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1.  Xray and Jira configuration
   • Xray server/DC or Xray Cloud ? (which implicitly will define if Jira server/DC or Jira Cloud are being used) 
   • Server/DC specific settings 
     • Use Jira username/password or Personal Access Token?
     • Jira username
     • Jira password
     • Personal Access Token
   • Cloud specific settings
     • Jira username
     • Jira API Token
2. On each test on the tool, associate it to an existing Xray Test issue
   1. specify Test issue key
3. Discover the custom fields ids of the entities being used

How is Xray data stored

Xray server/DC

Xray data is stored on Jira's database, mostly in Xray specific tables (e.g., for test runs).

As Xray reuses Jira concepts (e.g., issue types,  links, custom fields), some of its information is stored on standard Jira entities/tables (e.g., Xray issues standard Jira metadata - summary, description, fixVersion, component, issue links used for coverage purpose).

Xray also provides a bunch of custom fields (CFs) to present or manage some information; some of these are calculated, some are stored in the database (on Jira tables for CFs).

Therefore, a Jira database's dump contains all relevant information from Jira and Xray.

Some of this information is exposed and managed using the Jira's REST API or through Xray's REST API.

Xray Cloud

Due to the way Atlassian cloud architecture works,  apps such as Xray manage their data in their own way (e.g., in the app cloud infrastructure or in a cloud DB provider). Jira related information (e.g., issues, links) is managed by Atlassian and stored in Atlassian's cloud imfrastructure.

Some of this information is exposed and managed using different APIs:

• Jira's REST API: for Jira managed information (e.g., issues, standard fields, CFs, links, attachments, comments) 
• Xray's REST API: mostly to import test results and other more "operational" tasks
• Xray's GraphQL API: for most of Xray data and their relations; a quite flexible API

Depending on the use case, one or a combination of the previous may be required. Note that Jira's REST API uses the authentication mechanisms of Jira while Xray's APIs use their own authentication mechanism based on an API key pair (client_id+client_secret).

It's possible to generate a dump of the Xray managed data; note that this dump doesn't contain the information managed by Jira/Atlassian as that follows a different mechanism.

Custom fields (WORK-IN-PROGRESS)

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