Documentation

Understanding Atlassian OnDemand

Atlassian OnDemand is Atlassian's hosted versions of JIRA, Confluence and other software. Many customers prefer to buy Atlassian tools as a service because Atlassian will handle the maintenance, hosting, upgrades and more.

Atlassian Connect is built to integrate with our OnDemand applications, so it's important that add-on developers have a basic understanding of how OnDemand works.

Architecture

  • Each JIRA and Confluence OnDemand account is a separate instance of that product. Although an OnDemand instance offers a unified product feel, the actual JIRA and Confluence servers are individual applications running in separate isolated JVMs, that communicate with each other only over HTTP.
  • Although each application is isolated from a security perspective, the underlying hardware resources, such as hardware, network, CPU and memory may be shared between many customers.
  • Each instance of JIRA or Confluence can be identified by its tenant id. An instance URL is liable to change without warning.
  • Each instance of JIRA or Confluence has a set of users.
  • Email addresses are unique within an instance, but may be used across multiple instances.
  • You should identify users by key, rather than name or email. Keys are also unique within an instance but may not be across instances.
  • OnDemand admins will install your add-on by registering your descriptor into an instance. That makes your add-on available to all users of that instance. You will not receive any communication from an instance that does not have your descriptor installed, and you will not be able to communicate with them.
  • Atlassian OnDemand only serves content over HTTPS. Your add-on must also only request content via HTTPS.
  • Only descriptors with a base url that starts with HTTPS are installable in OnDemand servers.
  • No Atlassian OnDemand user can log in as a sysadmin, and your add-on cannot access any functionality that is reserved for sysadmins. Only Atlassian can access sysadmin-level functionality.
  • Atlassian OnDemand supports the following browsers: JIRA, Confluence.
  • Atlassian OnDemand supports these languages.
  • Atlassian OnDemand servers are physically located in the US. Read more here.
  • Atlassian OnDemand FAQ

Therefore, your add-on should:

  • Store user data against an identifier combined from tenant id and user key
  • Only serve content to OnDemand via HTTPS
  • Test and support the supported browsers
  • Use the localization parameters with each request to serve content in the appropriate language
  • Publish a security statement about your own data storage practices

Software upgrades and system restarts

  • Every OnDemand instance restarts during a maintenance window as described in the OnDemand Maintenance Windows page.
  • The weekly releases may or may not contain updates to JIRA, Confluence or other components. Generally JIRA and Confluence update their versions every other week. If a product does not contain an update, it may still be restarted.
  • Individual OnDemand instances occasionally restart outside of that maintenance window to recover from errors or to facilitate support.
  • During either kind of restart, your add-on may choose to receive a webhook from each instance that your add-on is installed on.
  • The first request to each instance after a restart may have higher latency as caches are repopulated.

Therefore, your add-on should:

  • Be resilient to an OnDemand instance being slow or temporarily unavailable.

Purchasing & Licensing

  • When an OnDemand customer selects a new product or add-on they are automatically entered into a trial period.
  • The trial period lasts for 30 days + the time until your next bill. So the actual trial period will be between 31 days and 61 days, with an average of 45 days.
  • OnDemand customers can choose to subscribe to products and add-ons on a monthly or annual basis
  • OnDemand customers may cancel their accounts, or cancel individual products or add-ons. Cancelled accounts remain valid and active until the end of the billing period.
  • OnDemand customer data is removed fifteen days after cancellation. You should publish your own data retention policy as described in the FAQ.
  • Add-on installation and add-on licensing are separate concerns. It is possible for an OnDemand instance to have your add-on descriptor installed but not have a valid license. You should always check the license status on each request and serve an appropriate response.

Therefore, your add-on should:

  • Always check the license parameter on each request and observe the appropriate restrictions.
  • Publish your own data retention policies.