What are Add-ons?

Add-on Services are a secure way of extending the Jive Platform with third-party integrations.

A Jive add-on is an archive file, containing configuration settings and other data, that can be installed into your Jive community.

What's the Difference Between Add-ons and Apps?

Add-ons define the way that Jive Platform extensions are bundled and deployed into the Jive community. An App is a particular type of Jive Platform extension that extends the Jive UI. An add-on can contain any number of apps, tiles, streams, templates, external storage frameworks, analytics services, cartridges, and other extension points. It is up to the developer exactly what is bundled within an add-on: some add-ons only contain configuration information and require the Jive server to communicate with a third-party service; other add-ons are standalone and do not depend on a third-party service. A community administrator can manually upload an add-on package into the community. Additionally, add-ons can be installed for an entire community by a community administrator using the Jive Add-ons Registry. Add-ons can either pull data out of the community or bring data in. If you want to know more about apps, add-ons, and how to develop Jive integrations using the latest APIs, please visit the Jive Developer website at developer.jivesoftware.com.

The following add-on services are available:

External Storage Provider: Leverages options outside of Jive for storing and synchronizing binary files uploaded to a Jive place.
API Services: Brings external data into Jive or shares Jive data with third-party integrations using the Jive API service.
Analytics Services: Generates credentials that allow access to the Jive Data Export API. Provide these credentials to consumers of your analytics data so they can access the export service. These credentials may be revoked at any time.
Other Add-ons (Client Apps Only): Some client apps can only be found in the All add-ons tab. These “Other” add-ons aren’t storage providers and don’t include tiles or templates.
Build Your Own Add-ons: Brings external systems into Jive by building extensions for them. For instance, you can connect Jive to your bug tracking system or your version control system so that when a user views a Jive Place, they get a view of that other system. Not only can a user view information from that other system, but you can provide actions to the user without them ever having to leave Jive.