How To Guide: Integrating Jira with Kobee
Introduction
The Kobee Issue Tracking functionality provides the possibility to link issues from an external issue tracking system to an Kobee Level Request.
Issues can get linked to a Level Request in the following ways:
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via an automatic search for handled issues in the comments provided by the developers when committing or checking in sources into the VCR. This automatic search is done in a separate phase during the handling of a Build Level Request, and is based on a regular expression describing the issue tracking number format. Currently, this is only supported for Subversion, Git, Team Foundation and CVS Version Control Repositories.
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via the enumeration of solved issues when delivering to Test/Production levels enabling easy generation of Release Notes.
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via manual addition of an issue to a successful Level Request, using the GUI widgets on the Level Request Detail screen.
You can only click through from a linked issue in Kobee to the issue in the third-party Issue Tracking tool if the tool offers a web interface. |
On top of this basic Issue Tracking functionality, Kobee offers a more advanced integration for Atlassian Jira, Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS), MicroFocus ALM and GitHub with following additional functionality:
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possibility to test the connection with the Issue Tracking system at the moment you create or edit an Issue Tracking System definition
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automatic synchronization of handled issues with the Issue Tracking system: Kobee retrieves additional information, such as a short description, the owner, the priority, … from the corresponding Jira Issue, TFS Work Item, MF ALM Defect or GitHub Issue. This information is synchronized each time the build result evolves in the Kobee lifecycle.
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manual synchronization of issues linked to a Level Request on the Issues tab page of the Level Request Detail screen.
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option to automatically add a comment to the issue/defect/artifact in Jira/TFS/MF ALM/GitHub after a successful Level Request. This comment will contain a link to the Kobee Level Request.
In this document we will focus on how to set up the Jira integration of Kobee. First, we will describe how to set up Jira so that Kobee can connect to it. Next, we will explain how to create an Issue Tracking System in Kobee that represents your Jira system. After that, we will describe the steps needed to enable Jira integration in an Kobee Project. Finally, we will give some detailed background information about Kobee’s integration with Issue Tracking Systems.
Jira Configuration and Prerequisites
Enable remote API calls
Kobee uses REST to connect to Jira.
For the integration to work, remote API calls must be enabled. Verify this as follows:
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Log on to Jira as an administrator.
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Navigate to Administration > General Configuration and make sure that Accept remote API calls has been set to ON.
Generate an API Token
Jira Cloud requires an API token to authenticate with the Jira REST API. To generate this token for Jira Cloud:
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Go to https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens.
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Log in as the user you want to use to authenticate with Jira Cloud.
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Click "Create API token".
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Enter a memorable name and click create.
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Copy this token somewhere secure. You will need it later.
Verify Jira’s Context in Tomcat
In JIRA_HOME/conf/server.xml
, it is possible to specify the context path of the Jira web-application.
For example:
<Context docBase="${catalina.home}/atlassian-jira" path="/jira" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true">
Here, the context path is "/jira"
.
You should be aware that this setting influences the values for the "URL" field and the "jiraRESTUrl" property of an Kobee Issue Tracking System. For example, if you set path="/jira", then the "URL" field will look like "http(s)://<host>:<port>/jira/browse/${issueId}". |
Creating an Issue Tracking System in Kobee
You must create an Issue Tracking System in Kobee that represents your Jira system before you can assign and use it in an Kobee Project.
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Log on as an Kobee Administrator, and select Global Administration > Issue Tracking > Create Issue Tracking System.
The Create Issue Tracking System screen is displayed:
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Fill out the fields in the Create Issue Tracking System panel. Fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.
Field Description Name
The name of the Issue Tracking System, like "Jira"
Plugin Factory Class
The fully qualified name of the Java Class that can produce Kobee Issue Tracking System Plugin implementations.
You can select a value from the list or type in your own class name (Mapping a Jira System to an Kobee Issue Tracking System).
For Jira, select "be.ikan.scm4all.plugin.issuetracking.jira.JiraITSPluginFactory"
Description
A meaningful description, like "Jira Issue Tracking System on server X"
URL
The direct URL to the details of 1 Issue. In the URL, the Key of the Issue is represented by the variable ${issueId}.
The value depends on settings in your Jira system and also on the strategy that you choose to map a Jira system to an Kobee Issue Tracking System (Mapping a Jira System to an Kobee Issue Tracking System).
Here are some example values:
http(s)://<host>:<port>/jira/browse/${issueId}
http(s)://<host>:<port>/browse/${issueId}
http(s)://<host>:<port>/browse/PROJECTKEY-${issueId}
User
The Jira user that Kobee will use to connect to Jira
Password
The password of the Jira user that Kobee will use to connect to Jira
Issue Pattern and Issue ID Pattern
Both fields should contain a regular expression that Kobee uses to find Issue keys in the VCR commit messages. Issue Pattern is the pattern to find a reference to an Issue in the commit text, Issue ID Pattern is the pattern to find the actual Issue ID (or key) inside the matched Issue reference. Usually, the distinction between the patterns is not made and both have the same value.
Some examples:
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Both patterns set to
[0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z]*-[0-9]+
(Recommended): an Issue reference is represented as 2 or more capital letters or digits, followed by a dash (-), followed by 1 or more letters. The ID (or key) of an Issue is the whole of this reference. Example matches:ABC-123, AD-1, PROJECT1-1452
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Both patterns set to
PROJKEY-[0-9]+
: an Issue reference is represented as the StringPROJKEY
, followed by a dash (-), followed by 1 or more letters. The ID (or key) of an Issue is the whole of this reference. Example matches:PROJKEY-1, PROJKEY-135
. As you see, only Issues for the Jira Project "PROJKEY" are matched. -
ADVANCED: Issue Pattern set to
Issues:([0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z]*-[0-9]\+)(,[0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z]*-[0-9]+)\*
and Issue ID Pattern set to
[0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z][0-9A-Z]*-[0-9]+
: an Issue reference is represented as the String "Issues:", followed by a comma-separated list of Issue IDs.The ID of an Issue is represented as 2 or more capital letters or digits, followed by a dash (-), followed by 1 or more letters. So, given the following commit message: “I fixed the following Issues:WEB-1,WEB-2,WEB3”, the matched Issue reference is “Issues:WEB-1,WEB-2,WEB3”, and the matched IDs of the Issues are WEB-1, WEB-2, and WEB-3
Add Comments
If you set this to “Yes”, then Kobee will add a Jira comment to an Issue when it is linked to an Kobee Level Request. See later for a more detailed explanation.
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Once you have filled out the fields, click Create.
You will be redirected to the Edit page for the newly created Issue Tracking System, and a warning will be displayed at the top of the page.
This warning is displayed, because the Jira Issue Tracking System plugin has a property that needs to be set: jiraRESTUrl. It represents the Jira REST API URL and is needed by Kobee for its connection with Jira.
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Click the
Create link next to the jiraRESTUrl property.
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Specify the value for the REST API URL.
Valid values depend on the settings in your Jira system, and are closely related to the value of the URL field of the Issue Tracking System.
Some example values:
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http://<host>:<port>/jira/rest
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https://<host>:<port>/rest
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Click Create to confirm the creation of the Property and close the dialog.
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The warning about the missing value should now have disappeared.
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If using Jira Cloud, repeat the above process to create two additional Issue Tracking System Properties: jiraUseBasicAuth set to "true" in order to enable basic auth, as well as jiraBasicAuthToken set to the API token generated during Jira configuration.
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Test whether Kobee can connect with your Jira system by clicking the Test Connection button.
If the test is not successful, correct the errors reported in the Stack Trace field and perform the test again.
Now that we have defined a Jira Issue Tracking System, we can start using it in our Kobee Projects.
For that we need to link the Issue Tracking System to a Project.
Linking an Issue Tracking System to a Project
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Log on as an Kobee user that has administrator access to the Project to be linked.
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Go to Project Administration and select the Project from the Projects Overview.
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Underneath the Project Info panel, click the Edit button.
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Select the created Issue Tracking System from the “Issue Tracking System” drop-down box and click the Save button.
Next, we need to add an "Issue Tracking Phase" to each existing Level. This is crucial, because all Issue Tracking related operations performed by Kobee are executed during this Issue Tracking Phase. If a Level has no Issue Tracking Phase, then no issues are linked to Level Requests of that Level, and no comments are added to the issues!
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For each existing Level in the Project, you must do the following:
We only need to perform this procedure for Levels created before the Project was linked to an Issue tracking System. Levels created after an Issue Tracking System has been linked will get the Issue Tracking Phase by default!
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Edit the Level, either from the Levels Overview or from the Lifecycles Overview page.
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Next, click the
Edit Phases link underneath the Phases Overview.
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Next, click the Insert Phase link.
The Insert Phase screen is displayed.
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Fill out the fields for the new Phase.
The following fields are available:
Field Meaning Phase
From the Available Phases panel, select the Level Phase to add.
Fail on Error
In this field, indicate whether the Level Request is considered failed when this Phase goes in Error.
Insert at Position
This field indicates at which position the Phase will be inserted into the Level workflow. The Phase Position is also indicated on the Phases Overview panel. It is a good practice to insert the Issue Tracking Phase before the Cleanup Work Copy Phase.
Next Phase On Error
This field indicates the next Phase to execute in case this Phase goes in Error. It is recommended to select the Cleanup Work Copy Phase.
Label
In this field you can add a Label for the Phase to be inserted.
In case you use the same Phase several times, adding a label is useful to provide additional information concerning the usage of the Phase.
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Click Insert to confirm the creation of the new Phase.
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Integrating an External Issue Tracking System
This section provides detailed information on how Kobee integrates with an external Issue Tracking system. More specifically, it describes what tasks are performed by the Kobee Issue Tracking Phase that is executed during a Level Request.
Issue Tracking Phase log
As said before, all Issue Tracking related operations are performed during the Issue Tracking Phase. The logs produced by these operations can be consulted in the Kobee user interface, on the Phase Logs tab of the Level Request Detail page:
![fig5 1](_images/fig5-1.png)
The "Message" field contains the log messages of the operations performed by the Issue Tracking Phase.
Build Level Requests
A Build Level Request is a Level Request of a Build Level. A Build Level Request will typically retrieve the latest source code from the VCR (Version Control Repository), build it, and then label it in the VCR for later reference.
The Issue Tracking Phase in a Build Level Request performs the following operations:
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parse the VCR commit messages and find references to issues,
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link the identified issues to the Level Request,
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synchronize the data of the linked issues with the most recent information present in Jira
First, the messages are retrieved from commits performed since the latest successful Level Request. In these messages, Issue IDs (Keys) are searched for using the patterns defined in the Issue Tracking System (Issue Pattern and Issue ID Pattern fields). The pattern-matching is case-insensitive.
From the found issues, duplicates are removed, and they are linked with the current Level Request.
Finally, Kobee tries to match the issue in the Jira repository. If the issue is found, the description, status, owner, owner and priority is retrieved from Jira, and this information is stored in the Kobee representation of the Issue.
Deliver, Re-deliver and Rollback Level Requests
When you create a Level Request for a Test or Production Level, in Kobee terminology that means you “Deliver” to that Test or Production Level. The “Current Active Build” of a Level is the last successfully delivered Build on that Level.
We speak of a “Deliver Level Request” when you Deliver a Build with a build number that is higher than the Current Active Build on that Level.
We speak of a “Re-deliver Level Request” when you Deliver a Build with a build number that is the same than the Current Active Build on that Level.
We speak of a “Rollback Level Request” when you Deliver a Build with a build number that is lower than the Current Active Build on that Level.
The Issue Tracking Phase in a Deliver Level Request performs the following operations:
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Find the Issues that were linked to Build Level Requests executed since the last successful Deliver Level Request
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Link the Issues from all these Build Level Request to the current Deliver Level Request, eliminating duplicates
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synchronize the data of the linked issues with the most recent information present in Jira
For a Re-deliver or a Rollback Level Request there always exists a previous Deliver Level Request. Instead of enumerating through all Build Level Requests, the Issues are copied from the previous Deliver Level Request, and finally their data synchronized with the most recent information present in Jira.
It is important to understand that in Deliver, Re-deliver and Rollback Level Requests issues are always linked by “copying” them from other Level Requests, either from Build Level Requests or other Deliver Level Requests. Issues are never parsed from the commit messages when running Deliver, Re-deliver or Rollback Level Requests!
An example may help to clarify things.
Suppose the following set of chronological Level Requests (LR):
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Build LR producing Build 1: issue1 is parsed from the VCR comments
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Build LR producing Build 2: issue 2 is parsed from the VCR comments
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Deliver LR, delivering Build 2: issue1 and issue2 are linked (from the 2 previous Build Level Requests)
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Build LR producing Build 3: issue 3 is parsed from the VCR comments
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Build LR producing Build 4: issue 4 is parsed from the VCR comments
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Deliver LR, delivering Build 4: issue3 and issue4 are linked (from the 2 previous Build Level Requests)
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Re-Deliver LR (re-delivers Build 4): issue3 and issue4 are linked (copied from the Deliver Level Request that delivered Build 4)
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Rollback LR rolls back to Build 2: issue1 and issue2 are linked (copied from the Deliver Level Request that delivered Build 2)
Add Comments
Apart from retrieving information from Jira and linking it in Kobee, information about Kobee Level Requests is also sent to Jira, in the form of comments to Jira Issues. Whether comments are added or not is controlled by the "Add Comments" field of the Kobee Issue Tracking System.
The issue comments are currently not configurable, and look generally like this:
![fig5 4 2015](_images/fig5-4_2015.png)
As you can see, the Issue comment contains a direct link to the related Kobee Level Request, making it easy for users to see the details of a Build that addresses the Issue.
Manual Editing and Synchronization of Issues
Automatic linking and synchronization of Issues is only as good as the quality of the matching patterns and the quality of the commit messages. Sometimes issue references are forgotten in commit messages, not all issue IDs parsed from the messages, or invalid issue IDs parsed (false positives). In these cases it may be needed to manually add, edit, delete and/or synchronize Issues.
Luckily, all these functions are available in the Kobee user interface, on the Issues tab page of the Level Request Detail page.
![fig5 5](_images/fig5-5.png)
For more detailed information, refer to the Kobee User Guide.
Troubleshooting
Generally, you should use the "Test Connection" button on the “Edit Issue Tracking System” page. Examine the errors reported in the Message and Stack Trace fields, they should contain helpful information. The other problems mentioned here assume the "Test Connection" did not report any errors.
No Issues are added to the Level Request
Issues are expected to have been linked to the Level Request, but the Issues page on the Level Request Detail screen does not show them.
Possible causes:
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The Level of the Request doesn’t have the Issue Tracking Phase added. Is the Issue Tracking Phase displayed on the Phase Logs page of the Level Request Detail screen? If not, edit the phases of the Level and add the Issue Tracking Phase. Linking an Issue Tracking System to a Project
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The Issue Tracking Phase failed. Check the Issue Tracking Phase log for errors.
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The Issue Tracking Phase succeeded, but no issues were parsed. Check the log, it should mention the patterns used, the VCR tags it used to search for commit messages, and the issues it detected.