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The Automation for Jira app/feature enables users to easily extend and implement automation in Jira without having to code.

...

Rules can also be triggered manually or may be scheduled.


Info
titlePlease note

Automation for Jira has become part of Jira Datacenter offering, enabling automation of flows for all Jira users. Please check Atlassian's Jira Automation documentation for more info.


Since Xray uses issue types for most of its entities and since Xray provides many JQL functions that allow you to obtain testing-related information, Automation for Jira can be used with Xray in a very straightforward way.

...

Info
titlePlease note

The following examples are provided as-is, no warranties attached; use them carefully.

Please feel free to adapt them to your needs. 

Note: We don't provide support for Automaton for Jira; if you have doubts concerning its usage, please contact Automation for Jira's support.

Usage Examples

Jenkins

Trigger a Jenkins project build from an issue

In this very simple scenario, we'll implement a rule, triggered manually, that will trigger a Jenkins project/job. The action will be available from within the "More" menu, in all issues of the selected project.

We're assuming that:

  • you just want to trigger a CI job, period; this job may be totally unrelated to the issue from where you triggered it
  • what the CI job will do, including if it will report the results back to Xray or not, is not relevant

Jenkins configuration

In Jenkins, we need to generate an API token for some user, which can be done from the profile settings page.

Image Removed 

At the project level, we need to enable remote build triggers, so we can obtain an "authentication token" to be used in the HTTP request afterwards.

Image Removed

The project itself is a normal one, without parameters.

Image Removed

Automation for Jira configuration

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered ), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Removed

2. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send webhook" and configure it as follows

Image Removed

  • the Webhook URL provided above follows this syntax:
    • <jenkins_base_url>/job/<name_of_jenkins_project_job>/build?token=<token>
  • besides the "Content-Type" header that should be "application/json", define also an "Authorization" header having the value "Basic <auth>", where  the base64 encoded <auth> can be generated using your Jenkins API credentials

After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger the Jenkins project/job.

Image Removed

Trigger a Jenkins project build from a Test Plan and report the results back to it

In this simple scenario, we'll implement a rule, triggered manually, that will trigger a Jenkins project/job. The action will be available from within the "More" menu, for all Test Plan issues of the selected project.

We're assuming that:

  • you just want to trigger a CI job, period; this job may be totally unrelated to the issue from where you triggered it
  • the results will be submitted back to Xray, if the project is configured to do so in Jenkins

Jenkins configuration

In Jenkins, we need to generate an API token for some user, which can be done from the profile settings page.

Image Removed 

At the project level, we need to enable remote build triggers, so we can obtain an "authentication token" to be used in the HTTP request afterwards.

Image Removed

The project itself is a normal one; the only thing relevant to mention is that this project is a parameterized one, so it receives TESTPLAN, that in our case will be coming from Jira.

Image Removed

Automation for Jira configuration

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered ), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Removed

2. define the condition so that this rule can only be executed from Test Plan issue

Image Removed

3. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send webhook" and configure it as follows

Image Removed

  • the Webhook URL provided above follows this syntax:
    • <jenkins_base_url>/job/<name_of_jenkins_project_job>/buildWithParameters?token=<token>&TESTPLAN={{issue.key}}
  • besides the "Content-Type" header that should be "application/json", define also an "Authorization" header having the value "Basic <auth>", where  the base64 encoded <auth> can be generated using your Jenkins API credentials

After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger the Jenkins project/job.

Image Removed

Azure DevOps

Trigger a Azure DevOps pipeline from a Test Plan and report the results back to it

Azure DevOps configuration

We need to create a service connection, using the "incoming webhook" template, so that we can use Azure DevOps API later on.

Image Removed

Create a Personal Access Token (PAT), so you can use it as the password in API requests, along with the "organization name" as username.

Image Removed  Image Removed

Then, in your Azure DevOps repository containing the project's code and tests, create a pipeline /azure-pipelines.yml; this pipeline will be triggered using Azure DevOps API.

In the following example, the pipeline will receive the Test Plan issue key as an input parameter. It will then run the build, including the automated tests, and in the end it will report the results back to Xray using "curl" utility.

We need to define a resources section, that contains a reference to the webhook configured earlier.

Code Block
languageyml
title/azure-pipelines.yml
parameters:
- name: "testplan"
  type: string
  default: ""

trigger:
- main

resources:
  webhooks:
    - webhook: "MyWebhookTrigger"             ### Webhook alias
      connection: "MyWebhookConnection"       ### Incoming webhook service connection

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps:

- bash: |
    echo ${{ parameters.testplan }}
  displayName: '(debug) print testplan parameter'

- script: dotnet restore
  displayName: 'install build dependencies'

- script: |
    dotnet test -s nunit.runsettings
  displayName: 'Run tests'
- bash: |
    set -x
    curl -o - -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" -u '$(jira_user):$(jira_password)' -F "file=@./bin/Debug/net5.0/TestResults/nunit_webdriver_tests.xml" "$(jira_server_url)/rest/raven/2.0/import/execution/nunit?projectKey=$(project_key)&testPlanKey=${TESTPLAN}"
  displayName: 'Import results to Xray server'

Xray endpoint's base URL and the API key credentials (i.e. client id + client secret) are defined in Azure DevOps as variables. These may be marked as secret.

Image Removed 

Image Removed

Automation for Jira configuration

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered ), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Removed

2. define the condition so that this rule can only be executed from Test Plan issue

Image Removed

3. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send web request" and configure it as follows

Image Removed 

  • the web request URL provided above is from Azure DevOps API, for queueing builds, and follows this syntax:
  • authentication is done using the organization name plus the personal access token, created earlier in Azure DevOps, as the login:password pair used to calculate the Base64 content of the Authorization header
  • the "Content-Type" header should be "application/json"
  • the HTTP POST body content, defined in the "Custom data" field, will be used to identify the build definition and also the original Test Plan issue key; 

    Code Block
    languagejs
    titlecustom data (i.e. HTTP body content)
    collapsetrue
    {
        "parameters": "{ \"testplan\": \"{{issue.key}}\" }", 
        "definition":  {
                           "id": 3
                       }
    }
    Expand
    titleHow to find the (build) definition id?

    Note: to find the definition id, you can click on the pipeline in Azure DevOps and its id is shown as part of the URL

    Image Removed

After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger a pipeline run in Azure DevOps.

Image Removed

Image Removed

In this case, since the pipeline was configured to report results back to Xray, a new Test Execution would be created and linked back to the source Test Plan where the automation was triggered from.

Image Removed

Image Removed

Travis CI

Trigger a TravisCI project build from a Test Plan and report the results back to it

In this simple scenario, we'll implement a rule, triggered manually, that will trigger a TravisCI project/job. The action will be available from the "Automation" panel, for all Test Plan issues of the selected project.

We're assuming that:

  • you just want to trigger a CI job, period; this job may be totally unrelated to the issue from where you triggered it
  • the results will be submitted back to Xray, if the project is configured to do so in TravisCI

TravisCI configuration

In TravisCI, we need to generate an API authentication token for some user, which can be done from the My Account settings page.

Image Removed

Once we have the authentication token we followed the TravisCI API documentation to configure the following steps on the Jira side. 

For the Travis CI the important change we must do is in the YAML file that will configure Travis CI pipeline, we use the following configuration to achieve that:
.travis.yml

...

sudo: false
language: java
jdk:
  - openjdk8
cache:
  directories:
  - "$HOME/.cache"
   
jobs:
  include:
    - stage: test and report to Xray
      script:
        - |
            echo "building repo..."
            mvn clean compile test --file pom.xml
            export token=$(curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST --data "{ \"client_id\": \"$CLIENT_ID\",\"client_secret\": \"$CLIENT_SECRET\" }" https://xray.cloud.xpand-it.com/api/v2/authenticate| tr -d '"')
            echo $token
            curl -H "Content-Type: text/xml" -H "Authorization: Bearer $token" --data @target/surefire-reports/TEST-com.xpand.java.CalcTest.xml  "https://xray.cloud.xpand-it.com/api/v2/import/execution/junit?projectKey=$PROJECTKEY&testPlanKey=$TESTPLAN"
            echo "done"

For more details about this configuration please check the TravisCI tutorial documentation.

As you can see we are pushing results back to Xray with the last curl command:
curl command

...

curl -H "Content-Type: text/xml" -H "Authorization: Bearer $token" --data @target/surefire-reports/TEST-com.xpand.java.CalcTest.xml  "https://xray.cloud.xpand-it.com/api/v2/import/execution/junit?projectKey=$PROJECTKEY&testPlanKey=$TESTPLAN"


Concepts

Jira Automation allows project administrators to implement rules that can make certain processes automated, guaranteeing efficiency and consistency.

The main concepts of Jira Automation follow a very simple approach for defining an automation rule: if a certain "thing" happens (trigger) and certain conditions are met, then execute one or more actions.

  • Trigger: Triggers start the execution of a rule. Triggers can listen for events or be scheduled to run.
    • manual
    • upon field or workflow status changes 
    • upon releasing
    • periodic
    • ...
  • Condition: Actions will only execute if all conditions preceding them pass.
    • "If" statement
    • Issue fields condition
    • ...
  • Action: Actions perform changes to a system. 
    • change fields on issues
    • transition issues
    • web request
    • log
    • ...


It's also possible to run actions on issues that are related to the issue that triggered the rule, using "branches".


Info
titlePlease note

Automation rules run asynchronously.  Some actions can run in parallel but usually they're sequential. There is no interaction with the user (except if the trigger was set off manually from Jira's UI). 


Usage Examples

Jenkins

Trigger a Jenkins project build from an issue

In this very simple scenario, we'll implement a rule, triggered manually, that will trigger a Jenkins project/job. The action will be available from within the "More" menu, in all issues of the selected project.

We're assuming that:

  • you just want to trigger a CI job, period; this job may be totally unrelated to the issue from where you triggered it
  • what the CI job will do, including if it will report the results back to Xray or not, is not relevant


Jenkins configuration

In Jenkins, we need to generate an API token for some user, which can be done from the profile settings page.

Image Added 

At the project level, we need to enable remote build triggers, so we can obtain an "authentication token" to be used in the HTTP request afterwards.

Image Added

The project itself is a normal one, without parameters.

Image Added


Automation for Jira configuration

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered ), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Added

2. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send webhook" and configure it as follows

Image Added

  • the Webhook URL provided above follows this syntax:
    • <jenkins_base_url>/job/<name_of_jenkins_project_job>/build?token=<token>
  • besides the "Content-Type" header that should be "application/json", define also an "Authorization" header having the value "Basic <auth>", where  the base64 encoded <auth> can be generated using your Jenkins API credentials

After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger the Jenkins project/job.

Image Added


Trigger a Jenkins project build from a Test Plan and report the results back to it

In this simple scenario, we'll implement a rule, triggered manually, that will trigger a Jenkins project/job. The action will be available from within the "More" menu, for all Test Plan issues of the selected project.

We're assuming that:

  • you just want to trigger a CI job, period; this job may be totally unrelated to the issue from where you triggered it
  • the results will be submitted back to Xray, if the project is configured to do so in Jenkins


Jenkins configuration

In Jenkins, we need to generate an API token for some user, which can be done from the profile settings page.

Image Added 

At the project level, we need to enable remote build triggers, so we can obtain an "authentication token" to be used in the HTTP request afterwards.

Image Added

The project itself is a normal one; the only thing relevant to mention is that this project is a parameterized one, so it receives TESTPLAN, that in our case will be coming from Jira.

Image Added


Automation for Jira configuration

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered ), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Added

2. define the condition so that this rule can only be executed from Test Plan issue

Image Added

3. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send webhook" and configure it as follows

Image Added

  • the Webhook URL provided above follows this syntax:
    • <jenkins_base_url>/job/<name_of_jenkins_project_job>/buildWithParameters?token=<token>&TESTPLAN={{issue.key}}
  • besides the "Content-Type" header that should be "application/json", define also an "Authorization" header having the value "Basic <auth>", where  the base64 encoded <auth> can be generated using your Jenkins API credentials


After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger the Jenkins project/job.

Image Added

Azure DevOps

Trigger a Azure DevOps pipeline from a Test Plan and report the results back to it

Azure DevOps configuration

We need to create a service connection, using the "incoming webhook" template, so that we can use Azure DevOps API later on.

Image Added


Create a Personal Access Token (PAT), so you can use it as the password in API requests, along with the "organization name" as username.

Image Added  Image Added



Then, in your Azure DevOps repository containing the project's code and tests, create a pipeline /azure-pipelines.yml; this pipeline will be triggered using Azure DevOps API.


In the following example, the pipeline will receive the Test Plan issue key as an input parameter. It will then run the build, including the automated tests, and in the end it will report the results back to Xray using "curl" utility.

We need to define a resources section, that contains a reference to the webhook configured earlier.


Code Block
languageyml
title/azure-pipelines.yml
parameters:
- name: "testplan"
  type: string
  default: ""

trigger:
- main

resources:
  webhooks:
    - webhook: "MyWebhookTrigger"             ### Webhook alias
      connection: "MyWebhookConnection"       ### Incoming webhook service connection

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps:

- bash: |
    echo ${{ parameters.testplan }}
  displayName: '(debug) print testplan parameter'

- script: dotnet restore
  displayName: 'install build dependencies'

- script: |
    dotnet test -s nunit.runsettings
  displayName: 'Run tests'
- bash: |
    set -x
    curl -o - -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" -u '$(jira_user):$(jira_password)' -F "file=@./bin/Debug/net5.0/TestResults/nunit_webdriver_tests.xml" "$(jira_server_url)/rest/raven/2.0/import/execution/nunit?projectKey=$(project_key)&testPlanKey=${TESTPLAN}"
  displayName: 'Import results to Xray server'


Xray endpoint's base URL and the API key credentials (i.e. client id + client secret) are defined in Azure DevOps as variables. These may be marked as secret.

Image Added 

Image Added


Automation for Jira configuration

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered ), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Added

2. define the condition so that this rule can only be executed from Test Plan issue

Image Added

3. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send web request" and configure it as follows

Image Added 


  • the web request URL provided above is from Azure DevOps API, for queueing builds, and follows this syntax:
  • authentication is done using the organization name plus the personal access token, created earlier in Azure DevOps, as the login:password pair used to calculate the Base64 content of the Authorization header
  • the "Content-Type" header should be "application/json"
  • the HTTP POST body content, defined in the "Custom data" field, will be used to identify the build definition and also the original Test Plan issue key; 

    Code Block
    languagejs
    titlecustom data (i.e. HTTP body content)
    collapsetrue
    {
        "parameters": "{ \"testplan\": \"{{issue.key}}\" }", 
        "definition":  {
                           "id": 3
                       }
    }
    Expand
    titleHow to find the (build) definition id?

    Note: to find the definition id, you can click on the pipeline in Azure DevOps and its id is shown as part of the URL

    Image Added


After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger a pipeline run in Azure DevOps.

Image Added


Image Added


In this case, since the pipeline was configured to report results back to Xray, a new Test Execution would be created and linked back to the source Test Plan where the automation was triggered from.

Image Added

Image Added


Travis CI

Trigger a TravisCI project build from a Test Plan and report the results back to it

In this simple scenario, we'll implement a rule, triggered manually, that will trigger a TravisCI project/job. The action will be available from the "Automation" panel, for all Test Plan issues of the selected project.

We're assuming that:

  • you just want to trigger a CI job, period; this job may be totally unrelated to the issue from where you triggered it
  • the results will be submitted back to Xray, if the project is configured to do so in TravisCI


TravisCI configuration

In TravisCI, we need to generate an API authentication token for some user, which can be done from the My Account settings page.

Image Added

Once we have the authentication token we followed the TravisCI API documentation to configure the following steps on the Jira side. 

For the Travis CI the important change we must do is in the YAML file that will configure Travis CI pipeline, we use the following configuration to achieve that:
.travis.yml

sudo: false
language: java
jdk:
  - openjdk8
cache:
  directories:
  - "$HOME/.cache"
   
jobs:
  include:
    - stage: test and report to Xray
      script:
        - |
            echo "building repo..."
            mvn clean compile test --file pom.xml
            export token=$(curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST --data "{ \"client_id\": \"$CLIENT_ID\",\"client_secret\": \"$CLIENT_SECRET\" }" https://xray.cloud.xpand-it.com/api/v2/authenticate| tr -d '"')
            echo $token
            curl -H "Content-Type: text/xml" -H "Authorization: Bearer $token" --data @target/surefire-reports/TEST-com.xpand.java.CalcTest.xml  "https://xray.cloud.xpand-it.com/api/v2/import/execution/junit?projectKey=$PROJECTKEY&testPlanKey=$TESTPLAN"
            echo "done"

For more details about this configuration please check the TravisCI tutorial documentation.

As you can see we are pushing results back to Xray with the last curl command:
curl command

curl -H "Content-Type: text/xml" -H "Authorization: Bearer $token" --data @target/surefire-reports/TEST-com.xpand.java.CalcTest.xml  "https://xray.cloud.xpand-it.com/api/v2/import/execution/junit?projectKey=$PROJECTKEY&testPlanKey=$TESTPLAN"

On this command we are passing the project key in order to report back to a specific Project on the Xray side. Further ahead we will show how it is populated.

  • PROJECTKEY - The key that identifies the project on the Jira side.
  • TESTPLAN - The Test Plan key used to identify the Test Plan to associate the execution with.

Once we have the authentication token, we follow the TravisCI API documentation to configure the following steps on the Jira side. 

Automation configuration

On the Jira side we will use the Automation capabilities that it provides out of the box, so within the administration area go to the automation entry in the system settings and: 

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Added

2.Define a condition, in our case we  will define that only Test Plan issue types will be allowed to trigger this pipeline, this is achieved with the following condition:

Image Added


3. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send webhook" and configure it as follows

Image Added


  • the Webhook URL provided above follows this syntax:
    • <TravisCI_API_URL>/repo/{slug|id}/requests (The %2F in the request URL is required so that the owner and repository name in the repository slug are interpreted as a single URL segment.)
  • besides the "Content-Type" header that should be "application/json", define also an "Authorization" header having the value "token <token>", where  you will place the authentication token obtained previously in the TravisCI page and the "Travis-API-Version" header is also mandatory and it will contain the version used.
  • Custom data
    • We included the simplest possible just to trigger the pipeline from the master branch.
    • Added environment configuration variables to be used later in the TravisCI pipeline
      • TESTPLAN - that will be automatically filled with the test plan key from where the pipeline is triggered.
      • PROJECTKEY - that will be automatically filled in with the project key.

After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger the Jenkins project/job.

Image Added


In this case, since Jenkins was configured to report results back to Xray, a new Test Execution would be created in Jira/Xray.

Image Added

Associated with the Test Plan that we have passed along:

Image Added


Generic automation of processes

Copy fields from requirement/Story to Test whenever creating a Test or linking it to a story

Sometimes it may be useful to copy some fields from the requirement/Story to the Tests that cover it.

On this command we are passing the project key in order to report back to a specific Project on the Xray side. Further ahead we will show how it is populated.

  • PROJECTKEY - The key that identifies the project on the Jira side.
  • TESTPLAN - The Test Plan key used to identify the Test Plan to associate the execution with.

Once we have the authentication token, we follow the TravisCI API documentation to configure the following steps on the Jira side. 


Automation configuration

On the Jira side we will use the Automation capabilities that it provides out of the box, so within the administration area go to the automation entry in the system settings and: 

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it to should be triggered), to be "Manually triggered"

Image Removed

2.Define a condition, in our case we  will define that only Test Plan issue types will be allowed to trigger this pipeline, this is achieved with the following condition:

Image Removed

3. define an action (i.e. the "Then") as "Send webhook" and configure it as follows

Image Removed

  • the Webhook URL provided above follows this syntax:
    • <TravisCI_API_URL>/repo/{slug|id}/requests (The %2F in the request URL is required so that the owner and repository name in the repository slug are interpreted as a single URL segment.)
  • besides the "Content-Type" header that should be "application/json", define also an "Authorization" header having the value "token <token>", where  you will place the authentication token obtained previously in the TravisCI page and the "Travis-API-Version" header is also mandatory and it will contain the version used.
  • Custom data
    • We included the simplest possible just to trigger the pipeline from the master branch.
    • Added environment configuration variables to be used later in the TravisCI pipeline
      • TESTPLAN - that will be automatically filled with the test plan key from where the pipeline is triggered.
      • PROJECTKEY - that will be automatically filled in with the project key.

After publishing the rule, you can go to the screen of an issue and trigger the Jenkins project/job.

Image Removed

In this case, since Jenkins was configured to report results back to Xray, a new Test Execution would be created in Jira/Xray.

Image Removed

Associated with the Test Plan that we have passed along:

...

  1. ) to be "Issue linked". Since Xray, by default, uses the issue link type "Tests" to establish the coverage relation between a Test and the requirement, we can take advantage of that to trigger the rule whenever such issue link is created.
    1. Image Added
  2. create a condition to ensure that the rule only runs for Test issues
    1. Image Added
  3. use an "Edit issue" action to set the fields on the Test based on the fields of the linked requirement/Story (i.e., the destination issue of the linking event). In this example, we'll copy the values of Urgency and Probability custom fields.  
    1. Image Added


This rule will run:

  • whenever a Test is created from the requirement/Story issue screen
  • whenever a Test has been initially created and later on linked to the requirement

Reopen/transitionTests linked to a requirement whenever the requirement is transitioned or changed

Whenever you change the specification of a requirement/story, you most probably will need to review the Tests that you have already specified.

The following rule tries to perform a transition of all Tests linked to a requirement.

Automation configuration

On the Jira side we will use the Automation capabilities that it provides out of the box, so within the administration area go to the automation entry in the system settings and: 

  1. create a new rule and define the "When" (i.e. when it should be triggered) to be "Field value changed"
    1. Image Added
    2. Note: we could also define the trigger to be based on the transition of the requirement issue to a certain workflow status; in that case we would define it, for example, as shown below.
      1. Image Added
  2. create a condition to ensure that the rule only runs for Story and Epic issues; adjust these to include all the "requirement" issue types (i.e., the ones that you can cover with Tests)
    1. Image Added
  3. create a "branch rule / related issues" to obtain related Tests using JQL and the requirementTests() JQL function and run one, or more, action(s) on them
    1. Image Added
  4. under the "For JQL" block, create a action "Transition the issue to" in order to reopen the related Test issues
    1. Image Added

References