Synchronizing change requests with Jira issues via BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit

As an administrator, you can integrate BMC Helix ITSM with Jira to synchronize BMC Helix ITSM change requests and Jira issues.

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, along with BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit provides an out-of-the-box integration template to integrate BMC Helix ITSM and Jira. You configure the integration in BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker and deploy the integration template to your BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit environment.

The following image gives an overview of the capabilities that this integration supports:

This integration provides the following capabilities:

BMC Helix ITSM to Jira data flows

The following image gives an overview of the data flow for creating a Jira issue from a BMC Helix ITSM change request:

The following image gives an overview of the data flow for updating a Jira issue from an updated BMC Helix ITSM change request:

Jira to BMC Helix ITSM data flows

The following image gives an overview of the data flow for creating a BMC Helix ITSM change request from a Jira issue:

The following image gives an overview of the data flow for synchronizing comments from a Jira issue to a BMC Helix ITSM change request:

Before you begin

You require the following items to successfully set up and use this integration: 

Task 1: To configure the integration

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
2. On Workspace, click Multi-Cloud Broker.

3. To launch BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, click Visit Deployed Application.
   

   Tip

   You can access BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker directly by entering the URL https://hostName:portNumber/helix/index.html#/com.bmc.dsm.mcsm/login and logging in as a tenant administrator.

4. Click Settings .
5. Select Start Here > Quick Configuration Guide.
   The Quick Configuration Guide page is displayed.

6. In the Step 1: Choose configuration tab, select any of the following options and click Next:

   Important

   In Choose Configuration, Helix iPaaS (powered by Jitterbit) is selected by default. Do not change this value.
   • Under DevOps integration, select Between ITSM Change and Jira Issue.
     

   • Under DevOps Integration, select Manual Association of Jira with Change.
     
     
     

     Important

     • While adding the API to BMC Helix Innovation Studio, make sure you specify API Group Name as Jira and API Name as SearchIssues.

     • Before you add the APIs available in BMC Helix Innovation Studio make sure that you have defined the Organization, Environment, and have generated the OpenAPI document in BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit.
       
       To generate the document, see Task 6: To manually publish the OpenAPI document.

     • Make sure that you add the change request number to the corresponding Jira issue as a label. This action ensures that when you run the integration template, the system fetches the Jira issues with the required change request number. Click the Add Agile Development Tickets to Change Request link in the change request and add the Jira issue.

     • You can associate only one Jira issue with a change request.

     Perform the following steps to manually associate a Jira issue with a change request that has been created manually:

     1. To connect to BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit, perform the steps in  To connect to BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit .

     2. To add an API to BMC Helix Innovation Studio, perform the steps in To add BMC Helix iPaaS APIs to BMC Helix Innovation Studio .

7. In the Step 2: Perform configurations tab, perform the following steps:
   
   1. Add an operating organization, if you have not already done so.
   2. Add Atlassian as the vendor organization, if you have not already done so.
   3. To add the vendor metadata, click Map vendors and perform the following steps:
      1. On the Map Vendors page, click Map Vendor.

      2. Complete the fields as described in the following table:

         Field	Action
         Description	Enter a description for the vendor metadata configuration.
         Ticketing Technology Provider	From the list, select JIRA.
         Instance Name	If you are using multiple instances of Jira, enter the name of the Jira instance that you are using for this integration.
         Add Mapping	After you select the ticketing technology provider, click Add Mapping. BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker displays the default values in the Instance URL field, and the Vendor Field Mapping and Display Field Mapping sections.
         (Optional) Instance URL	Update the Jira server name and port in the default URL. The default value of this variable is https://[jira server name]:[port]/browse/{key}.
         Vendor Field Mapping	To perform a direct data synchronization between BMC Helix ITSM and Jira, only update the mappings in the Remedy to Vendor Sync Fields and Vendor to Remedy Sync Fields sections. Do not update any other sections.
         Display Field Mapping	By default, the basic Jira fields are mapped in this section. If you want to map additional fields to display in the BMC Helix ITSM UI, add the relevant mappings by clicking .
         Enable Local ITSM Communication	By default, this toggle key is enabled. If you want to use BMC Helix Integration Service as the underlying integration platform, disable this toggle key.
         Integration Platform	Select Jitterbit.

      3. Click Save.
   4. To fetch change requests from BMC Helix ITSM, click Define filter criteria to fetch records from ITSM to Helix Multi-Cloud Broker for change, and perform the following steps:
      1. To select the filter criteria, click Advanced filter.
         The following image shows the filter criteria link and the Advanced filter section when you select the Between ITSM Change and Jira Issue feature:
         The following image shows the filter criteria link and the Advanced filter section when you select the Manual association of ITSM Change with Jira Issues feature:
         
         
      2. Select the filters from the available fields, and click Next.
         The query filter expression is displayed. By default, the AND qualifier is applied when you select multiple filter criteria.

      3. To change the qualifier for your filters, update the query, and then click Save. 
         

         Important

         Make sure that you enter a valid query with available fields and values.

         

      4. Click Close. 
         When a change request matches the operation and filter that you have selected, the system fetches that change request to BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker.
         

   5. In the Configure JIRA integration section, refer the configuration steps listed and select the check boxes as you complete each step.
   6. Click Save.

Task 2: To download and import the integration template project file

• Download the Sync BMC Helix ITSM change request and Atlassian Jira issue Update 2023-03-01 file.
  This file contains the BMC Helix iPaaS Cloud Studio project Sync BMC Helix ITSM change request and Atlassian Jira issue Update.
  

  Important

  Your ability to access product pages on the EPD website is determined by the license your company purchased.

• As a developer, log in to BMC Helix iPaaS and navigate to Cloud Studio.
• Select your organization.
• On the projects page, click Import.

• Click Browse and then select the Sync BMC Helix ITSM change request and Atlassian Jira issue Update.json file you downloaded.
  The Project Name and Organization fields are populated automatically. The default project name is displayed. You can change the project name.

• From the Environment list, select the environment to which you want to import this integration template, and click Import.
  The project opens after the integration template is imported. 
• To open the project file at a later time, select the environment where the integration templates are available, select the project name, and click View/Edit.

Task 3: To update the project variables for the integration template

1. Next to the Environment name, click the ellipsis ... next to the project name and select Project Variables.
   
2. Update the project variables as described in the following tables:

   • BMC Helix iPaaS variables:
     

     Project variable	Action
     BHIP_API_NAME	Enter a name for the webhook API created in the BMC Helix iPaaS API Manager to receive BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker or Jira requests. The default value of this variable is set to BMCHelixITSMChangeAndJiraIssue.
     BHIP_API_User_Roles	Enter comma-separated values of the organization roles assigned for the BMC Helix iPaaS API; for example: Admin, User. Only a user with these roles can access the APIs. Important: If you do not specify any value, all the organization roles get access to the new API.
     BHIP_MCB_API_Profile_User_Name	Enter the user name for the security profile used with the BMC Helix iPaaSAPI for BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker. The integration template creates an API in BMC Helix iPaaS to handle requests from BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker.
     BHIP_MCB_API_Profile_User_Password	Enter a password for the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker API security profile.
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type	The security profile type defines the authentication type used by the vendor webhook API to access the BMC Helix iPaaS API, and is added in the BMC Helix iPaaS API Manager.  Enter one of the following values: BASIC ANONYMOUS
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_User_Name	Enter the user name for the security profile that you want to use with the vendor API.  Important: You need to provide a value for this variable, only if you select the BASIC option in BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type.
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_User_Password	Enter the password for the security profile that you want to use with the vendor API.  Important: You need to provide a value for this variable, only if you select the BASIC option in BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type.
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_ApiKey_Name	For the security profile type APIKEY, enter a name for the API key to create the Jira profile. The default value is apiKey. Important: Provide a value for this variable, only if you select the APIKEY option in BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type.
     BHIP_Host	Enter the BMC Helix iPaaS instance URL where you want to run this project. Important: Make sure that you do not enter any leading and trailing spaces in the URL.
     BHIP_User_Name	Enter the login ID to access the BMC Helix iPaaS instance. Important: The BMC Helix iPaaS login credentials are required to create the API in BMC Helix iPaaS by using RestAPI. The credentials are required because BMC Helix iPaaS does not provide the login status of a user.
     BHIP_User_Password	Enter the password for the login ID.
     Enable_BMC_Helix_To_Vendor_Integration	Enable the creation of Jira issues from BMC Helix ITSM change requests, and synchronization of updates and comments. By default, this variable is set to true. If you want to disable the  creation of Jira issues, and synchronization of updates and comments, set the default value to false.
     Enable_Vendor_To_BMC_Helix_Integration	Enable the creation of BMC Helix ITSM change requests from Jira issues, and synchronization of updates and comments. By default, this variable is set to true. If you want to disable the creation of BMC Helix ITSM change requests from Jira issues, and synchronization of updates and comments, set the default value to false.

   • Jira project variables:

     Project variable	Action
     Jira_Host	Enter the host URL of the Jira instance in the following format: [http/https]://[hostname]:[port] Important: Make sure that you do not enter any leading and trailing spaces.
     JIRA_INSTANCE_TYPE	Select one of the following instance types from the list: Jira Cloud: Connect to Jira Software Cloud Jira on-premises: Connect to Jira Server or Jira Data Center
     Jira_User_Name	Enter the name of the user accessing Jira.
     Jira_User_Password	Enter the API token for Jira that you created earlier.
     Jira_JQL_Query	Enter the JQL query that decides for which Jira issues, BMC Helix ITSM change requests should be created; for example, if you specify Priority=High, the Jira issues with High priority are brokered to BMC Helix ITSM. Important: Do not enter a value for this variable if you are implementing only the BMC Helix ITSM to Jira use case. Do not include a project condition in this variable.
     Jira_Query_Project_Keys	Enter the Jira project key from which you want to filter Jira issues to broker to BMC Helix ITSM. You can add multiple project keys by specifying comma separated values; for example, JiraProject1, JiraProject2.  Important: While adding a value in this variable, make sure that you include the project key specified in the Jira_Create_Issue_Project_Key variable. This enables the synchronization of change requests that are brokered from BMC Helix ITSM to Jira.
     Jira_Create_Issue_Project_Key	Enter the Jira project key under which you want to create a Jira issue from a BMC Helix ITSM change request; for example, if you specify MCB as the project key, when a change request is created in BMC Helix ITSM, a corresponding Jira issue is created under the Jira project with the specified key. Important: You can also specify the Jira project key by mapping a BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker field that contains the project key with the key field in the target application. To do this action, in the MCB Workflow, you update a transformation by deleting the existing mapping in the key field and then mapping it with the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker field in the project element. Refer to the following image and perform the steps in the given sequence to map the fields:

   • BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker project variables:

     Project variable	Action
     MCB_Host	Enter the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker host URL with which Jira issues should be synchronized in the following format:  [http/https]://[hostname]:[port] Important: Make sure that you do not enter any leading and trailing spaces in the URL.
     MCB_User_Name	Enter the user name to access BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker.
     MCB_User_Password	Enter the password for the provided username.
     MCB_Vendor_Name	For multiple instances of Jira, enter the value in the following format: JIRA.<Instance name> The instance name in the format is the name that you entered in the Instance Name field while configuring vendor metadata.
     MCB_Field_ID_For_Jira_Issue_Type	Enter the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker field ID that contains the value for defining the Jira issue type during BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker to Jira operations. The default value of this field is 466000053 that is mapped with the Resolution Category Tier 3 field in the change record. If you use any other field from the change record to contain the Jira issue type, enter the ID of that field in this variable. Important: If this variable is blank, by default, a Jira story is created.

Task 4: To deploy and enable the project

After you enable the integration, when an issue is created in Jira, a corresponding change request is created in BMC Helix ITSM, and the converse is true. Any updates made to the Jira issue are synced with the BMC Helix ITSM change request, and the converse is true. Comments added to the Jira issue are synced with the BMC Helix ITSM change request, and the converse is true. 

(Optional) Task 5: To set the time for API debug mode

By default, the debug mode is set to 2 hours after you run the integration. Debug logs are updated for the time set for the debug mode. To increase the debug mode for a longer period of time, perform the following steps:

1. In BMC Helix iPaaS, select API Manager > My APIs.

2. Open any of the following APIs:

   • BMC_Helix_ITSM_Change_And_Jira_Issue_MCB_To_Vendor—This API creates a Jira issue from a BMC Helix ITSM change request.
   • BMC_Helix_ITSM_Change_And_Jira_Issue_Vendor_To_MCB—This API creates a BMC Helix ITSM change request from a Jira issue.

3. Select Enable Debug Mode Until: and set it for the required date and time.

4. Save and publish the API.

Task 6: To manually publish the OpenAPI document

If you have selected the Manual association with Jira feature, after you enable the integration template, you must publish the OpenAPI document manually.

1. In BMC Helix iPaaS, select API Manager > My APIs.

2. Open the BMCHelixITSMChangeAndJiraIssue_SearchIssues API and perform the following steps:

   1. Click Save & Publish.

   2. In the Confirmation Message dialog box, click Continue.

   3. In the All Set, Your API is Live! dialog box, click Generate OpenAPI document.

   4. Click Save & Publish.

(Optional) Task 7: To map custom fields between BMC Helix ITSM and Jira

You can map custom fields between BMC Helix ITSM and Jira. To learn about the steps to map custom fields, see Mapping custom fields for integrations by using BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit.

Related topics

Getting started with BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker

Reference of integration between BMC Helix ITSM change requests and Jira issues by using BMC Helix iPaaS