Calling the Jira server search API with Postman returns data, but I get a 400 error through my API

Justin Ledoux

For some reason, I am able to call the Jira Server search API and get data back using Postman, but that exact same call on my Express API returns the following error:

400 - {"errorMessages":["The value 'RCA' does not exist for the field 'project'."],"errors":{}}

RCA does in fact exist and again, it works with Postman.

In both cases, I send a POST with the following JSON payload:

{ jql: 'project = RCA' }

I'm also passing the JSESSIONID header with the token returned by the auth API.

So I'm at a loss here... I have no idea why one it working and the other isn't. 

Justin Ledoux

The Jira Server API documentation currently suggests using request headers or Oauth tokens to maintain a session. But that is completely misleading and wrong.

The API requires the presence of a JSESSIONID cookie with the session token that is returned by the API.

Here is an example of my working code:

const request = require('request-promise-native');

exports.syncIssues = (req, res) => {
  // Create a cookie jar using request.jar API
  const jar = request.jar();

  // I call the session API and store the returned object
  // on the browser side cookies (jira-login). In every single
  // other calls, I parse that cookie to include it in a cookie
  // jar inside the request options.
  const jiraCookie = JSON.parse(cookies['jira-login']).value;

  // I create the cookie using the request.cookie API
  const cookie = request.cookie(`JSESSIONID=${jiraCookie}`);
  const url = 'https://<jira endpoint here>';

  // I set the cookie in the cookie jar
  jar.setCookie(cookie, url);

  const options = {
    method: 'POST',
    uri: 'https://<jira endpoint here>/rest/api/2/search',
    body: {
      jql: 'updated <= now()',
      startAt: 0,
      maxResults: 1,
    },
    json: true,

    // Add the jar to the request options.
    jar,
  };

  request(options)
    .then((body) => {
      res.json(body);
    })
    .catch((err) => {
      res.status(err.statusCode).json(err);
    });
};