Here's a story that might sound familiar... A couple years ago, you implemented a modest P2 add-on. It did just what you needed. Now, this little add-on isn't so little anymore! You long for a way to make it lean and nimble again. Oh: and your instance is behind a firewall, so you can't use Atlassian Connect. (or can you?...) Join Matej for a walk-through on how to rewrite a "P2-like" add-on as a Dockerized microservice that can communicate with an instance using webhooks and entity properties. He'll discuss the differences between Atlassian Connect and "pure" usage of webhooks, as well as show you what to watch out for. Matej Konecny, Senior Software Developer, Atlassian

1. Build JIRA Server Add-on
as a Microservice
You Can Do It!
MATEJ KONECNY | SENIOR DEVELOPER | ATLASSIAN

2. Story of JIRA Automation Plugin

3. JIRA
upgrade
=
rework
Direct API
access
=
lot of power
THE GOOD THE BAD

4. Every JIRA
release
broke
something

5. There must be
a better way

6. P2 plugins
Use shared JVM resources
Use mainly Java APIs
Run within JIRA
External service
Resources aren’t shared
Technology agnostic
Run anywhere

7. Cloud has Connect
Powerful to trigger external
code on events.
Server has Webhooks
Triggered globally or from a
workflow.
Externalize f

8. Use REST
Forces to use stable and
versioned APIs.

9. Data in
Custom Fields
If this does not suffice,
you can use iframes.

10. Build service

11. Reuse service in Atlassian Connect

12. Example: Salesforce data in an issue

13. Account Owner
comes from Salesforce

14. But how to
build this?

15. Break it
into smaller
pieces

16. EVENT FLOW
Issue created
Created Get data
Call to Salesforce
Update
Update the issue

17. Microservices architecture
essentially equals to the Unix
philosophy of "Do one thing
and do it well".
Lucas Krause. Microservices: Patterns and Applications

18. REST calls
Instead of direct Java calls.
Use “new” tools
Custom Fields
Instead of panels*
Webhooks
Instead of Java listeners.

19. Let’s start
building

20. Skeleton app in
Node.js
React to JIRA
events
Talk back to
JIRA
Introduce
Docker
Building a service

22. Skeleton app in
Node.js
React to JIRA
events
Talk back to
JIRA
Introduce
Docker
Building a service

23. WEBHOOKS
Triggered by
… almost anything in JIRA
can be global
For any issue matching JQL
and in workflow
Workflow step triggers them

25. Now we have
JIRA Microservice
Webhook
REST

26. Skeleton app in
Node.js
React to JIRA
events
Talk back to
JIRA
Introduce
Docker
Building a service

27. REST done right
Create user
A dedicated account for
your integration. Including
access permissions.
Authenticate
Use Basic Auth or OAuth.
Store secrets securely! *
Handle errors
Connection errors will
happen, so handle them
gracefully.

28. JIRA ISSUE UPDATE
JSON
PUT
JSON
Process
data
{
fields: {
customfield_10000: ‘Fred’
},
update: {
labels: [
{add: ’Foo’}
]
}
}

30. Can we improve it?
JIRA Microservice
Webhook
REST

31. Skeleton app in
Node.js
React to JIRA
events
Talk back to
JIRA
Introduce
Docker
Building a service

32. Containerize!
MicroserviceJIRA
Webhook
REST

33. Dockerize!
DockerJIRA
Webhook
REST

35. Improve
speed with
Redis

36. Docker Compose
Redis

38. Embrace
the new
possibilities

39. New Possibilities
Use other services
Docker, Redis, Lambda, SQS …
Logging and monitoring
Running a service means log
aggregation and monitoring too.
Be stateless
You can easily scale horizontally by
adding more workers.
Deploy and run
Run in Heroku or DigitalOcean, or go
with AWS.

40. Gotchas

41. Networking
Have a route between JIRA and your service.
VPC peering / IPSec tunnel
Needs a bit more admin work, but is doable.
Or distribute a Docker container
Just package your service and distribute it.

42. Marketplace listing
Create a bootstrap P2 plugin.
Auto-provision
Automate user provisioning and secrets exchange.
Guide the user through the setup
If you need to do manual setup, create a guide.

43. Custom UI is more work
Use Custom Fields or an iframe.
Consider using Entity Properties
If you do not need to display the data directly.

44. Is it all worth it?

45. Additional wins
Reuse
The service can possibly
be reused in Connect.
ZDU
Zero-downtime upgrades.
Everyone on the latest version.
Learn
Expand your knowledge with
new technologies.

46. Pick the
right tools
and
go build it

47. Thank you!
MATEJ KONECNY | SENIOR DEVELOPER | ATLASSIAN