Streamlining Atlassian Plugin Development With Webpack An Essential Guide For Developers

Webpack: Simplifying Asset Management for Atlassian Plugins

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Understanding Webpack

Webpack serves as a crucial tool for bundling various pieces of code and resources required for a website or application to function seamlessly. It acts as a packing machine, efficiently organizing and optimizing assets like JavaScript files, CSS stylesheets, images, and fonts, thereby enhancing performance and usability.

Why Webpack in Atlassian Workflows

Atlassian's suite of products, including Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket, often rely on plugins to extend their functionalities. Efficient plugin development, testing, and maintenance are crucial for seamless integration. Webpack plays a pivotal role in streamlining these workflows by automating tasks, optimizing assets, and promoting modular code structures.

Advantages of Webpack for Atlassian Plugin Development

Comparing Webpack with Alternatives

While Webpack is a popular choice for Atlassian plugin development, alternatives like Parcel and Rollup offer distinct advantages:

Code Structure for Plugin Development with Webpack

Organizing Atlassian plugin projects with Webpack typically involves separating backend and frontend components:

Challenges and Solutions

While Webpack offers numerous benefits, developers may encounter challenges such as complex configuration, slow build processes, version compatibility issues, and debugging difficulties. Solutions include leveraging configuration tools, optimizing build processes, maintaining consistent dependencies, and utilizing source maps for debugging.

Integrating Webpack with Atlassian Projects

Integrating Webpack into Atlassian projects involves setting up, configuring, and bundling assets using webpack.config.js. Developers can then deploy bundled files into the appropriate plugin directories and test changes using Webpack's development server.

1. Setup Webpack: Begin by installing Webpack and related dependencies in your project using npm or yarn:
npm install --save-dev webpack webpack-cli

2. Configure Webpack: Add this plugin to your webpack config. For every entry point webpack generates, an appropriate <web-resource> definition will be generated in an XML file for you, which can then be bundled in to your Atlassian product or plugin, ready to be served to the browser at product runtime.

const WrmPlugin = require('atlassian-webresource-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
    entry: {
        'my-feature': path.join(FRONTEND_SRC_DIR, 'simple.js')
    },
    plugins: [
        new WrmPlugin({
            pluginKey: 'my.full.plugin.artifact-id',
            contextMap: {
                'my-feature': ['atl.general']
            },
            xmlDescriptors: path.resolve(OUTPUT_DIR, 'META-INF', 'plugin-descriptors', 'wr-defs.xml')
        }),
    ],
    output: {
        filename: 'bundled.[name].js',
        path: path.resolve(OUTPUT_DIR)
    }
};


The output will go to <OUTPUT_DIR>/META-INF/plugin-descriptors/wr-defs.xml, and look something like this:

<bundles>

        <web-resource key="entrypoint-my-feature">
            <transformation extension="js">
                <transformer key="jsI18n"/>
            </transformation>
            <context>atl.general</context>
            <resource name="bundled.my-feature.js" type="download" location="bundled.my-feature.js" />
        </web-resource>

</bundles>


In your plugin project's pom.xml file, add the META-INF/plugin-descriptors directory as a value to an <Atlassian-Scan-Folders> tag in the <instruction> section of the AMPS plugin's build configuration.

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <!-- START of a bunch of stuff that is probably different for your plugin, but is outside
           the scope of this demonstration -->
      <groupId>com.atlassian.maven.plugins</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-amps-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>6.2.11</version>
      <!-- END differences with your plugin -->
      <configuration>
        <instructions>
          <Atlassian-Scan-Folders>META-INF/plugin-descriptors</Atlassian-Scan-Folders>
        </instructions>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

npx webpack --config webpack.config.js



Conclusion

By harnessing Webpack's capabilities, developers can streamline Atlassian plugin development, optimize asset management, and enhance overall productivity. Despite challenges, Webpack remains a valuable asset in the developer toolkit, offering powerful features and extensive customization options for building robust, high-performance plugins.

References