Atlassian Cloud vs. server for developing a plugin

Question

Hi

I'm new to JIRA plugin development. I'd like to develop a plugin for public use.
Today there are two development options, Cloud platform and Server platform.
The development frameworks for the server is java and for the cloud is javascript.

I'm debating between the path I should take for developing the plugin.

basically according to Atlassian, they are gradually moving away from the server SDK, as they'd like everyone to start developing in the Cloud platform. That for itself implies that the right choice should be the Cloud  Platform option. That said, there are a lot of companies that prefer to host the JIRA server on-prem from an internal compliance standpoint. I would like my plugin to serve everyone regardless of their compliance policies. Is there a way to develop in the cloud platform and somehow run it on-prem? Is there a way to transform a plugin developed in the Cloud Platform to the server on-prem option?

Thanks,

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

The two plug-in types are totally different, you are not going to be able to write one App and have it serve both types of system.  Your core logic can be reused, probably, but nothing else, and there's no way to "transform" - you have to rebuild, from scratch.

That said, if you want to build something for both, I would start with Cloud because the bigger Cloud Apps are run as services on different servers, so you could write for the remote servers and then have a (more simple) "stub" App for Jira server that talks to them instead of doing the work in the Jira server.

Alexey Matveev · Answer

Hello,

You can develop plugins for Jira Cloud in any language you like. It is not tied to javascript. You can find more info here:

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/frameworks-and-tools/

You can not run a Jira Cloud add-on on Jira prem add-on. All you can do is i try do develop a library with all the logic of your plugin there and then connect the same library to your Jira Cloud and Jira Server plugins.