New Connectivity to Jira Assets through CData Solutions

CData has recently released a new set of drivers and connectors for Jira Assets, making it easier than ever to connect Jira Assets data with your favorite BI tools, databases, and custom apps. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at what this new connectivity means for Jira Assets users, walk through some key features and data model highlights, and share a simple example of how to connect to your Jira Assets data in Power BI Desktop.

What is Jira Assets?

Jira Assets is a comprehensive asset and configuration management solution within the Jira Service Management platform. It helps organizations efficiently manage and track assets, configuration items, and resources while offering visibility into how these elements relate to one another and to the services they support.

The assets can represent a wide variety of object types, including hardware such as laptops and servers, software licenses, employees, office locations, and more. These are organized into object types, which serve as categories or templates like “Hardware,” “Employees,” or “Offices,” each defining the structure and attributes of a particular class of assets.

Jira Assets also allows teams to define relationships between objects. This makes it easier to understand dependencies, improve incident and change management, and automate workflows that rely on accurate and up-to-date asset data.

CData drivers and connectors for Jira Assets

Connectivity options and available tools

CData's connectivity solutions are designed to provide easy access to Jira Assets data across various platforms and applications:

• JDBC driver: Connects to tools like DBeaver, IntelliJ, DbVisualizer, and more.

• ODBC driver: Compatible with applications such as Qlik, Alteryx, MS Access, SAP BusinessObjects, and SQL Server Linked Servers.

• ADO.NET provider: Integrates with .NET applications, including SQL Server Analysis Services and custom .NET solutions.

• Excel add-in: Allows direct connection to Jira Assets data within Microsoft Excel for data analysis and reporting.

• Tableau and Power BI connectors: Facilitates real-time data visualization in Tableau and Power BI.

• Python connector: Enables integration with Python tools like pandas, SQLAlchemy, and Dash.

• PowerShell cmdlets: Provides command-line access to Jira Assets data for automation scripts.

Key features

• Live access to Jira Assets data: Work with live data for up-to-date insights.

• Full SQL-92 support: Utilize standard SQL queries to interact with Jira Assets data.

• Built-in authentication: Secure connections through API tokens and other authentication methods.

• Broad compatibility: Integrate with over 270 BI, analytics, reporting, AI, and data integration tools.

• Read and write access: Update asset data, trigger operations, and call API procedures as needed.

Data model

The CData Power BI Connector for Jira Assets exposes your asset data through a relational model. That means you can treat Jira Assets data as if it were a standard SQL database, while maintaining a live connection to your Jira environment. Commonly used data objects include:

• Objects: A table that stores the core records representing tracked assets

• ObjectSchema: A table that consists of groupings for organizing assets (such as departments or teams)

• ObjectTypes: A table that contains categories such as hardware, software, or locations

• ObjectTypeAttributes: A table that stores metadata and custom fields associated with each asset type

• Status:  A table that tracks the current lifecycle state of an asset (e.g., In Use, Retired).

• ImportSources: A view that returns a list of import sources for a certain schema.

Example: Access live Jira Assets data in Power BI

As an example, let’s walk through how to use the CData Power BI Connector for Jira Assets in Power BI Desktop to build dashboards that visualize and track event data, such as asset types, statuses, schemas, or relationships. You can query Jira Assets data from Power BI in four simple steps (for a full tutorial, check out this knowledge base article):

1. Install the CData Power BI Connector: Install the CData Power BI Connector for Jira Assets on the machine running Power BI Desktop. You can download a free 30-day trial of the Power BI Connector here.

2. Connect to Jira Assets: Open the ODBC Administrator (make sure it matches the bitness of your Power BI installation: 32-bit or 64-bit). Then, configure or create a new DSN using the installed Jira Assets connector.
   

   

   Enter the required URL, username, and API token credentials, then click Test Connection to verify connectivity with your Jira Assets account. Once the connection is successful, click OK to save the DSN configuration.
   

   Note: You can read more about the Jira Assets’ connection properties, data models, and a lot more in our Jira Assets driver documentation.
   

3. Open Jira Assets connection in Power BI: Launch Power BI Desktop, click Get Data, and search for CData Jira Assets under the "All" option. Select it and click Connect.
   

   
   
   When prompted, enter the DSN name you configured in the previous step.
   

   Choose your preferred Data Connectivity mode (Import or DirectQuery), and then select the tables, such as Objects, Schemas, or Object Types, that you want to work with from the Navigator window.
   

   
   

4. Visualize Jira Assets data in Power BI: Once your data is loaded into Power BI, you can start building visualizations in the Report View. Create charts, dashboards, and summaries using real-time data from Jira Assets to monitor key metrics like asset distribution, lifecycle status, ownership, and relationships across teams.
   

   In the example below, we created a simple pie chart to show the distribution of assets by their lifecycle status using the AssetStatus field from the Objects table. Each segment of the chart represents a different status category, such as In Maintenance, Active, Pending, or Retired, along with the number of assets in that state and their percentage of the total.
   

   
   

Simplified Jira Assets connectivity with CData

Check out our other integration guides to see how easy it is to use CData connectivity solutions to work with Jira Assets data exactly where you want. Start connecting to your Jira Assets data — download a free 30-day trial of any of our CData Drivers and Connectors today.