Use the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk in SAS for Real-Time Reporting and Analytics

SAS is a software suite developed for advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, data management, and predictive analytics. When you pair SAS with the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk, you gain database-like access to live Jira Service Desk data from SAS, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. This articles walks through creating a library for Jira Service Desk in SAS and creating a simple report based on real-time Jira Service Desk data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Jira Service Desk data in SAS due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SAS 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 easily visualize and analyze Jira Service Desk data in SAS.

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 (the ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk must be installed on the machine hosting the SAS System).

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).

Create a Jira Service Desk Library in SAS

Connect to Jira Service Desk in SAS by adding a library based on the CData ODBC Driver for Jira Service Desk.

1. Open SAS and expand Libraries in the Explorer pane.
2. In the Active Libraries window, right-click and select New.
3. Name your library (odbclib), select ODBC as the Engine, and click to Enable at startup (if you want the library to persist between sessions).
4. Set Data Source to the DSN you previously configured and click OK.

Create a View from a Jira Service Desk Query

SAS natively supports querying data either using a low-code, point-and-click Query tool or programmatically with PROC SQL and a custom SQL query. When you create a View in SAS, the defining query is executed each time the view is queried. This means that you always query live Jira Service Desk data for reports, charts, and analytics.

Using the Query Tool

1. In SAS, click Tools -> Query
2. Select the table sources and the table(s) you wish to pull data from. Then, click OK.
3. Select columns and right-click to add filtering, ordering, grouping, etc.
4. Create a local view to contain the query results by right-clicking the SQL Query Tool window, selecting Show Query, and clicking Create View. Name the View and click OK.

Using PROC SQL

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC SQL to query the data and create a local view.
   NOTE: This procedure creates a view in the Work library. You can optionally specify a library in the create view statement.

   proc sql;
     create view requests_view as
     select 
       requestid, 
       reportername 
     from 
       odbclib.requests 
     where 
       CurrentStatus = 'Open';
   quit;
   

3. Click Run -> Submit to execute the query and create a local view.

Report On or Visualize Jira Service Desk Data in SAS

With a local view created, you can report, visualize, or otherwise analyze Jira Service Desk data using the powerful SAS features. Print a simple report using PROC PRINT and create a basic graph based on the data using PROC GCHART.

Print an HTML Report

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC PRINT to print an HTML report for the Jira Service Desk Requests data.

   proc print data=requests;
     title "Jira Service Desk Requests Data";
   run;
   

Print a Chart

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC GCHART to create a chart for the Requests data.

   proc gchart data=requests;
     pie requestid / sumvar=reportername
         value=arrow
         percent=arrow
         noheading
         percent=inside plabel=(height=12pt)
         slice=inside value=none
         name='RequestsChart';
   run;