Jira Cloud

The Jira Cloud connector lets you perform insert, delete, update, and read operations on Jira data which is modeled as a database.

Supported versions

The Jira Cloud connector uses version 2 and 3 of the JIRA Cloud REST API. These are managed internally and you don't have to do any extra configurations.

Before you begin

Before using the Jira Cloud connector, do the following tasks:

In your Google Cloud project:
- Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
- Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
- Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
  - roles/secretmanager.viewer
  - roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor
  A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.
- Enable the following services:
  - secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
  - connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)
  To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.
If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.
Go to the Connections page
Click + CREATE NEW to open the Create Connection page.
In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.
  For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.
2. Click NEXT.
In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
1. Connector: Select Jira Cloud from the drop down list of available Connectors.
2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.
  Connection names must meet the following criteria:
  - Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
  - Letters must be lower-case.
  - Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
  - Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
  - For connectors that support event subscription, the connection names cannot begin with the "goog" prefix.
4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
5. Optionally, enable Cloud logging, and then select a log level. By default, the log level is set to Error.
6. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
7. To use the connection for event subscriptions, select Enable event subscription. Selecting this, displays the following options:
  - Enable event subscription with entity and actions: Select this option to use the connection for both event subscription and connector operations (entities and actions).
  - Enable only event subscription: Select this option to use the connection only for event subscription. If you select this option, click Next, and then configure event subscription.
8. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:
  - Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
  - Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.
  A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.
9. Use proxy: Select this checkbox to configure a proxy server for the connection and configure the following values:
- Proxy Auth Scheme: Select the authentication type to authenticate with the proxy server. The following authentication types are supported:
  - Basic: Basic HTTP authentication.
  - Digest: Digest HTTP authentication.
- Proxy User: A user name to be used to authenticate with the proxy server.
- Proxy Password: The Secret manager secret of the user's password.
- Proxy SSL Type: The SSL type to use when connecting to the proxy server. The following authentication types are supported:
  - Auto: Default setting. If the URL is an HTTPS URL, then the Tunnel option is used. If the URL is an HTTP URL, then the NEVER option is used.
  - Always: The connection is always SSL enabled.
  - Never: The connection is not SSL enabled.
  - Tunnel: The connection is through a tunneling proxy. The proxy server opens a connection to the remote host and traffic flows back and forth through the proxy.
- In the Proxy Server section, enter details of the proxy server.
  1. Click + Add destination.
  2. Select a Destination Type.
    - Host address: Specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.
      If you want to establish a private connection to your backend system, do the following:
      - Create a PSC service attachment.
      - Create an endpoint attachment and then enter the details of the endpoint attachment in the Host address field.
Optionally, click + ADD LABEL to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
Click NEXT.

In the Destinations section, enter details of the remote host (backend system) you want to connect to.

Destination Type: Select a Destination Type.
- Host address: Specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.
  Note: If you are specifying a hostname, you must specify the URL along with the protocol (HTTP or HTTPS).
  
  If you want to establish private connection to your backend, do the following:
  - Create a PSC service attachment.
  - Create an endpoint attachment and then enter the details of the endpoint attachment in the Host address field.
To enter additional destinations, click +ADD DESTINATION.
Click NEXT.

In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.

Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.
The following authentication types are supported by the Jira Cloud connection:
- Username and password

To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

Click NEXT.

If you have enabled the event subscription, the Event Subscription Details section appears on the connection creation page. To understand how to configure event subscription details, see Configure event subscription.

Review: Review your connection and authentication details.

Click Create.

Configure event subscription

If you have enabled the event subscription, enter the following values in the Event Subscription Details section:

Select a Destination Type.
- Host address: Enter the registration URL of your backend system in the host field.
Enter the authentication details.
1. Username: Enter the username.
2. API Token: Select the Secret Manager secret containing the API token.
3. Secret Version: Select the secret version.
Select Enable private connectivity for secured connectivity between your backend application and your connection. If you select this option, you must perform additional configuration steps after creating the connection. For more information, see Private connectivity for event subscription.
Enter the dead-letter configuration. If you configure dead-letter, the connection writes the unprocessed events to the specified Pub/Sub topic. Enter the following details:
1. Dead-letter project ID: The Google Cloud project ID where you have configured the dead-letter Pub/Sub topic.
2. Dead-letter topic: The Pub/Sub topic where you want to write the details of the unprocessed event.
If you want to use a proxy to connect to your backend (for event subscription), enter the following details:

Proxy SSL Type: The SSL type to use when connecting to the proxy server. Select any of the following authentication types:
- Always: The connection is always SSL enabled for event subscription.
- Never: The connection is not SSL enabled for event subscription.
Proxy Auth Scheme: Select the authentication type to authenticate with the proxy server. The following authentication types are supported:
- Basic: Basic HTTP authentication.
Proxy User: Enter the user name to be used to authenticate with the proxy server.
Proxy Password: Select the Secret Manager secret of the user's password.
Secret version: Select the secret version.
In the Proxy Server section, enter details of the proxy server.
1. Click + Add destination, and then select the Destination Type as Host address.
2. Enter the proxy server's hostname or IP address, and the proxy server's port number.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

Username and password
- Username: The Jira Cloud username to use for the connection.
- API Token: The password for the username will be an API token. Select the Secret Manager Secret containing the API Token associated with the Jira Cloud username.
OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code

Client ID: Client ID as provided by your external application.
Scopes: Permission scopes. The offline_access scope must be used with the Jira Cloud connector. To understand how the scopes work and to view all the available scopes for Jira Cloud, see Scopes.
Client secret: Select the Secret Manager secret. You should have created the Secret Manager secret prior configuring this authorization.
Secret version: Secret Manager secret version for client secret.

For the Authorization code authentication type, after creating the connection, you should perform a few additional steps for configuring authentication. For more information, see Additional steps after connection creation.

Note: If you are using Authorization code authentication type and have made any cofiguration changes in your Jira Cloud application, you must re-authorize your Jira Cloud connection. To understand how to re-authorize, see Re-authorization for Authorization code.

Additional steps after connection creation

If you selected OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code for authentication, you must do the following additional steps after creating the connection:

In the Connections page, locate the newly created connection.
Notice that the Status for the new connector will be Authorization required.
Click Authorization required.
This shows the Edit authorization pane.
Copy the Redirect URI value to your external application.
Verify the authorization details.
Click Authorize.
If the authorization is successful, the connection status will be set to Active in the Connections page.

Re-authorization for authorization code

If you are using Authorization code authentication type and have made any cofiguration changes in your Jira Cloud application, you must re-authorize your Jira Cloud connection. To re-authorize a connection, perform the following steps:

Click on the required connection in the Connections page.
This opens the connection details page.
Click Edit to edit the connection details.
Verify the OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code details in the Authentication section.
If required, make the necessary changes.
Click Save. This takes you to the connection details page.
Click Edit authorization in the Authentication section. This shows the Authorize pane.
Click Authorize.
If the authorization is successful, the connection status will be set to Active in the Connections page.

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.
However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.
Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
- List
- Get
- Create
- Update
- Delete
Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.
Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

System limitations

The Jira Cloud connector can process a maximum of 10 transactions per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Note: The number of Integration Connectors nodes will autoscale dynamically based on your usage. However, if you want to reserve capacity for large volumes without waiting for autoscaling, you can adjust the minimum node value for a connection. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection. Conversely, fewer nodes are required if a connection processes fewer transactions. To configure the node values, do the following:

If you are a pay-as-you-go customer, configure the minimum and maximum node value in the edit connection page.
If you are a subscription based customer, contact support.

The maximum transactions that a node can handle depends on various factors. So, before adjusting the minimum nodes for better throughput, it is recommended you check if your backend systems are set up optimally to handle the required traffic.

Use terraform to create connections

You can use the Terraform resource to create a new connection.

To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.

To view a sample terraform template for connection creation, see sample template.

When creating this connection by using Terraform, you must set the following variables in your Terraform configuration file:

Parameter name	Data type	Required	Description
proxy_enabled	BOOLEAN	False	Select this checkbox to configure a proxy server for the connection.
proxy_auth_scheme	ENUM	False	The authentication type to use to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: BASIC, DIGEST, NONE
proxy_user	STRING	False	A user name to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_password	SECRET	False	A password to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_ssltype	ENUM	False	The SSL type to use when connecting to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: AUTO, ALWAYS, NEVER, TUNNEL

Use the Jira Cloud connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

What's next

Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
Understand how to monitor connector usage.
Understand how to view connector logs.