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Get the Report →Create Data Visualizations in Cognos BI with Jira Data
Access Jira data as an ODBC data source in Cognos Business Intelligence and create data visualizations in Cognos Report Studio.
You can use the CData ODBC driver for Jira to integrate Jira data with the drag-and-drop style of Cognos Report Studio. This article describes both a graphical approach to create data visualizations, with no SQL required, as well as how to execute any SQL query supported by Jira.
About Jira Data Integration
CData simplifies access and integration of live Jira data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:
- Gain bi-directional access to their Jira objects like issues, projects, and workflows.
- Use SQL stored procedures to perform functional actions like changing issues status, creating custom fields, download or uploading an attachment, modifying or retrieving time tracking settings, and more.
- Authenticate securely using a variety of methods, including username and password, OAuth, personal access token, API token, Crowd or OKTA SSO, LDAP, and more.
Most users leverage CData solutions to integrate Jira data with their database or data warehouse, whether that's using CData Sync directly or relying on CData's compatibility with platforms like SSIS or Azure Data Factory. Others are looking to get analytics and reporting on live Jira data from preferred analytics tools like Tableau and Power BI.
Learn more about how customers are seamlessly connecting to their Jira data to solve business problems from our blog: Drivers in Focus: Collaboration Tools.
Getting Started
Configure and Publish the Data Source
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
To connect to JIRA, provide the User and Password. Additionally, provide the Url; for example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.
When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.
If you are running Cognos from a 64-bit machine and want to modify the DSN or create other Jira DSNs, you must use a system DSN. You will also need to open the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator. You can open it with the following command:
C:\Windows\sysWOW64\odbcad32.exe
After creating a DSN, you can then publish the data source:
- Open Cognos Administration and click Data Source Connections to add a new data source:
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Select the ODBC option and enter the DSN, CData JIRA Sys, and a user-friendly name.
- Click Retrieve Objects and choose the CData Jira database object.
Add Data Visualizations to a Report
You can now create reports on Jira data in Cognos Report Studio by dragging and dropping table columns from the Source Explorer onto report objects. The sections below show how to create a simple report with a chart that shows up-to-date data.
As you build the report, Cognos Report Studio will generate SQL queries and rely on the driver to execute them. The driver will convert queries into requests to the Jira API. To execute queries to the live Jira data, the driver depends on the capabilities of the underlying API.
Create a Chart Based on an Aggregate
You can populate almost any report object in Cognos with Jira data by simply dragging and dropping columns from the Source Explorer onto the dimensions of the object. The column in the Series dimension of the chart is automatically grouped.
Additionally, Cognos sets a logical default aggregate function for the measure dimension based on the data type. For this example, override the default by clicking the TimeSpent column in the Data Items tab and set the Aggregate Function property to Not Applicable. The Rollup Aggregate Function property must be set to Automatic.

Convert a Query Object to SQL
When you know the query you need, or if you want to adjust the generated query, convert a query object into an SQL statement. After a query has been converted to SQL, the UI controls are not available for the query object. Follow the procedure below to populate a chart with user-defined SQL.
Cognos will rely on the driver to execute the user-defined query. Using the driver's SQL engine ensures that queries will always return up-to-date results, as there is no cached copy of the data.
- Hover over the Query Explorer and click the Queries folder to display the query objects in your report.
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If you want to edit the autogenerated query, click the button in the Generated SQL property for the query object. In the resulting dialog, click Convert.
If you want to enter a new SQL statement, drop an SQL object in-line with the query object.
- Modify the properties for the SQL object: Select the Jira data source in the SQL properties and set the SQL Syntax property to Native.
Click the button in the SQL property and enter the SQL query in the resulting dialog. This example uses the query below:
SELECT Projects.LeadName, Issues.Summary FROM Projects, Issues WHERE Projects.Id=Issues.ProjectId
Modify the properties for the query object: Set the Processing property to "Limited Local". This value is required to convert a query object to SQL.
Fill a Chart with the Results of a Query
You can now access the results of the SQL query as objects in the Data Items tab. Follow the procedure below to create a chart with the results; for example, the TimeSpent for each Summary from the Issues table.
- Return to the page by hovering over the Page Explorer and then clicking the page object.
- Drag a pie chart from the toolbox onto the workspace.
- In the properties for the chart, set the Query property to the name of the query you created above.
- Click the Data Items tab and drag columns onto the x- and y-axes. In this example, drag the Summary column to the Series (pie slices) box and the TimeSpent column to the Default Measure box.
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Modify the default properties for the Default Measure (the TimeSpent values): In the Aggregate Function box, select the Total option.

Run the report to add the results of the query.
