Integrating with Jira

This article covers:

• Enabling the Jira integration
• Connecting a Jira integration with BasicOps
• Configuring your project connection
• Import Jira issues into BasicOps
• Push BasicOps task to Jira
• Connected Jira issues and BasicOps tasks

Enabling the Jira integration

In order to add Jira to your workspace, you must be on a Professional or Enterprise plan. In addition, only the workspace admin will be able to add the integration.  

1. Click Admin on the left sidebar.
2. Click Integrations.
3. Find the Jira Cloud card and click Add.

Once added, Jira will show up under project integrations. See the steps below to learn how to connect a Jira project to a BasicOps project.

Connecting a Jira project to a BasicOps project

Once Jira is enabled for your workspace, you can start connecting existing Jira projects to your BasicOps projects.  

1. Go to a project 
2. Click the action button (3 dots next to the project title)
3. Click Integrations from the dropdown.
4. Select the Jira tab.

The first time you want to connect a Jira project to a BasicOps project, you have to authorize access to Jira from BasicOps. Click Connect Jira Admin Account to authorize the Jira integration.

When you connect BasicOps to Jira Cloud you need to connect to a Jira Cloud account that has administrator rights. This is necessary so that BasicOps can be informed whenever there are changes in Jira that need to be copied to BasicOps, e.g. change to the status of a Jira issue or a comment posted in a Jira issue.

The Jira administrator user is used for all communication from BasicOps to Jira. For example, a comment posted in BasicOps will be posted in Jira using this Jira account, but the message does indicate which Basicops user posted the comment.

We recommend that you use a dedicated Jira Cloud user to connect BasicOps to Jira. If possible, name the account ‘BasicOps’ so that it is clear to users that a message originates from a BasicOps user.

The following example shows how a comment is presented in Jira after being posted via BasicOps. In this example we have named the administrator account BasicOps, and we have used the BasicOps icon as the user avatar.

If you want to use the BasicOps icon, you can get it here. Right-click on the icon and select ‘Save Image As...’ to copy it to your computer.

 

Once you’ve connected your account you can connect your BasicOps project to one or more Jira projects.  Click the Add Jira project link to connect to a Jira project. 

In the Integrations dialog you can disconnect your Jira project from your BasicOps project by clicking the Disconnect link. This will also disconnect all connected Jira issues and BasicOps tasks in this project.

If you click the Disconnect Account link, you will remove the authorization between BasicOps and your Jira account. This will also disconnect all your BasicOps projects from your Jira projects.

Configuring your project connection

After you’ve selected your project you will see a Configure button appear on the Integrations screen.

Before you can use your project connection, you will need to configure it so that BasicOps knows how to map fields between Jira and BasicOps. To configure your project connection, click the Configure button.  

Click on the Add Mapping link to add a mapping for one of the Jira issue types available in the selected Jira project. You may choose to map all or only some of the Jira issue types. Later, when you import Jira issues into BasicOps or push a BasicOps task to Jira, only the mapped issue types will be available.

Once you select one of the Jira issue types you’ll see a default mapping of some of the Jira fields. You may change the mapping by selecting different BasicOps fields in the right column. If you want to remove any of the field mappings, hover over the field mapping and click the trash can icon. Add more field mappings by clicking the Add Field link.

If you select a field with choices, e.g. the Jira status field, you’ll also have to provide mappings of the field values. In the following example, the Jira status field is mapped to the BasicOps custom field name Jira Status.

Note that a warning icon is displayed next to fields and status options that are unresolved. The Save button is inactive until all options have been resolved.

Import Jira issues into BasicOps

You can import Jira issues into BasicOps, where they will be represented as tasks, by clicking the Import button in the project configuration dialog.

You have the option to enter a JQL query (Use advanced search with Jira Query Language (JQL) | Jira Service Management Cloud | Atlassian Support) to select only a subset of the issues in the connected Jira project. If you leave the field blank, we’ll import all the issues in the project for which you have defined a mapping - Configuring your project connection. Once the Jira issues are imported, they are connected to the created BasicOps tasks; see Connected Jira issues and BasicOps tasks.

In addition to the mapped fields set up in Configuring your project connection, any comments, including attachments, will be imported into the BasicOps tasks, enhancing the collaboration between the teams using BasicOps and Jira.

Note that if you import multiple times, we will import only issues that are not already connected to BasicOps tasks.

Push BasicOps task to Jira

When you’ve connected a BasicOps project to a Jira project, you can push individual BasicOps tasks to Jira. In the task detail view, click the menu icon (the three dots) and select Push to Jira. If you’ve mapped more than one Jira issue type, we’ll prompt you for the one you want to push the task to. We’ll use the mapping you’ve set up to populate the Jira issue Configuring your project connection. In addition, any comments in the BasicOps task will be pushed to the Jira issue, enhancing the collaboration between the teams using BasicOps and Jira.

Once the task has been pushed to Jira, the BasicOps task is connected to the created Jira issue; see Connected Jira issues and BasicOps tasks.

Connected Jira issues and BasicOps tasks

Once Jira issues are imported into BasicOps, or BasicOps tasks are pushed into Jira, the BasicOps tasks and Jira issues are connected. You’ll see links to the Jira issues in the task detail view as shown above, as well as in list and board view. After that, any change you make in the Jira issues are immediately reflected in the connected BasicOps tasks as long as the changes are in mapped fields;  see Configuring your project connection.

In addition, any comments and replies in the Jira issue or the BasicOps task are immediately available in the connected BasicOps task or Jira issue. This includes attachments included in the comments or replies. Also, edits to the comments or replies are immediately available. This makes it easy to communicate and collaborate between a BasicOps team and a Jira team.

Unfortunately, Jira’s API currently does not support reactions to comments and replies, so it’s important not to rely on reactions to communicate decisions between the teams. Instead, you should use replies or comments.