How to actually learn Confluence Data Center plugin development in 2025/2026? Documentation seems outdated

Confluence Development Confluence Data Center
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Hi everyone,

I am a working student tasked with developing a Confluence Data Center plugin. I have a solid programming background, but I am completely new to Atlassian development and struggling with the learning process.

What I need to build: A tool with a UI in Confluence where users can filter and search through content from multiple pages. Think of it as a custom search/filter interface that pulls content from pages based on specific criteria.

My situation:

  • Using Confluence Data Center (not Cloud, so Forge is not relevant for me)

  • No one in my team has Atlassian development experience

  • I have successfully created a basic macro and blueprint using the SDK

  • But extending beyond basic examples is where everything breaks down

The problems I am facing:

  1. Documentation appears outdated - Tutorials reference dependencies that no longer exist or are deprecated

  2. Tutorials are incomplete - I can follow 2-3 steps, then the documentation references outdated APIs or missing modules

  3. Conflicting information - I see references to .vm templates, XML descriptors, REST APIs, different Content APIs - I am confused about what is current for Data Center

  4. No clear learning path - Should I use Velocity templates for the UI? REST endpoints? Content Service? I have no idea what the modern approach is

What I have tried:

  • Atlassian SDK tutorials (work initially, then dependencies fail)

  • Official documentation (appears to be for older versions)

  • Blog posts and articles (most are 3-5+ years old)

  • I have a working macro and blueprint, but cannot extend them further due to API and dependency issues

My specific questions:

  1. For building a custom UI with filters in Confluence Data Center - What is the recommended approach in 2025/2026? Velocity templates? Web panels? Something else?

  2. For reading content from multiple pages - Which API should I use? ContentService? REST API? The documentation shows different approaches and I do not know which is current.

  3. What resources did YOU actually use to learn? Are there up-to-date example repositories, courses, or documentation that work with current Data Center versions?

  4. How do experienced developers handle outdated documentation? What strategies or alternative resources do you use?

What would help me most:

  • Working example plugins with UI components (especially anything with search or filtering)

  • GitHub repositories with recent commits showing Data Center development

  • Guidance on which APIs and approaches are actually current

  • Tips on the modern architecture for this type of plugin

I am not asking anyone to build this for me. I just need direction on where to focus my learning efforts, since following official tutorials leads to dead ends with missing dependencies and deprecated APIs.

Thank you for any guidance you can provide.