Applications are an essential component of Space‘s extensibility, created by JetBrains to be a highly flexible tool for any software development team. For this reason, a Marketplace for Space apps is being added and is now in beta.

JetBrains has developed a few applications to demonstrate the capabilities of the Space HTTP API, but they think that you, the community, hold the key to actual customization. Your creativity, your use cases, and your workflows will be what enables Space to function beyond its current limitations. You can make your applications, share them with other Space users, and use those made by others in the Marketplace.

Here are two of their instantiated applications to get things started:

• For Slack channels and messages, Rich Link Previews
• Between Slack and Space, there is a channel tunnel

Continue reading to learn more about Space apps, how to make your apps, and a description of the apps already on the Marketplace

What are applications for Space?

An external server-side service or client-side program (JavaScript, mobile, or desktop) that can communicate with Space modules is known as a Space application. It can:

• Request information from Space, such as a list of team members or contributions to a repository.
• Take actions in Space, such as sending chat messages or making to-do lists.
• React to events that Space sends you, such as when a commit takes place in a repository, by executing a custom action.

Learn more about the app features that Space supports by reading this article.

How to create space apps

Check out the recording of the August 11 live webinar How to build applications for Space. You are guided step-by-step through the application development process by Denis Zakharov and Maarten Balliauw.

However, you can immediately begin creating apps using the tutorials and resources for app development.

Learn how to publish your apps on JetBrains Marketplace by reading this article.

Grow your Space using the available apps

You can already access a set of applications that the Space team has produced. Let’s quickly go over their applications and how to install them.

Make Slack link previews

Every time you share a link in a discussion, Space shows a preview of its contents so that all participants may quickly scan it without getting distracted from what they are doing right now. So long as a link contains fundamental metainformation that is visible to everyone online, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and most other web pages, previews are available.

But what if the connected software or service, such as Slack, Figma, Jira, YouTrack, and others, requires authentication? Applications like Slack link previews can connect your Space instance to Slack to offer a two-way link preview. Yes, you heard correctly: in addition to receiving link previews for Slack in Space, you will also be able to view previews of Space bugs and code reviews there.

This is especially useful if some of your coworkers (or outside colleagues) prefer to communicate via Slack. This link preview also gives you a portion of the message, as in the screenshot below. You can review and approve the Pull Request without leaving the Space interface because this message contains a link to the Space Code Review job.

If you want to learn how to make an app like that using Kotlin, feel free to look at the source code directly and follow this comprehensive guide.

The Figma Link Previews and YouTrack Link Previews apps, which offer the same feature and enable a glimpse of what is inside a Figma project or a YouTrack issue, are also being developed by the Space team.

Your Space and Slack channels should be in sync.

The next app establishes a smooth two-way connection between chosen channels, one in Space and one in Slack, to reduce context switching even further. Because it replicates messages between channels as if everyone were using the same app, including thread replies, mentions, etc., this is highly helpful for cross-platform teams or for communicating with external users.

The code and detailed description are available on GitHub, too.

Installing Space applications

You can browse the JetBrains Marketplace or install apps straight from your Space web or desktop client. Go to the Marketplace submenu in the client’s Extensions tab (located on the left-hand navigation panel).

You can click “…” directly beneath your profile photo if the tab is not accessible. Then, simply click Install on the application you require and follow the on-screen instructions to give it the necessary permissions.

We’re interested in knowing what you think of these Space apps, how you believe they may be made better, and—most importantly—what more Space apps you think your team would benefit from using. Please feel free to share your ideas!