How to Integrate Jira with Virtuoso to create and manage Jira tickets from Virtuoso

Article Overview:

This article will cover how you can achieve the following:

How do we integrate Jira with Virtuoso to manage issue tracking effectively.

Problem Statement:

When managing test automation in Virtuoso, you may need to streamline issue tracking and reporting by integrating with Jira. Without this integration, tracking defects, associating them with specific execution steps, and managing their status can become manual and time-consuming. This article addresses how to efficiently integrate Jira with Virtuoso, enabling you to automate ticket creation, updates, and management directly within Virtuoso, thus improving workflow and project visibility.

Solution:

Below are the steps to perform integration between Virtuoso and achieve the following:

1. Create Jira tickets on execution steps/journeys.
2. Assign already created Jira tickets to execution steps/journeys.
3. Specify labels on tickets.
4. Close Jira tickets.
5. Unlink Jira tickets.
6. Inform Jira ticket changes for updates in Virtuoso.
7. Provide ticket summaries across projects and goals.

To perform the Jira integration, please ensure the following prerequisites.

Prerequisites:

Before setting up the Jira-Virtuoso integration, ensure you have the following:

1. Jira Instance
   • Jira Cloud (recommended) or Data Center/Server instance.
2. Dedicated User in Virtuoso
   • Create a dedicated app user in Virtuoso with write access to the projects to be tracked.
3. Dedicated User in Jira
   • Create a dedicated user in Jira with administrative privileges on the projects you wish to integrate. Administrative access is necessary for setting up webhooks to ensure updates between Jira and Virtuoso.

Connecting Virtuoso to Your Jira Instance

• For the Jira Cloud Instance

  • URL: Your Jira instance URL.
  • Email: The email associated with the Jira account.
  • API Token: An API token from the Jira account.
  • Instance Type: Set to CLOUD.

Generate an API token using the Manage API tokens for your Atlassian account guide.

• For Jira Data Center/Server Instance
  • URL: Your Jira instance URL.
  • Email: The email associated with the Jira account.
  • Personal Access Token: A personal access token from the Jira account.
  • Instance Type: Set to SERVER.

Generate a personal access token using the Using personal access tokens guide.

Supported Versions: Virtuoso officially supports Jira Data Center/Server version 8.20.15 and higher.

JIRA Application Setup in Virtuoso:

To install the Jira Virtuoso App, follow the below steps.

1. Sign in to Virtuoso using your credentials.
2. Go to the Organization dashboard and click on the “Apps” tab.
   
3. Click on “Jira Software - Project and issue Tracking” and Click on the install app button.
   

    4. Based on the Jira Instance, fill in the required fields in the Configuration section
        and click on Save Configuration.

Configuration Steps

For the Jira Cloud Instance

1. Enter your Jira instance URL.
2. Enter the Jira user email.
3. Enter the Jira API token.
4. Set the Jira Instance Type to “CLOUD”.
5. Specify a label for issues created from Virtuoso.(Optional)

For Jira Data Center/Server Instance

1. Enter your Jira instance URL.
2. Enter the Jira user email.
3. Enter the personal access token.
4. Set the Jira Instance Type to “SERVER”.
5. Specify a label for issues created from Virtuoso. (Optional)

Create Jira tickets on execution steps/journeys:

1. Go to “Project Activities” and Open an execution. 
2. Select the “step”, on the left side panel 
3. Click on the “Tickets” from the Step editor tab.
4. Click on the “Create Ticket” Button.

5. Fill out the form with the following fields:
   a. Jira project: this field lists all Jira projects available, filtered by user input;
   b. Issue type: this field lists all the supported issue types;
   c. Title: This field accepts the summary of the issue to be created;
   d. Description: optional, this field accepts a description of the issue to be created and is prefilled with a default description with several details about the execution.

6. Click on Create Ticket. A ticket will be created, and a "Task" will appear in the Jira project.

Link tickets to Jira in Virtuoso.

Similar to creating a ticket, you can assign existing external tickets (e.g., Jira issues) to Virtuoso execution results through the tickets tab in the Execution view.

1. Go to the required execution and click on the “Ticket” Tab.
2. Click on “Assign ticket”.

3. Fill the form details and click on “Assign ticket”.

Close tickets:

Tickets can be closed in three ways:

1. When the ticket achieves a final status in the external provider (e.g., marked as "Done" in Jira).
2. When the ticket is manually unlinked in Virtuoso.
3. When the ticket is archived in Virtuoso.

Note: If a ticket is unlinked or archived, it will stop receiving and sending updates to its external provider. 

To see the closed tickets, click on the "Closed" tab in the tickets list.

Unlink ticket:

1. Go to the Ticket tab.
2. Click on More Options for the required ticket.
3. Click on Unlink Ticket.

4. Click on Yes, Unlink. Unlinked tickets are shown in the closed tickets list and will have a    "broken link" icon next to the ticket's title.

5. Unlinked tickets are shown in the closed tickets list, and will have a "broken link" icon next to the ticket's title.

Specify labels on tickets:
To add a label to tickets, specify the label in the App's Configuration section. This allows labels to be added automatically when creating a ticket from Virtuoso.

Provide ticket summaries across projects and goals:

1. Go to the “Project Dashboard”.
2. Click on the “Ticket” tab. Active and closed tickets for the entire project will be displayed.