QC to JIRA Integration - possible to create shell account for Reporter that doesn't exist in JIRA

Question

For ALM QC to JIRA Integration/synchronisation, when creating an issue is it possible to create a shell account for the 'Reporter' field for a user that exists in Quality Center but does not exist in JIRA?  The same way a shell account is created for a service desk customer that raises a support request in the customer portal via email and does not have an existing JIRA user id.

If not possible and error given will be reporter:"The reporter specified is not a user." is there any workaround to create the user first with data object let apiPostData... then continue to create the issue once the user has been created?

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

I recommend that you set up a user account to be used exclusively for this integration, and have your 3rd Party use the credentials for that special user/service account. Be advised, though, that special user/service account would need to have access to all the projects where issues need to be created, and the permissions for Browse Projects, Create Issues, etc. This might be a security risk, depending on how you will be managing the credentials. Of course, hard coding the credentials into the integration solution is not secure, so you would need to carefully consider how you can secure the credentials and also make them available to the integration.

A variation on the above solution would be to permit the integration to create issues in only one project, and then use Automation to move the issues to their intended destination project.

Kyle Robinson_rlvopv · Answer

Thanks @Trudy P Claspill, I figured this was the case.  We are trying to handle a scenario where the reporter has a user id in QC but not in JIRA.

We have a third party company building a solution using API's. Due to security restrictions an email handler is not an option nor are any of the existing plug ins.  Please let me know if there are any options for this.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Kyle Robinson

Welcome to the community.

When talking about Service Desk, what is being created for the Reporter is a customer account which is different from other user accounts. Customers have very limited access, only to Service Desk type projects. If you are trying to create issues in a Software project, then the Reporter has to be set to a valid user that is licensed for JIRA Software and has permission to create issues in the target project.

When working with Software projects, it is possible to set up an email handler in JIRA that would allow for creating issues from email, and to configure it to use a known valid user account as the Reporter by default.

What are you using to support the integration between JIRA and ALM QC? Is it a third party application or something developed in house? Without that information it is hard to provide any meaningful advice to you.