How to identify if an App is Forge or Connect?
Platform Notice: Cloud - This article applies to Atlassian products on the cloud platform.
Summary
This KB outlines how to identify if an app is Forge or Connect type.
Solution
To begin with, let's understand the difference between Forge and Connect apps.
Forge apps are applications built using Atlassian's Forge platform, which is designed for developing and deploying apps within Atlassian Cloud products.
Marketplace Connect apps are hosted on third-party servers managed by the app vendors themselves. These apps are not hosted on Atlassian's infrastructure. Instead, they can be deployed to various environments, including cloud-based servers, data centers, or even on-premises infrastructure controlled by the vendors.
Users can differentiate between Server/DC/Cloud versions of marketplace apps. However, users don't have visibility of whether the Cloud version is Connect or Forge. One way to differentiate is to look for the descriptor file by following the below steps:
- Access the add on the Marketplace
Scroll down to “Resources” and if there’s no Descriptor link, it'll a Forge app. For example: Templating.app Issue Templates & Project Templates for Jira
- If you see a descriptor file, copy the link and access the JSON, you'll see multiple entries when you search for connect, this confirms the add-on is connect. For Example: Timesheets by Tempo - Jira Time Tracking