DataBind Controls to Jira Service Desk Data in Delphi

The CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk supports the ODBC standard to enable integration of live Jira Service Desk data with visual form designers and other rapid development tools in Delphi. The ODBC driver simplifies data access strategies for applications that share a single codebase like Delphi by providing a single API for database development. This article shows how to how to connect to Jira Service Desk data and query data from a simple visual component library (VCL) application, as well as from Delphi code.

Create a Connection to Jira Service Desk Data

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.

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.

You can then follow the steps below to use the Data Explorer to create a FireDAC connection to Jira Service Desk data.

1. In a new VCL Forms application, expand the FireDAC node in the Data Explorer.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Jira Service Desk.

Create VCL Applications with Connectivity to Jira Service Desk Data

Follow the procedure below to start executing queries to Jira Service Desk data from a simple VCL application that displays the results of a query in a grid.

1. Drop a TFDConnection component onto the form and set the following properties:

   • ConnectionDefName: Select the FireDAC connection to Jira Service Desk data.
   • Connected: Select True from the menu and, in the dialog that appears, enter your credentials.

2. Drop a TFDQuery component onto the form and set the properties below:

   • Connection: Set this property to the TFDConnection component, if this component is not already specified.

   • SQL: Click the button in the SQL property and enter a query. For example:

     SELECT RequestId, ReporterName FROM Requests WHERE CurrentStatus = 'Open'
   • Active: Set this property to true.

3. Drop a TDataSource component onto the form and set the following property:

   • DataSet: In the menu for this property, select the name of the TFDQuery component.

4. Drop a TDBGrid control onto the form and set the following property:

   • DataSource: Select the name of the TDataSource.
5. Drop a TFDGUIxWaitCursor onto the form — this is required to avoid a run-time error.

Execute Commands to Jira Service Desk with FireDAC Components

You can use the TFDConnection and TFQuery components to execute queries to Jira Service Desk data. This section provides Jira Service Desk data-specific examples of executing queries with the TFQuery component.

Connect to Jira Service Desk Data

To connect to the data source, set the Connected property of the TFDConnection component to true. You can set the same properties from code:

Create Parameterized Queries

Parameterized resources can improve performance: Preparing statements is costly in system resources and time. The connection must be active and open while a statement is prepared. By default, FireDAC prepares the query to avoid recompiling the same query over and over. To disable statement preparation, set ResourceOptions.DirectExecute to True; for example, when you need to execute a query only once.

Execute a Query

To execute a query that returns a result set, such as a select query, use the Open method. The Open method executes the query, returns the result set, and opens it. The Open method will return an error if the query does not produce a result set.

To execute a query that does not return a result set, such as a delete, use the ExecSQL method. The ExecSQL method will return an error if the query returns a result set. To retrieve the count of affected rows, use the TFD.RowsAffected property.