Use the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk in MicroStrategy Desktop

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk, you gain database-like access to live Jira Service Desk data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through adding Jira Service Desk as a data source in MicroStrategy Desktop and creating a simple visualization of Jira Service Desk data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Jira Service Desk data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Jira Service Desk, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Jira Service Desk and utilizes the embedded SQL Engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Jira Service Desk data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to Jira Service Desk as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Jira Service Desk follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

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.

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.

Windows

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.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Connect to and Visualize Jira Service Desk Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

In addition to connecting Jira Service Desk in MicroStrategy enterprise products, you can connect to Jira Service Desk in MicroStrategy Desktop. Follow the steps below to add Jira Service Desk data as a dataset and create visualizations and reports of Jira Service Desk data.

1. Open MicroStrategy Desktop and create a new dossier.
2. In the datasets panel, click New Data, select Databases, and select Type a Query as the Import Option.
3. Add a new data source and choose DSN data sources.
4. Choose the DSN you previously configured (likely CData JiraServiceDesk Sys) and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
5. Set the User and Password properties for the DSN (or use placeholder values) and name the data source.
6. Select the new database instance to view the tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
7. Create a SQL query for the Jira Service Desk data (see below) and click Execute SQL to test the query. SELECT * FROM Requests NOTE: Since we create a live connection, we can execute a SELECT * query and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
8. Click Finish and choose to connect live.
9. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display (data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery) and apply any filters to create a new visualization of Jira Service Desk data. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Jira Service Desk, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL Engine embedded in the driver.
10. Once you are finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk in MicroStrategy Desktop, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on Jira Service Desk data. Read our other articles on connecting to Jira Service Desk in MicroStrategy and connecting to Jira Service Desk in MicroStrategy Web for more examples.