npm package: @jan-frei/atlassian-connect-express
Description: Library for building Atlassian Add-ons on top of Express
Author: Atlassian
Latest version: 7.0.1

# atlassian-connect-express: Node.js package for Express.js based Atlassian Add-ons

`atlassian-connect-express` (ACE) is a toolkit for creating
[Atlassian Connect](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/AC/Atlassian+Connect) based Add-ons with
[Node.js](http://nodejs.org/). Atlassian Connect is a distributed component model for creating add-ons.
Add-ons built with Atlassian Connect extend Atlassian cloud-based applications over standard web protocols and APIs.
To build add-ons for Atlassian's server (on-premises) products, refer to the [server developer documentation](https://developer.atlassian.com/server/).

ACE is the **officially supported** Node.js framework for Atlassian Connect. Please read our documentation to see the other
supported and community provided
[Frameworks and Tools](https://developer.atlassian.com/static/connect/docs/latest/developing/frameworks-and-tools.html).
You will find the recommended tools extremely useful when writing your own Atlassian Connect add-ons; be sure to peruse
the list of tools and use them as much as possible to aid development.

**Please ensure you always use the latest patch version of ACE to ensure your add-on has the latest security patches and
fixes. Versions prior to 1.0.14 and 2.0.2 have a known security vulnerability.**

## More info

ACE helps you get started developing add-ons quickly, using Node.js and Express as the add-on server.

It's important to understand that [Express](http://expressjs.com/) by itself is a web app framework for Node. ACE just provides
a library of middleware and convenience helpers that make it easier to build Atlassian add-ons. Specifically, ACE adds:

* An optimized dev loop by handling registration and deregistration on the target Atlassian application for you at startup and shutdown.
* A filesystem watcher that detects changes to `atlassian-connect.json`. When changes are detected, the add-on is re-registered with the host(s).
* Automatic JWT authentication of inbound requests as well as JWT signing for outbound requests back to the host.
* Automatic persistence of host details (i.e., client key, host public key, host base url etc.).
* ngrok tunnel, for testing with Jira or Confluence hosts.

## Release notes

For detailed release notes and upgrade guides, please see the [Release Notes](RELEASENOTES.md).

## Getting started

The fastest way to get started is to install the `atlas-connect` CLI tool. The CLI makes it possible to generate an ACE
enabled add-on scaffold very quickly. To install:

```bash
npm i -g atlas-connect
```

### Create a project

Let's start by creating an add-on project:

```bash
atlas-connect new <project_name>
```

This creates a new project in the current directory.

### Install dependencies

Change to the new project directory and install dependencies:

```bash
npm install
```

If you get any errors related to node-gyp (especially with Node 8 on Windows), try
[installing its prerequisites](https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-gyp#installation).

### Setting up a development environment

At this point, you're all set to run your add-on, but you still need to install it in Jira or Confluence.
You can install your new add-on in any Jira or Confluence host where you are an administrator, but usually
it's best to create a new host for you to use during development.
[Follow this link to sign up](http://go.atlassian.com/cloud-dev)
for a free Jira or Confluence Cloud host.

### Running your add-on server

In your project directory, run:

```bash
npm start
```

This will boot up your Express server on the default port of 3000.

### Dev loop

At this point, you can start building your add-on. Changes to views load automatically, however, if you make changes to
any JavaScript, you need to restart Express. If you want your server to automatically restart when your JavaScript
changes, consider using [nodemon](https://npmjs.org/package/nodemon) or the like.

#### Automatic registration

This section will describe how to configure ACE so that it can automatically register your add-on with your
Jira or Confluence host, re-register on changes to the descriptor, and de-register on shut down.

To get this functionality, you will need to:

* Install [ngrok](https://ngrok.com/): `npm install --save-dev ngrok`,
* Create a file called `credentials.json`,
* Copy and paste the contents of [this file](https://bitbucket.org/atlassian/atlassian-connect-express-template/src/master/credentials.json.sample),
* Add `credentials.json` to the `.gitignore` file, and
* Change the contents of the file to contain the link to your development environment, e-mail as the username, [API token](https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/api-tokens-938839638.html) as password and product name.

ACE will now read this file and automatically create an ngrok tunnel, and register your add-on on your development host.

### Configuration

The configuration for your add-on is done in two files:

* `./config.json` -- This file contains the configuration for each runtime environment your plugin runs in. The file has
  comments to help you understand available settings.
* `./atlassian-connect.json` -- This file is a manifest of all the extension points your add-on uses. To see all of the available extension point options for Jira, check out the modules sections of the
  [atlassian-connect Jira modules documentation](https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/about-connect-modules-for-jira/). To check out all the available extension point options for Confluence, check out the modules section of the
  [atlassian-connect Confluence modules documentation](https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/confluence/connect-modules/).

The behaviour of your add-on can be further configured by setting the `AC_OPTS` environment variable (see the end of this section).

#### config.json

The `./config.json` file contains all of the settings for the add-on server. This file is broken into environments.

```javascript
{
  // Set to true if your app contains a errorHandler middleware:
  // http://expressjs.com/guide.html#error-handling
  "expressErrorHandling": false,

  // This is the default environment. To change your app to use
  // a different env, set NODE_ENV (http://expressjs.com/api.html#app.configure)
  "development": {
    // This is the port your Express server will listen on
    "port": 3000,

    // To enable validation of descriptor on startup and every time it changes,
    // add the optional config validateDescriptor to true
    "validateDescriptor": true,

    // atlassian-connect-express currently integrates with Sequelize for
    // persistence to store the host client information (i.e., client key,
    // host public key, etc). When no adapter is specified, it defaults to
    // Sequelize's fallback memory storage.
    //
    // To specify a backend for Sequelize  other than "memory", set the
    // "dialect" value to one of Sequelize's other supported diaclets.
    //
    // To use your own storage adapter, add the key
    // "adapter" to the following configuration, and replace "dialect"
    // and "connection" with any values your adapter expects.  Then make sure
    // that you register your adapter factory with the following code in
    // app.js:
    //
    //   ac.store.register(adapterName, factoryFn)
    //
    // See `atlassian-connect-express/lib/store/index.js` and the default
    // `sequelize.js` files for code demonstrating how to write a
    // conformant adapter.  The default values are as follows:
    //
    //   "store": {
    //     "adapter": "sequelize",
    //     "dialect": "sqlite",
    //     "storage": ":memory:"
    //   },
    //
    // To instead configure, say, a PostgreSQL store, the following could be
    // used:
    //
    //   "store": {
    //     "adapter": "sequelize",
    //     "dialect": "postgres",
    //     "url": "postgres://localhost/my_addon_database",
    //     "table": "MySetting" //optional - table name. Default is "AddonSetting"
    //     "logging": function, //optional - function that gets executed every time Sequelize would log something.
    //     "pool": {}           //optional - pool options you have that you may pass to sequelize adapter
    //   },
    //
    // For MongoDB, use the following:
    //
    //   "store": {
    //     "adapter": "mongodb",
    //     "url": "mongodb://localhost:27017/my_addon_database",
    //     "collection": "AddonSettings"
    //   },
    //
    // For Redis, use the following:
    //
    //   "store": {
    //     "adapter": "redis",
    //     "url": "redis://localhost:6379",
    //   },    
    //
    // You will also need an appropriate Sequelize driver if you choose something
    // other than the default "diaclet".  In the PostgreSQL case you'd need to
    // run the following command to add the proper support:
    //
    //   $ npm install --save pg
    //

  },

  // This is the production add-on configuration, which is enabled by setting
  // the NODE_ENV=production environment variable.
  "production": {
    // On a PaaS host like Heroku, the runtime environment will provide the
    // HTTP port to you via the PORT environement variable, so we configure
    // that to be honored here.
    "port": "$PORT",
    // This is the public URL to your production add-on.
    "localBaseUrl": "https://your-subdomain.herokuapp.com",
    "store": {
      // You won't want to use the memory store in production, or your install
      // registrations will be forgotten any time your app restarts.  Here
      // we tell atlassian-connect-express to use the PostgreSQL backend for the default
      // Sequelize adapter.
      "dialect": "postgres",
      // Again, a PaaS host like Heroku will probably provide the db connection
      // URL to you through the environment, so we tell atlassian-connect-express to use that value.
      "url": "$DATABASE_URL"
    },

    // Make sure that your add-on can only be registered by the hosts on
    // these domains.
    "whitelist": [
      "*.jira-dev.com",
      "*.atlassian.net",
      "*.jira.com"
    ]
  }
}
```

#### AC_OPTS

The AC_OPTS environment variable can be used to change the behaviour of ACE for ease of development, like so:

```bash
AC_OPTS=no-auth,force-reg node app.js
```

Set it to a space or comma delimited list containing one or more of the following values.

**force-reg** Make the add-on always register itself with running a Jira or Confluence host when it starts up
(normally auto-registration only happens if the add-on is using a memory store).

**force-dereg** Make the add-on always de-register itself with running a Jira or Confluence host on shutdown
(normally auto-registration only happens if the add-on is using a memory store or running in development mode).

**no-reg** Make the add-on never register itself with running a Jira or Confluence host
(i.e. don't auto-register even if a memory store is being used).

**no-auth** Skip authentication of incoming requests (i.e. don't check for or validate JWT tokens).

### atlassian-connect.json

The `atlassian-connect.json` describes what your add-on will do. There are three main parts to the descriptor: meta
information that describes your add-on (i.e., name, description, key, etc.), permissions and authentication information,
and a list of the components your add-on will extend. This descriptor is sent to the host (i.e., Jira or Confluence)
when your add-on is installed.

To see all of the available settings in the `atlassian-connect.json`, visit the module sections of the
[atlassian-connect documentation](https://developer.atlassian.com/static/connect/docs/)

If you need a pre-processing step to your descriptor, you can configure one by changing your `app.js`
so that a transformer is included in the `config`. The `descriptorTransformer` property expects to be a
function and passes in `descriptor` as an object, and the `app.config` object.

```javascript
var addon = ac(app, { config: {
  descriptorTransformer: function(descriptor, config) {
    if (config.environment() === "production") {
      descriptor.key = "production-key";
    }
    return descriptor;
  }
}});
```

## Sample Add-ons

* [Jira Example](https://bitbucket.org/atlassianlabs/atlassian-connect-jira-example) -- a simple Jira example add-on
* [Confluence Example](https://bitbucket.org/atlassianlabs/atlassian-connect-confluence-example) -- a simple Confluence example add-on
* [Sequence Diagramr](https://bitbucket.org/atlassianlabs/atlassian-connect-confluence-sequence-diagramr) -- an add-on with a Confluence remote macro for creating UML sequence diagrams
* [Confluence Word Cloud](https://bitbucket.org/atlassianlabs/atlassian-connect-confluence-word-cloud) -- a macro that
  takes the contents of a page and constructs an SVG-based word cloud

## Scaffold

When you generate a new ACE add-on, you're actually just downloading a copy of the
[Atlassian Connect for Express.js template](https://bitbucket.org/atlassian/atlassian-connect-express-template/).

### Handlebars layouts and templates

The base scaffold uses the [Handlebars](http://handlebarsjs.com) template library via the [express-hbs](https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-hbs) package.

Handlebars views are stored in the `./views` directory. The base template contains a `layout.hbs` and a sample page
(`hello-world.hbs`). Handlebars alone doesn't provide layouts, but the `express-hbs` package does. To apply the
`layout.hbs` layout to your template page, just add the following to the top of your template:

```hbs
{{!< layout}}
```

To learn more about how Handlebars works in express.js, take a look at the [express-hbs documentation](https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-hbs).

### Special context variables

ACE injects a handful of useful context variables into your render context. You can access any
of these within your templates:

* `title`: the add-on's name (derived from `atlassian-connect.json`)
* `addonKey`: the add-on key defined in `atlassian-connect.json`
* `localBaseUrl`: the base URI of the add-on
* `hostBaseUrl`: the base URI of the target application (includes the context path if available)
* `hostStylesheetUrl`: the URL to the base CSS file for Connect add-ons. This stylesheet is a bare minimum set of styles
  to help you get started. It's not a full AUI stylesheet.
* `hostScriptUrl`: the URL to the Connect JS client. This JS file contains the code that will establish the seamless
  iframe bridge between the add-on and its parent. It also contains a handful of methods and objects for accessing data
  through the parent (look for the `AP` JS object).
* `token`: the token that can be used to authenticate calls from the iframe back to the add-on service.
* `license`: the license status
* `context`: the JWT `context` claim
* `clientKey`: the client consumer key used to identity the Jira or Confluence host from which the request came
* `userAccountId`: the Atlassian Account ID of the user.
* `userId`: (deprecated) the username of the user from which the request came.
* `timeZone`: (deprecated) the user's timezone
* `locale`: (deprecated) the user's locale

You can access any of the variables above as normal Handlebars variables. For example, to generate a link in your page
that links elsewhere in the host:

```html
<a href="{{hostBaseUrl}}/browse/JRA">Jira</a>
```

### Events emitted
#### All products
* `host_settings_saved`: after `/installed` lifecycle, ACE tries to save the client information (baseUrl, clientKey, app key, puglinsVersion, productType, publicKey, serverVersion, sharedSecret) in storage. If successfuly saved, this event is emitted
* `host_settings_not_saved`: after `/installed` lifecycle, ACE tries to save the client information in storage. If there's any error or problem, this event is emitted
* `addon_registered`: after an ngrok tunnel is created, ACE will try to register or install the app in a Jira or Confluence product
* `webhook_auth_verification_triggered`: ACE automatically registers webhooks and corresponding paths in the descriptor file, once it tries to authenticate this event is emitted
* `webhook_auth_verification_successful`: ACE automatically registers webhooks and corresponding paths in the descriptor file, once it tries to authenticate and is successful, this event is emitted

#### Jira/Confluence
* `localtunnel_started`: event emitted after ACE successfully creates an ngrok tunnel
* `addon_deregistered`: when ACE receives a `SIGTERM`, `SIGINT`, and `SIGUSR2` signals, it will deregister the app and this event is emitted

To listen to an event:
```
addon.on(event, function() {
  // Add something here
});
```

## Recipes

### How to secure a route with JWT

Add-ons are authenticated through JWT. To simplify JWT verification on your routes, you can simply add an
ACE middleware to your route:

```javascript
module.exports = function(app, addon) {
  app.get(
    '/protected-resource',

    // Protect this resource with JWT
    addon.authenticate(),

    function(req, res) {
      res.render('protected');
    }
  );
};
```

Simply adding the `addon.authenticate()` middleware will protect your resource.

### How to send a signed HTTP request from the iframe back to the add-on service

The initial call to load the iframe content is secured by JWT, as described above. However, the loaded content cannot
sign subsequent requests. A typical example is content that makes AJAX calls back to the add-on. Cookie sessions cannot
be used, as many browsers block third-party cookies by default. ACE provides middleware that
works without cookies and helps making secure requests from the iframe.

Standard JWT tokens are used to authenticate requests from the iframe back to the add-on service. A route can be secured
using the `addon.checkValidToken()` middleware:

```javascript
module.exports = function(app, addon) {
  app.get(
    '/protected-resource',

    // Require a valid token to access this resource
    addon.checkValidToken(),

    function(req, res) {
      res.render('protected');
    }
  );
};
```

In order to secure your route, the token must be part of the HTTP request back to the add-on service. This can be done
by using the standard `jwt` query parameter:

```html
<a href="/protected-resource?jwt={{token}}">See more</a>
```

The second option is to use the Authorization HTTP header, e.g. for AJAX requests:

```javascript
beforeSend: function(request) {
  request.setRequestHeader("Authorization", "JWT {{token}}");
}
```

You can embed the token anywhere in your iframe content using the `token` content variable. For example, you can embed
it in a meta tag, from where it can later be read by a script:

```html
<meta name="token" content="{{token}}">
```

### How to send a signed outbound HTTP request back to the host

ACE bundles and extends the [request](https://www.npmjs.com/package/request) HTTP client. To make a
JWT signed request back to the host, all you have to do is use `request` the way it was designed, but use a URL back to
the host's REST APIs.

```javascript
var httpClient = addon.httpClient(req);
httpClient.get('/', function(err, res, body) {
  ...
});
```

If not in a request context, you can perform the equivalent operation as follows:

```javascript
var httpClient = addon.httpClient({
  clientKey: clientKey  // The unique client key of the tenant to make a request to
});
httpClient.get('/', function(err, res, body) {
  ...
});
```

By default, these requests are authenticated as the add-on. If you would like to make a request as a specific user, the
`#asUserByAccountId()` method should be used. Under the covers, an OAuth2 bearer token will be retrieved for the user
you've requested.

```javascript
var httpClient = addon.httpClient(req);
httpClient.asUserByAccountId('ebcab857-c769-4fbd-8ad6-469510a43b87').get('/rest/api/latest/myself', function(err, res, body) {
  ...
});
```

Ensure you pass the `userAccountId` value into the method, and not the username or userKey. If you were previously using
`#asUser()` with `userKey`, you can convert it into a userAccountId through the User REST resource on the host product.

* [Jira](https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/#api-api-2-user-get)
* [Confluence](https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/confluence/rest/#api-user-get)

You can also set custom headers or send a form data. Take, for example this request which attaches a file to a Jira issue:

```javascript
var filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'some.png');
fs.readFile(filePath, function(err, data) {
  httpClient.post({
    url: '/rest/api/2/issue/' + issueKey + '/attachments',
    headers: {
      'X-Atlassian-Token': 'nocheck'
    },
    multipartFormData: {
      file: [data, { filename: 'some.png' }]
    }
  },
  function(err, httpResponse, body) {
    if (err) {
      return console.error('Upload failed:', err);
    }
    console.log('Upload successful:', body);
  });
});
```

### Using the product REST API

Certain REST URLs may require [additional scopes](https://developer.atlassian.com/static/connect/docs/scopes/scopes.html)
that should be added to your `atlassian-connect.json` file.

### How to deploy to Heroku

Before you start, install Git and the [Heroku Toolbelt](https://toolbelt.heroku.com/).

If you aren't using git to track your add-on, now is a good time to do so as it is required for Heroku. Ensure you are
in your project home directory and run the following commands:

```bash
git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com
ssh-keygen -t rsa
git init
git add .
git commit . -m "some message"
heroku keys:add
```

Next, create the app on Heroku:

```bash
heroku apps:create <add-on-name>
```

Next, let's store our registration information in a Postgres database. In development, you were likely using the memory
store. In production, you'll want to use a real database.

```bash
heroku addons:add heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev --app <add-on-name>
```

Lastly, let's add the project files to Heroku and deploy!

If you aren't already there, switch to your project home directory. From there, run these commands:

```bash
git remote add heroku git@heroku.com:<add-on-name>.git
git push heroku master
```

It will take a minute or two for Heroku to spin up your add-on. When it's done, you'll be given the URL where your
add-on is deployed, however, you'll still need to register it on your Jira or Confluence host.

In order to run your add-on on a Jira or Confluence host, you must enter production mode. To achieve this,
set the `NODE_ENV` variable to production like so:

```bash
heroku config:set NODE_ENV=production
```

For further detail, we recommend reading
[Getting Started with Node.js on Heroku](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-nodejs).

## Troubleshooting

### "Unable to connect and retrieve descriptor from http://localhost:3000/atlassian-connect.json, message is: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused"

You'll get this error if Jira or Confluence can't access `http://localhost:3000/atlassian-connect.json`.
One way to debug this is to see what the command `hostname` returns.

If it returns `localhost`, change it. On a OS X, you'll need to set a proper "Computer Name" in System Preferences > Sharing.

### Debugging HTTP Traffic

Several tools exist to help snoop the HTTP traffic between your add-on and the host server:

* Enable node-request's HTTP logging by starting your app with `NODE_DEBUG=request node app`
* Check out the HTTP-debugging proxies [Charles](http://www.charlesproxy.com/) and [Fiddler](http://fiddler2.com/)
* Try local TCP sniffing with [justniffer](http://justniffer.sourceforge.net/) by running something like
`justniffer -i eth0 -r`, substituting the correct interface value

## Getting help

If you need help using Express.js, see the [API reference](https://expressjs.com/en/4x/api.html) or developer's guide.

If you need help developing against Atlassian products, see the [Atlassian Developer](https://developer.atlassian.com/) site.

If you need help using functionality provided by ACE, or would like to report a problem with the toolkit, please post in the
[Atlassian Developer Community](https://community.developer.atlassian.com/c/atlassian-developer-tools).


## Contributing

Pull requests, issues, and comments are welcome! It's also open source [Apache 2.0](https://bitbucket.org/atlassian/atlassian-connect-express/src/master/LICENSE.txt). So, please feel free to fork and send us pull requests.

For pull requests:

* Add tests for new features and bug fixes.
* Follow the existing style.
* Separate unrelated changes into multiple pull requests.
See the existing issues for things to start contributing.

For bigger changes, make sure you start a discussion first by creating an issue and explaining the intended change.

## Pull Requests
We take the 'trust' approach when it comes to pull requests. This means that reviewers should feel comfortable approving a PR with outstanding items due to trust in knowing that the PR owner will address the actions as necessary. Use actions for PR items that are particularly important since these require the PR owner to explicitly acknowledge them before merging


## Unit tests

Run `npm run test`.