Use JIRA as workflow engine

[ridwann]

I am planning to use JIRA as workflow engine through it REST APIs. In my case, the reporter and the assignee will be defined in different module (not in JIRA). The number of accounts (reporter and assignee) in my application may reach thousands; hence, If I defined them as normal users in JIRA then it will cost me a lot of money and those users will not login or receive any kind of notifications.

How can I create a JIRA task without having the reporter and the assignee defined as normal users. off course, I will create the JIRA using the admin account and then I will change the reporter.

[Jack [AppFox]]

Hi Ridwan,

You could use Jira in this way - I would suggest using a single (non-admin) account if this is an integrated application, and then use a field other than Assignee/Reporter to store information on this (e.g. an email or ID) in a text field or store this information separately from Jira.

This will enable you to use a 10-user license for the Workflow engine ($10) and still use Jira as the workflow engine.

I would question whether this is the best approach, as you can use the underlying Java OSWorkflow implementation yourself, or numerous Workflow libraries available for different languages - but I understand Jira may offer an easy-to-use interface.

Jack

[ridwann]

Hi Jack

Thanks for your answer. You are right, but that may affect the default workflows, and I will be obliged to define new workflows.

I did not choose a workflow engine yet; I see that JIRA allows customization in both the defined fields and the workflows. And mainly because my workflow is quite simple.

[Jack [AppFox]]

Hi Ridwan,

I don't think you'll have any option but to edit the Workflow that comes with Jira, as you are using it for a purpose other than the one it was intended for.

Given this, there is a graphical drag/drop editor for the Workflow, but you will probably need a plugin like ScriptRunner for Jira or Misc. Workflow Functions to allow you to perform the actions that you want to within Jira.

It sounds to me that just using Jira as a database and then using the REST API to update the items information and workflow state is quite straightforward - it's just a matter of how you create the data without using a different user for each 'reporter'.

I would ignore the 'Reporter' functionality and manage this separately using just a couple of accounts.

If you want to get your hands more dirty, here's a useful page showing some purpose-built solutions:

https://github.com/meirwah/awesome-workflow-engines

Jack

[ridwann]

Thanks Jack