Integrate Live Jira Service Management Data into Custom Business Apps Built in Power Apps

Power Apps is a service for building and using custom business apps that connect to your data and work across the web and mobile — without the time and expense of custom software development. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Jira Service Management data from the apps you build using Power Apps. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Apps and build an app based on live Jira Service Management data.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Jira Service Management, allowing you to easily integrate with live Jira Service Management data in Power Apps — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Apps and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Jira Service Management, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Jira Service Management data.

Configure Jira Service Management Connectivity for Power Apps

Connectivity to Jira Service Management from Power Apps is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Jira Service Management data from Power Apps, we start by creating and configuring a Jira Service Management connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Jira Service Management" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Jira Service Management.

   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.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Jira Service Management Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Jira Service Management data from Power Apps.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate Jira Service Management data into your Power Apps, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Dataverse -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server 👁 Creating a new SQL Server Connection
   
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the Jira Service Management connection (e.g. JiraServiceDesk1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
     

Building a Data-Centric App for Jira Service Management Data

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live Jira Service Management data into the apps you build in Power Apps.

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Create and select "SQL" 👁 Creating a new app from data
   
3. Select the SQL Server connection you created
4. Search for or choose a table to work with
5. Click Connect 👁 Connecting to Jira Service Management data
   
6. Customize the newly created app just like you would any other, including changing the layout and setting the fields exposed in BrowseScreen, DetailScreen, and EditScreen 👁 Customizing the Jira Service Management data app
   

At this point, you have an app with read and write access to live Jira Service Management data that you can save and publish for use within your organization.

SQL Access to Jira Service Management Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Jira Service Management data from Microsoft Power Apps. You can create more connections and apps to drive business — all without replicating Jira Service Management data.

To get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.