Is there a way to use the JIRA API to retrieve Release Notes of a fixVersion?

[Shawn Bates]

It looks like the UI html syntax has changed.  Now I'm unable to use a workaround to retrieve release notes.  Is it possible use the JIRA API to get the release notes from fix version .

[Darryl Lee · Accepted solution]

Oooh, this feature request has been around for a long time:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-3855
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-3855

What was your workaround? 

So the page is easy(ish) to get to:

https://YOURSITE.atlassian.net/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=11333&version=10333

You can certainly find the Project ID and Version via the API: https://nortekcontrol.atlassian.net/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=11317&version=10529

But the really tricky part is getting that nicely formatted HTML out of Jira...

Back in 2014, Henri used sed to extract them:

http://blog.tremblay.pro/2014/10/extract-release-notes-from-jira.html

But man, in 2021, everything's Javascript. I don't see the rendered HTML anywhere when I did `acli --action renderrequest` (saves me having to do auth in curl).

I wonder if Selenium or the like could simulate loading that page and clicking on "Copy to clipboard":

Or, building it all up by hand from REST queries, as suggested here:
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Answers-Developer-Questions/How-do-I-access-Release-Notes-HTML-data-VIA-JIRA-API/qaq-p/573074#M110730

Or maybe doing it with Confluence?
https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/blog/2015/10/how-to-document-releases-and-share-release-notes

Sorry I couldn't find a better answer. If you can share your workaround, maybe we could build on that.

[Darryl Lee]

Oh, and always... there's an app for that. ;-}

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1215431/automated-release-notes-for-jira

[Shawn Bates]

I was using Henri's approach as the workaround.

http://blog.tremblay.pro/2014/10/extract-release-notes-from-jira.html

[Vincent Richard]

Hi, I'm not an expert in Python but still, I ended up writing a little script doing the job. It takes three parameters :

1 - A username

2 - A password

3 - A part of the version name (I use it with X.Y.Z knowing that I don't have two version names containing the same version numbers)

#!/bin/python3

import sys, requests, json

def getProjectVersionFromNamePart(versionNumber):
    response = requests.get(jiraBaseUrl + 'rest/api/2/project/' + project + '/versions', auth=auth)
    versions = response.json()

    for version in versions:
        if (versionNumber in version['name']):
            return version
    return None

def getProjectIssuesFromVersion(projectVersion):
    jql = 'project = ' + project + ' AND fixVersion = "' + projectVersion['name'] + '" AND resolution IS NOT EMPTY ORDER BY key'
    params = {'projectId':projectVersion['projectId'], 'maxResults':1000, 'jql':jql}
    response = requests.get(jiraBaseUrl + '/rest/api/2/search', auth=auth, params=params)
    return response.json()

def printIssue(issue):
    print('<li>[<a href=\'' + jiraBaseUrl + '/browse/' + issue['key'] + '\'>' + issue['key'] + '</a>] - ' + issue['fields']['summary'] + '</li>')

def collectIssueTypeNames(issues):
    issueTypeNames = []
    for issue in issues:
        typeName = issue['fields']['issuetype']['name']
        if typeName not in issueTypeNames:
            issueTypeNames.append(typeName)
    issueTypeNames.sort()
    return issueTypeNames

def printReleaseNotes(projectVersion, projectIssues):
    print('<h2>' + projectVersion['name'] + '</h2>')
    print(projectIssues['total'], 'issues.')
    
    issueTypeNames = collectIssueTypeNames(projectIssues['issues'])
    for issueTypeName in issueTypeNames:
        print('')
        print('<h4>' + issueTypeName + '</h4>')
        print('<ul>')
        for issue in projectIssues['issues']:
            if issue['fields']['issuetype']['name'] == issueTypeName:
                printIssue(issue)
        print('</ul>')

project = 'YOURPROJECT'
jiraBaseUrl = 'https://your.jira.server.org/'

# auth=(user, password)
auth=(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])

projectVersion = getProjectVersionFromNamePart(sys.argv[3])
# print(json.dumps(projectVersion, indent=2))

projectIssues = getProjectIssuesFromVersion(projectVersion)
# print(json.dumps(projectIssues, indent=2))

printReleaseNotes(projectVersion, projectIssues)

Hope this can help others ;)

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Shawn Bates 

Do you know the version ID?  If so, you could just do a JQL search on fixVersion=myID with

https://docs.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/api/REST/1000.824.0/#api/2/search

If you know more about the version, you could use the JQL functions in the query, such as

project = myProject AND fixVersion = latestReleasedVersion()

or

project = myProject AND fixVersion = earliestUnreleasedVersion()

Best regards,

Bill

[Shawn Bates]

Hi Bill, I'm trying to use the curl command. Would you have an example?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi Shawn,

Please look here for an example of calling the REST API with curl. This example is for JSM and the ideas work for Jira Cloud.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management/REST-API-curl-example/qaq-p/1486907