How to integrate external app into jira and extract the information to Jira from the tool integrated

[Vishnuvardhan Reddy]

To integrate external app to Jira and extract some information to Jira and perform some task to automate the process.

Can we achieve this by Webbooks or do we have any other way to do it? 

[Syed Majid Hassan -Exalate-]

Hi @Vishnuvardhan Reddy

Yes you should be able to connect external tools to Jira and fetch data from them. I am a pre-sales engineer @ Exalate and we specialize in 2-way integration of Jira with several other work systems. Please review our product or simply book a demo with us to see if we are a good fit. 

Thanks

Syed

[Tom Lister]

Hi @Vishnuvardhan Reddy 

The answer is very dependent on the exact external tool you are using. Does it have features that allow import and export of data.

Jira will allow any operation you would expect to perform via the UI to be carried out using the REST API. In addition you have automation and web hooks. Plus plugin option like Scriptrunner and Exalate.

I have performed integrations via scripted work-flow actions.

What would trigger the integration. On the Jira side you have events and schedules. What is on the other app.

What is the other app? Members may have experience with it.

Is it ongoing near real-time integration or a migration of data?

Tom

[Cathy Soller]

I agree with @Tom Lister.  To add to it, is this an off the shelf app that lives somewhere in the SDLC?  There are many tools to get this done, my favorite being Tasktop Integration Hub.  It uses the APIs of over 50 different specialized tools to allow integrations between them all.

[Diana_Architect_ZigiWave]

Hi, @Vishnuvardhan Reddy 

Diana from ZigiWave here. On your question - yes you can. You can simplify the integration process by using a no-code integration platform like ZigOps. It allows you to connect various external tools to Jira, collect and transfer data from and between them in a matter of minutes. Our tool reads the schema dynamically and can transfer any fields. It connects systems bi-directionally and can be customized to fit your needs. 

If you want to see how it works in action or have a specific use case you want to review, please, feel free to book a technical demo.

[Daniel Szewczyk]

I highly recommend External Data for Jira fields which provides means to connect custom fields (but not only) to some external data sources like: URL/REST, Databases, Salesforce, Local Jira (e.g. pull data from Jira API like list of projects etc.), Files.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1219994/external-data-for-jira-fields?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

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Alternative approach without a plugin is to create your own script and place it in a AWS Lambda or GCP Cloud Function and then use two Jira Automation Rules to call it and receive data back.

First, you can have Automation Rule which would send data via Webhook to the Lambda/ script and which would be triggered on some events in Jira (field/ status change etc.).

And then second rule which would have Incoming Webhook trigger to feed the data back into Jira ticket (or project, user properties).

You can even send the "return" address in Rule #1 as a parameter if you want to have multiple "Incoming" rules which will perform different actions depending on the case.

Make sure to properly secure both Lambda and the rule with Incoming Webhook in Jira as the webhooks are exposed.

Hope it helps!

Daniel

[Rina Nir]

@Vishnuvardhan Reddy I am not sure what is the use case for data extraction, but you might want to look at this App: 

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1225123/jira-snapshots-time-stamped-exports-into-confluence?tab=overview&hosting=cloud

It extracts static Jira data into Confluence and provides many options in regards to what to extract (including multilevel data).

Disclosure: I am the CEO of RadBee, the developers of this App/

[Sergei Gridnevskii]

You can do almost everything and even more using Jira REST API.

You can start from here:

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/intro/

[Thomas Wäspi]

hi, we did something similiar by using jira cloud's automation rules. you may have a look here for more details:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/expand-jira/automation

there are a lot of example flows in the library:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/automation-template-library

good luck and let us know if you were successful!

[Sergei Gridnevskii]

I guess he needs to post issues to Jira from his app.

[Vishnuvardhan Reddy]

Thanks for your Response Thomas, but here my question is how to integrate external tools to Jira and extract data from the tool integrated to Jira?

If you have any Idea on this let me know, that would be helpful.

[Thomas Wäspi]

ok, i thought maybe the incoming webhook module in jira automation could help:

otherwise i assume @Sergei Gridnevskii 's answer will help 👍🏻

[Tom Lister]

Something will need to trigger or schedule the data update.

If the external app has that ability, then you can leverage it to generate a Jira REST API call or call a custom Jira web hook.

If Jira has to pull data you will need to know if the other tool has an API that an app like Scriptrunner can call on demand.

Every integration I’ve worked with has been different. 
You will need to discuss specific apps to get detailed answers.