Update 25th Aug’22 : Here are the new timelines for app catalog migration. We plan to start it on 1st Sept and complete by end of Sept. We have also created a page in the Partner Portal that has the order in which the partners are to be migrated.
Update 24th Aug’22 : App catalog migration has been put on hold temporarily since we are waiting for a few internal approvals from other teams to ensure it doesn’t impact any of our internal processes. We will notify you about the new timeline which will be in the next 2-3 weeks. As communicated earlier, we will make sure to give a one-week heads up before we start the app catalog migration.
Please note: We’ve made clarifying updates to this post in response to feedback that the scope of this activity was unclear. Please feel free to add other clarifying questions in the comments.
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Hello Marketplace Partners,
This is to announce that Atlassian, as a part of its cloud transformation, is migrating the app catalog (app entities and pricing plans only) to new billing engine as communicated earlier through Stage 0 or the line item “app catalog migration - temporary unavailability of app management” in Resources for Marketplace Partners to navigate Atlassian’s migration to a new billing engine. This is a month long activity, starting from 22nd August 2022 to 23rd September 2022 with cohorts of apps being migrated every day.
Please note, this is work being done in preparation for our eventual go live of apps for customers to purchase on the new billing engine, but it is not the production go-live of apps or customers who purchase apps on the new billing engine. Production go-live of apps and customers who purchase apps on the new billing engine continues to be dependent upon Marketplace Reporting efforts in progress by Atlassian (See the latest update about reporting stability improvements here).
What’s the impact for Marketplace Partners ?
Partners whose apps are being migrated are requested to kindly refrain from making any updates to the app data (like editing app data or app pricing) during the migration period as it may result in loss of data.
The migration blackout period would be 2-3 hours per app. So, the total blackout period depends on the number of apps the Marketplace Partner owns. Once the migration is done successfully, partners can continue to edit app data for the migrated app. Partners will still be able to access apps transactional data and reports during the blackout period. To minimize the blackout impact, we will try to do the migration activity during off-hours of the partners.
Also please note that Partners will still be able to publish new apps during migration.
Each day, only a few partners will be migrated. All the apps for a single Marketplace Partner will be migrated in a single day, so one partner will experience only one day of disruption. All those partners are notified through Status page and Announcement banner on the vendor portal where you manage apps.
In addition to the temporary blackout period, Marketplace Partners should be aware that one of the workflow impacts outlined on the Resources for Marketplace Partners to navigate Atlassian’s migration to a new billing engine page — the “App Lifecycle - Paid to free conversion, and Archival Process” change — will also go into effect once your apps are on the new system.
Please note that these are background changes that we need to make in order to prepare for the new billing engine to support Marketplace app purchasing. The changes will not impact reporting and are not dependent on our new reporting pipeline. Any changes that impact reporting are still being delayed until Marketplace reporting is moved to a new data pipeline.
What’s the impact for customers ?
There’s no impact from customer side. Customers will still be able to view and use apps and make app purchases. Customers will still be billed through old billing system at this stage. We are not yet supporting app purchasing on the new billing engine at this time, as this is dependent on Marketplace reporting moving to a new data pipeline.
In case you need any help during the process, you can reach out to Marketplace Support.
FAQs:
How does it impact us (Marketplace Partners) ?
As part of this activity, we are only copying app catalogue data from old billing system to new billing system. So, there’s no impact on app data. To avoid data loss, You should refrain making any updates to existing apps during the migration which includes
- Update App details - name, description, loyalty discount
- Create new version of app
- Update pricing of the app
You would still be able to publish new apps.
Your apps in the approval queue would not be approved on the migration day, which results in delay by one day.
Can we publish a new version of our app to the Marketplace?
You can only publish new apps. Please refrain from publishing new app versions during the 2-3 hour black out period specific to your app to ensure none of your updates are lost.
Should we stop our CI/CD pipelines from sending updates to the Marketplace?
It would be safest to stop them during the window (approximately 2-3 hours per app), all CI/CD mechanisms that use marketplace API to
- Update App details - name, description, loyalty discount
- Create new version of app
- Update pricing of the app
should be disabled. If you are concerned, please open a ticket with Marketplace Support and we can work with you to minimize impact on your workflows.
Will this prevent clients from purchasing our apps?
No, customer billing will not be impacted. Customers will still be billed through the old system at this time. This stage is just a background step to lay the foundation to eventually support apps on the new billing engine.
Is there a communication when our apps will be started and when it is safe to resume operations?
You will see a banner on the vendor portal while the app entity and pricing plan migration is taking place. When this banner is gone you are safe to resume operations. We will also update Statuspage when the blackout period is over and migration is complete.
We are scheduling the migration windows with your time zone in mind in an effort to minimize downtime during your working hours.
Will customers see an impact to them during the transition?
At this stage, customers will experience no impacts. This work is being done in preparation of the eventual go-live of apps on the new billing engine. Customers who own apps are not planned to be migrated to the new system until later in the calendar year and this customer-facing release is dependent upon the work Atlassian is doing to improve current marketplace reporting pipelines (click here for more details).
Best,
Dinesh Kollosu,
Product Manager, Atlassian Marketplace
