How do I create dynamic drop-downs whose values pull from from an external database?

Question

1. We have four different issue types

2. Depending on which issue type is selected, the dropdowns available for the changes

3. Depending on the section fo the first drop down, the options in the subsequent drop downs changes

4. The options in the subsequent dropdowns pull need to pull from an external database, as the external database has high velocity of changes in a day.

5. the external DB is MySQL hosted in AWS cloud

Julie d_Antin _Elements_ · Answer

Hi @Subbu Ravi !

Are you using Jira Software Cloud or Jira Service Management Cloud?

If you're using Jira Service Management, our app Elements Connect for Jira Cloud might be exactly what you need. It’s designed to seamlessly integrate external data sources (like SQL databases, REST APIs, and more) into Jira custom fields.

With Elements Connect, you can:

* Dynamically populate custom fields with data from external sources.
* Help customers make accurate choices using autocomplete fields.
* Display contextual information directly on request forms or Jira issues.

Here’s a community article explaining how it works in detail—feel free to check it out!

The app is fully released and regularly updated with new features to help teams streamline their workflows. If you have any questions or need help setting it up, let us know. We’re here to help!

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Julie

Petter Gonçalves · Answer

Hello @Subbu Ravi

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Unfortunately, Jira Cloud application does not have a dynamic Custom field in which values could be based in an External Database. In fact, this feature was already requested before, however, due to possible performance issues and the low number of requests, we decided not to pursue it:

Custom SQL field

That being said, there are some third-party apps in Atlassian Marketplace that provide you with this functionality. Here are some options:

Custom Fields Pro for Jira - Free App

External Data for Jira Fields

Using one of the tools above, it would be easy to define the options available based on Issue types (Using screen schemes) or in a previous field value (Using a cascading list custom field).

Let us know if you have any questions.