DataBind Charts to Jira Service Management Data

DataBinding facilitates two-way interaction with data through UI controls. Using the CData ADO.NET Provider for Jira Service Management streamlines the process of binding Jira Service Management data to Windows Forms and Web controls within Visual Studio. In this article, we will demonstrate using wizards to establish a binding between Jira Service Management data and a chart that dynamically updates. Additionally, the code walk-through section will guide you through the creation of a chart using just 10 lines of code.

Binding Data to a Chart

DataBinding to a Chart consists of three steps: Instantiate the control, configure the data source, and databind.

Configure the Connection and Select Database Objects

To create a chart control and establish a connection to Jira Service Management, follow the steps outlined below using the Data Source Configuration Wizard. Within the wizard, you'll have the option to choose the specific Jira Service Management entities you wish to bind to.

1. In a Windows Forms project, drag and drop a Chart control from the toolbox to the form. In the Data section of the Chart properties, select DataSource and then select Add Project Data Source from the menu. 👁 Add a data source to be bound to the chart.
   
2. In the Data Source Configuration Wizard that appears, select Database -> Dataset.
3. In the Choose Your Data Connection step, click New Connection.

4. In the Add Connection dialog, click Change to select the CData Jira Service Management Data Source.

   Below is a typical connection string:

   ApiKey=myApiKey;User=MyUser;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

   You can establish a connection to any Jira Service Desk Cloud account or Server instance.

   Connecting with a Cloud Account

   To connect to a Cloud account, you'll first need to retrieve an APIToken. To generate one, log in to your Atlassian account and navigate to API tokens > Create API token. The generated token will be displayed.

   Supply the following to connect to data:

   • User: Set this to the username of the authenticating user.
   • APIToken: Set this to the API token found previously.

   Connecting with a Service Account

   To authenticate with a service account, supply the following connection properties:

   • User: Set this to the username of the authenticating user.
   • Password: Set this to the password of the authenticating user.
   • URL: Set this to the URL associated with your JIRA Service Desk endpoint. For example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

   Note: Password has been deprecated for connecting to a Cloud Account and is now used only to connect to a Server Instance.

   Accessing Custom Fields

   By default, the connector only surfaces system fields. To access the custom fields for Issues, set IncludeCustomFields.

   When you configure the connection, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   👁 Connection properties for the selected data source in the Add Connection dialog. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
5. Choose the database objects you want to work with. This example uses the Requests table. 👁 Select database objects. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

DataBind

After adding the data source and selecting database objects, you can bind the objects to the chart. This example assigns the x-axis to RequestId and the y-axis to ReporterName.

1. In the Chart properties, click the button in the Series property to open the Series Collection Editor.
2. In the Series properties, select the columns you want for the x- and y-axes: Select columns from the menu in the XValueMember and YValueMember properties.

The chart is now databound to the Jira Service Management data. Run the chart to display the current data. 👁 The chart, filled with data at run time.

Code Walk-through

DataBinding to Jira Service Management data requires only a few lines of code and can be completed in three easy steps.

1. Connect to Jira Service Management.
2. Create the JiraServiceDeskDataAdapter to execute the query and create a DataSet to be filled with its results.
3. DataBind the result set to the chart.

Below is the complete code:

JiraServiceDeskConnection conn = new JiraServiceDeskConnection("ApiKey=myApiKey;User=MyUser;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
JiraServiceDeskCommand comm = new JiraServiceDeskCommand("SELECT RequestId, ReporterName FROM Requests WHERE CurrentStatus = 'Open'", conn);
JiraServiceDeskDataAdapter da = new JiraServiceDeskDataAdapter(comm);
DataSet dataset = new DataSet();
da.Fill(dataset);

chart1.DataSource = dataset; 
chart1.Series[0].XValueMember = "RequestId";
chart1.Series[0].YValueMembers = "ReporterName";
// Insert code for additional chart formatting here.
chart1.DataBind();