How to Connect Tableau to Jira

Jira is a leading project management tool which tracks the development and maintenance of world-class, enterprise software. Business analytics tools such as Tableau, Tibco, and SAP Lumira can be used to visualize the data consumed by Jira, transforming it into valuable business insights. However, a key challenge in visualizing Jira data with analytics tools is the ability to connect to and securely access your Jira data. The Autonomous REST Connector from Progress DataDirect offers a secure, flexible solution for connecting Tableau to Jira. This tutorial walks you through the process of connecting Tableau to Jira using the JDBC connector (or driver) on Windows. The following tasks are covered:

• Download and install Autonomous REST Connector for Windows
• Select the Jira model and create a connection
• Connect Tableau to Jira

• An installation of the Autonomous REST Connector for JDBC.
• Access to Jira. Visit the Atlassian Jira web page for details.
• An installation of Tableau. Visit Tableau Desktop Trial to download a trial version of Tableau.

The following steps describe how to download and install the Autonomous REST Connector for JDBC.

Note: ODBC connectivity to Jira is supported with the Autonomous REST Connector for ODBC.

1. Click the TRY NOW button.
The Autonomous REST Connector for JDBC provides JDBC connectivity to JIRA and many other REST APIs.
TRY NOW
2. Provide the required information; then, click DOWNLOAD. The download link is sent to you via email.
3. Download the connector zip file and extract its contents into a temporary directory; then, double-click the installer program: PROGRESS_DATADIRECT_JDBC_INSTALL.exe
4. Follow the prompts to complete the installation.

The following steps show how to select a Jira model, connect to Jira, and test the Jira connection from within the connector.

1. Open the Autonomous REST Composer by selecting the Autonomous REST Composer (JDBC) icon from your desktop or the Windows Start menu. The Autonomous REST Composer opens in your default web browser.

   Note: The Autonomous REST Composer is the Autonomous REST Connector's interface for selecting or building REST API models.

   

2. Type Jira in the search field; then, select the Jira model. The Connection tab for the JIRA model opens.

   

3. Provide a value for the Server Name property. The value should be the host name portion of the HTTP endpoint to which you send requests. It should not include the preceding portion of the URL: https://. For example, a Jira endpoint would take the following form: mycompany.atlassian.net.
4. From the Authentication Method drop-down, select Basic. Then, provide values for the following properties.

   Note: The Autonomous REST Connector supports basic authentication to connect to the Jira API. Basic authentication is supported with the user of an Atlassian account email address and an API token. For details, refer to Basic auth for REST APIs in the Atlassian Developer documentation.

   • User: Enter your Atlassian account email address.
   • Password: Enter your API token. API tokens can be created from the Atlassian API Tokens page.
5. Set the values for any optional properties that you want to configure.
6. To test your configuration:
   1. Click Test Connect or select the SQL Editor tab from the side menu.
   2. From the SQL Editor screen, expand AUTOREST in the Schema Tree pane to view a list of tables showing Jira data exposed by the connector.
   3. In the Editor pane, specify a query that you would like to test.
   4. Click Execute.

      Note: If successful, the driver will return your results in the Results pane.

7. Download your model file:
   1. Select the Configure Endpoints tab.
   2. Optionally, add, remove, or edit endpoints that are used to return data for use with SQL-based applications.
   3. Click Download to save your model file.

   Note: When configuring the connection to Jira in Tableau, you will need to specify the fully qualified path to your JIRA model file in the Tableau connection URL. The connection string generated by the Autonomous REST Composer does not automatically provide a location.

8. As you provide values for properties, the Composer generates a connection string. You may use this connection string as the basis for the Tableau connection to Jira . Take the following steps to prepare the Tableau connection URL:
   1. On the Set Authentication tab, click the copy button and paste the connection string into a text editor.
   2. Replace the server name information (servername=progresssoftware.atlassian.net) with the fully qualified path to your Jira model file using the Config property (Config='C:\Users\windows-user\Downloads\Jira.rest'). The revised connection string may be used as the Tableau connection URL. For example:

      jdbc:datadirect:autorest:Config='C:\Users\windows-user\Downloads\Jira.rest';authenticationmethod=Basic;user=atlassian-email-address;password=atlassian-api-token;

The following steps show how to connect Tableau to Jira using the Autonomous REST Connector for JDBC.

1. Navigate to the \lib\xx subdirectory of the Progress DataDirect installation directory; then, locate the autorest.jar file. This is the Autonomous REST Connector driver jar file.
2. Copy the autorest.jar file into the following directory:
   C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers
3. Open Tableau. From the Connect menu, select Other Databases (JDBC).
4. In the Other Databases (JDBC) dialog, provide values for the following fields; then, click Sign In.
   • URL: Copy and paste your connection URL into this field. For example:

     jdbc:datadirect:autorest:Config='C:\Users\windows-user\Downloads\Jira.rest';authenticationmethod=Basic;user=atlassian-email-address;password=atlassian-api-token

     Note: The connection string generated by the Autonomous REST Connector may be used as the basis of the Tableau connection URL. The connection string must be modified such that server name information (ServerName=progresssoftware.atlassian.net) is replaced with the fully qualified path to your Jira model file using the Config property (Config='C:\Users\windows-user\Downloads\Jira.rest'). Downloading the JIRA model file is described in Step 7 in the preceding section.

   • Dialect: Select SQL92 (the default) from the drop-down box.
   • Username: Enter your Atlassian account email address if you did not include it in the connection URL.
   • Password: Enter your API token if you did not include it in the connection URL.
5. The Data Source window appears. In the Schema field, select the schema for the service you want to use.
6. In the Table field, the tables stored in the selected schema are now exposed and available for selection.

Result: You have successfully accessed your data and are now ready to create reports with Tableau. For more information, refer to the Tableau product documentation at http://www.tableau.com/support/help.

Thank you for taking the time to consider the Progress DataDirect solution for connecting Tableau to Jira. Please contact us for additional information. Click the LEARN MORE button for additional product resources.