Import Real-Time Jira Service Desk Data in ColdFusion to Build Applications

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Jira Service Desk data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with Jira Service Desk data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

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 process. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

You can establish a connection to any Jira Service Desk Cloud account or Server instance.

Connecting with a Cloud Account

To connect to a Cloud account, you'll first need to retrieve an APIToken. To generate one, log in to your Atlassian account and navigate to API tokens > Create API token. The generated token will be displayed.

Supply the following to connect to data:

• User: Set this to the username of the authenticating user.
• APIToken: Set this to the API token found previously.

Connecting with a Service Account

To authenticate with a service account, you will need to supply the following connection properties:

• User: Set this to the username of the authenticating user.
• Password: Set this to the password of the authenticating user.
• URL: Set this to the URL associated with your JIRA Service Desk endpoint. For example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

Note: Password has been deprecated for connecting to a Cloud Account and is now used only to connect to a Server Instance.

Accessing Custom Fields

By default, the connector only surfaces system fields. To access the custom fields for Issues, set IncludeCustomFields.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import Jira Service Desk Jira Service Desk data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

1. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
2. Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button.
3. From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData Jira Service Desk Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration.
4. Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataJira Service DeskODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
5. Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

   The following code queries the data source:

               
           <cfquery name="Jira Service DeskQuery" dataSource="CDataJira Service DeskODBC"> 
             SELECT * FROM Requests 
           </cfquery> 
       

   And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:

               
             <cftable  
             query = "Jira Service DeskQuery" 
             border = "1" 
             colHeaders 
             colSpacing = "2" 
             headerLines = "2" 
             HTMLTable 
             maxRows = "500" 
             startRow = "1"> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>RequestId</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="RequestId"/> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>ReporterName</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="ReporterName"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
       

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

               
           <html> 
           <head><title>CData Software | Jira Service Desk Requests Table Demo </title></head> 
           <body> 
           <cfoutput>#ucase("Jira Service Desk Requests Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
           <cfquery name="Jira Service DeskQuery" dataSource="CDataJira Service DeskODBC"> 
   
             SELECT * FROM Requests 
   
           </cfquery> 
           <cftable  
             query = "Jira Service DeskQuery" 
             border = "1" 
             colHeaders 
             colSpacing = "2" 
             headerLines = "2" 
             HTMLTable 
             maxRows = "500" 
             startRow = "1"> 
             <cfcol header="<b>RequestId</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="RequestId"/> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>ReporterName</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="ReporterName"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
           </body> 
   
           </html>  
       

6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Jira Service Desk data!

As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example: SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name =

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk and start building Jira Service Desk-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.