How to access Exalate linked issue data in Jira Cloud

[Asier Vadillo]

Hi everyone,

We currently use Exalate to synchronize Jira projects, both from external instances and within our own Jira Cloud instance. We are planning to remove all external connections and replace Exalate with a native Jira Cloud solution based on Automation rules.

Right now, synchronized issues are displayed in the Exalate field inside each Jira issue. However, I’m not able to access this information programmatically. When I retrieve issue data via the Jira REST API, the Exalate field does not return the linked issue information or the URL of the synchronized issue.

One of the key requirements for this migration is not to lose the existing Exalate data. We need to extract the linked issues URL for each work item so that we can store them in a new custom field and continue using them in Jira Automations.

My questions are:

• Is there a way to access Exalate linked issue data from Jira Cloud (via REST API, Automation, or any internal field)?

• Has anyone successfully migrated Exalate links to native Jira fields or issue links?

Any guidance or best practices would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Hey @Asier Vadillo

quick disclaimer: I'm not actively using Exalate, but we develop a similar app Backbone Work Sync for syncing work item data between different Jira spaces. Thus, I have some background in the topic.

I've just searched the Exalate docs for some way of exporting the Exalate mappings, but couldn't find any info. You can check if they're saving it in issue properties (like our app does).

If that's not the case, you could modify your Exalate configuration so that you save the issue key directly into another Jira custom field, see e.g. this docs article how to do it. The main part would be such a script

issue.customFields."remote issue key".value = replica.key

Then afterwards, you'd need to trigger a sync for all the work items to save it there.

One remark from my side: I've seen multiple people building their own solution with Jira Automation which works to a certain intent. If you're mainly interested in syncing some custom fields or status, that should work quite well.

If you're also interested into syncing comments, attachments or worklogs, keep in mind that you need to maintain a mapping between them as well. If you go that deep, I'd still recommend a specialized issue sync app.

All the best for your migration!

[Asier Vadillo]

Hi @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ 

Thanks for the answer!

I’m having trouble retrieving issue properties.

I’m using the following endpoint:
https://company.atlassian.net/rest/api/2/issue/KEY-XXXX?properties=*all

However, the response shows the properties attribute as empty:

{
  "properties": {}
}

Am I doing something wrong, or does this simply mean that the issue has no properties defined?
(I’m not sure whether it’s possible for an issue to have no properties at all.)

Thanks in advance,
Asier

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Hey @Asier Vadillo

you have a slight mistake in your endpoint. The correct url looks like this:
https://ecosystem.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/issue/FRGE-1801/properties

This should return something like this. If you follow the self link, you should get to the actual property.

{
  "keys": [
    {
      "key": "jira.issue.classification",
      "self": "https://ecosystem.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/issue/659664/properties/jira.issue.classification"
    }
  ]
}

See also the documentation about getting issue property keys.

[Asier Vadillo]

Hey @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ ,

I was using a different endpoint right, the new endpoint to get the new properties gives me no results:

{

"keys": []

}

I guess Exalate does not use properties, or could it be that I (Site admin) does not have access to the properties? Just wondering

Thanks a lot!

Asier

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

No, you should have all the permissions you need.

@Dhiren Notani_Exalate_ @Syed Majid Hassan -Exalate- or @Javier Pozuelo -Exalate- - can one of you provide some help?