What’s changing in Apps with Atlassian’s Beta launch of New navigation?

[#1]

Hi everyone,

Following the success of our Early Access Program (EAP) in October 2024, we’re now extending this EAP and ramping up invites to all partners for our Beta launch.

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What’s the new navigation?

At Atlassian, our mission is to unleash the potential of every team, and navigation (top and side) in our products is central to how teams find and move work forward.

App specific changes

Feature	Modules	Final designs
Global apps are moving from the top to the left	jira:globalPage Web-Item: global-navigation-product Web-Item: system.top.navigation.bar
Project apps are transitioning from the side navigation to horizontal tabs within Jira	jira:projectPage Web-Item: jira:project.sidebar.navigation
Modification of entry point locations for board and backlog apps	Web-Item: jira.software.board.tools Web-Item: board-tools-1 Web-Item: view-actions-print
Global multi-page apps	Reference
Project multi-page apps	Forge : Reference Connect : Proof of concept code

What is the Beta launch?

After weeks of rigorously testing functionality and feature parity, internally and with an Early Access Program (EAP) in October 2024, we’ve validated key assumptions, gathered feedback, and learnt from the partners and customers.

We’re now ready for more partners to join us on this journey in the Beta launch, where you can test Atlassian’s new navigation and provide feedback that will shape the future experience for all partners and customers.

Note: The new navigation's Beta launch will be available for Jira cloud, Jira Product Discovery, Jira Service Management cloud, and Atlassian Home. Confluence navigation will be available later this year and it will be handled separately.

Join our Beta launch

As the new navigation is enabled at the site level, all users on the site URL will have it enabled by default. Don’t worry—you and your users can turn on/off the new navigation at any time, and it won’t affect other users.

Note: We recommend that you sign up with your testing and sandbox environments.

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In the meantime, join our focus group to ask questions, raise concerns, and connect with the team working on the new navigation. You can also select Give feedback on the new navigation in the left sidebar to let us know about your experience.

Share with us:

• Bugs, issues, and improvements in the new navigation

• Any tasks you found challenging to complete using the new navigation

• What’s working well for you

• What’s not working well for you

• Any other comments or suggestions, no matter how minor

Recommendations

1. For apps that will have a dual left navigation or dual tab experience, we recommend adopting subpages in Forge. For Connect, you can follow the POC code to get an idea of how to build app navigation that is compatible with Jira. In case the subpages concept doesn’t work for your use case and you would still want to have the app nav alongside Jira navigation, that’s still fine. Users will have the option to collapse the side navigation and tabs at their discretion, as illustrated below.

2. We recommend utilizing global apps that are accessible in the apps section of the Jira’s side navigation when operations are conducted across multiple projects. Conversely, apps situated at the project level (within tabs for Jira and in the side navigation of each project for JSM) should provide functionalities that specifically support operations within the context of the respective project.

Frequently asked questions

We have compiled a list of commonly asked questions that we have received as part of the EAP and RFC feedback. This list will be updated as we receive additional inquiries.

Questions	Answers
Is it possible for partners to determine whether the side navigation is collapsed or expanded, allowing the app to load with the navigation in the desired state or optimize its behavior accordingly?	Implementing such a feature would result in inconsistencies with Jira's navigation items and overall user experience. Therefore, we are not pursuing this solution.
Are there any plans to allow apps to be added directly to the main navigation, alongside placing them in the App section?	No, there are no plans to allow the creation of apps outside of the designated app section in the left-side navigation.
I've noticed that my app link includes an ellipsis ('...') that directs users to "App settings." How is the target page for this link determined?	For Forge, it is a URL to the admin page, but if one is not defined, it links to the configuration page (if available). For Connect, a link to the first (top-most) admin page from the admin_plugins_menu location is returned
The project apps in Jira are organized into tabs, while they are situated in the left navigation panel within each Jira Service Management (JSM) project. Is this the final navigation structure for both products?	Yes, the navigation structure has been finalized and tested with customers.
We have observed that the full-screen collapse option for project apps is not accessible on our instance, despite indications that it is available in the post. Is there something I may be overlooking?	The full-screen collapse feature for Jira project apps is currently under development and is expected to be available in December`24. We will notify all registered participants once this feature is live.
I find it very confusing that the icons in the project nav turn into ellipses (for admins) when the tabs are active. I don’t think that’s necessary ?	This design is to cater to Accessibility
What happens with the instances that were previously registered for the Early Access Program (EAP)?	If you’re part of the EAP we launched in October 2024, the new navigation will still be enabled on your site so you and your users can continue using it

Thanks,

Chandana

[Yatish Madhav]

Super! Thanks so much for this @Chandana Meka 

Just want to check RE the Modules column - would this documentation also be updated soon to cater for this? https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/about-connect-modules-for-jira/

I also know of this add on by Atlassian that would help ... https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1230672/extension-point-finder-for-jira?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

I want to add some modules to our custom app but I dont want to do so until all of these changes are rolled out and in GA.

Thank you
Yatish

[Chandana Meka]

Hey hi @Yatish Madhav , great question. We are adding a banner pointing to this post in all the 4 content sets - Jira, JSM, Connect and Forge. We are not updating the documentation yet as there will be developers who didn't sign up for the new navigation and they can get confused when they see and experience different things. We would also need to maintain two versions of docs for ones who signed up and for developers who didn't sign up. We will update all the docs content and images by GA planned in early March. The design changes are now near final, partners can expect very minimal changes and nothing drastic. Since partners expect some soak in time to absorb and make changes to the apps, we are encouraging developers to adopt to the new navigation. It's completely fine, if you would like to tackle the changes when GA is announced. Hope this answers :)

[Yatish Madhav]

Ah ok - thanks @Chandana Meka . Makes sense.

Yes, i totally get and agree that it is inefficient to manage 2 sets of documentation esp since this is in Beta currently. Just wanted to bring it to your attention

But yeah, happy that all the docco will be updated when it is in GA next year.

Thank you for the quick response.