Virtual Session 2: The Toolbox – From "Hello World" to Useful App 🧰✨

📅 Date: March 4th, 2026
⏰ Time: 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM
📍 Hosted by: Atlassian Community Meru

✨ Event Description:
You’ve deployed your first Forge app—now it’s time to make it useful.

In this 1.5-hour hands-on session, we move beyond the basics and explore the essential tools that power real Atlassian apps: UI Kit (frontend), Triggers (backend logic), and Storage (database).

You’ll learn how to build interactive apps that respond to Jira context and persist data—turning simple panels into functional, value-driven tools. By the end of this session, you’ll understand how to structure your hackathon project and form teams around meaningful ideas.

🕒 Agenda (1.5 Hours)

8:00 – 8:20 PM | UI Kit vs. Custom UI 🎨
Understanding your frontend options in Forge:

• Why UI Kit?

• React-like syntax

• Native Atlassian look and feel

• Faster to build and easier to maintain

• What is Custom UI?

• Runs in an iframe

• More flexibility, but more complexity

Hackathon Advice: Stick to UI Kit. Build fast. Ship smart. 🚀

8:20 – 9:00 PM | Live Demo: “The Ticket Counter” 🔢
We build a practical app together—an app that stores and displays a count on a Jira ticket.

Key Concepts Covered:

• useProductContext

• How your app knows which Jira issue it’s currently viewing

• Accessing contextual data inside your component

• Storage API

• storage.set → Save data

• storage.get → Retrieve data

• How to persist values per ticket

By the end of this segment, you’ll understand how frontend + context + storage work together to create dynamic apps.

9:00 – 9:30 PM | Ideation & Team Formation 💡👥

• Understanding Extension Points
Where can your app live?

• Issue Panels

• Context Menus

• Admin Pages

• Workflow Validators

• Confluence Macros

• Team Formation

• Form teams based on interest

• Choose your focus: Jira or Confluence

• Start shaping your hackathon idea

🏆 Outcome:
You’ll move from a static demo app to understanding how to build something practical, contextual, and persistent.

👉 Why Attend?

• Learn how to build interactive Forge apps with real data
• Understand how storage works inside Atlassian Cloud
• Get clarity on UI Kit vs. Custom UI before the hackathon
• Form a team and refine your project idea
• Build with confidence—not guesswork

This session equips you with the core toolbox you need to build something that actually solves a problem. 🔧🔥