence can run and scale independently, which contributes to more security and stability for the entire offering.

InfoQ: Please tell us about some of the differentiating features of Atlassian Connect and how does it work?

With Atlassian Connect, any web application can become an add-on for JIRA or Confluence and offer a seamless, integrated experience for end users. Web applications serve a descriptor that describes the application, the permissions it needs, and "modules" – places in the application where it would like to insert content – that it will use.

Connect add-ons use web standards like REST APIs and webhooks to communication with the Atlassian application, and we are providing client libraries for node.js and the Play framework to making get started easy for developers.

InfoQ: Do you have any plans to add more features in Atlassian Connect 1.0?

Yes – after the 1.0 release we plan to begin working on making Atlassian Connect available to customers running JIRA and Confluence on their own servers and developers who want to build products for both platforms. We have a number of additional enhancements for Atlassian Connect planned, as well as REST API improvements for JIRA and Confluence themselves.

InfoQ: What products support Atlassian Connect?

The Atlassian Connect platform is currently supported in JIRA and Confluence OnDemand. Support for Atlassian Connect in HipChat is currently in beta. We expect Connect to eventually be available across the entire Atlassian suite, including our development tools Bitbucket, Stash, and Bamboo.

InfoQ: What are the benefits of this product?

With Atlassian Connect, developers can build add-ons for JIRA and Confluence OnDemand using the technology stack of their choices. For developers who build and sell add-ons on the Atlassian Marketplace, it opens up a new market of customers for whom they can build products. Additionally, current and future JIRA and Confluence OnDemand customers can extend their instances with custom add-ons and add-ons from the Atlassian Marketplace. Atlassian Connect launched with 15 third party add-ons available in the Atlassian Marketplace, and more are in the works.

InfoQ: Who are the end users for this product?

Atlassian Connect is a way for developers to build add-ons. Developers can build, share, and sell their add-ons in the Atlassian Marketplace. Additionally, customers can build their own add-ons with Atlassian Connect for private use.

InfoQ: Please tell us about Atlassian Verified.

The Atlassian Verified program is a new way to make it easier for Atlassian customers to find great add-ons. Atlassian Verified is a certification for developers on the Marketplace who meet standards of traction, reliability, and support.

Atlassian sets out standards on the following criteria:

  • Traction – Developers have built add-ons adopted by a critical mass of Atlassian customers
  • Reliability – Upgrade on your terms. Atlassian Verified developers will be compatible with the Atlassian application within two weeks of release
  • Support – Developers meet a published Service Level Agreement (SLA), have support websites, and are available at least eight hours a day, five days a week

Developers in the Atlassian Marketplace who meet the program requirements will have a checkmark on their profiles that indicates they have been approved.

InfoQ: Which certification Atlassian provides through Atlassian Verified? What is the procedure to get this certificate and who all are the eligible candidates?

Atlassian Verified developers meet great standards of traction, reliability, and support. Any developer with a commercial add-on that is sold through the Atlassian Marketplace can apply for Atlassian Verified through their Marketplace vendor account. A full list of the requirements for the Atlassian Verified program is available here.

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