How to enable and use Jira Connectors

Jira Connectors are pre-built application requests that interact with Jira when they are used in a rule or macro. Front has several rule / macro templates and settings available to simplify the setup process to automate specific tasks.

Use Jira Connectors to:

• Quickly create Jira issues from your Front inbox

• Send comments from Front to Jira

• Automatically attach a Jira issue to a conversation from comments

Configure additional settings to:

• Receive comments from Jira within Front

• Get specific Jira issue status updates within Front

If you’d like to create or browse Jira issues using Front’s sidebar plugin, see this article: How to enable and use the Jira Integration.

Once you’ve connected your Jira account to Front, select and configure the templates and settings that support your team’s workflows. These templates are customizable, so your end-user experience can vary from pre-built settings based on your final configuration.

You must have Front company admin permissions to set up the integration. Once enabled it can be used by any teammate.

Step 1

Click the gear icon on the top right of Front and into the Company settings tab, and select App store from the left menu.

Step 2

Select Jira from the list of integrations. Click See details, then click Enable app.

Step 3

You’ll be navigated to the Authentication tab in the Jira integration. Click the Sign in button. 

Step 4

You’ll see a pop-up window to authenticate with your Jira credentials to enable the integration for the company.

Note: When authenticating the Jira integration, Front attempts to add a webhook subscription for Jira issue updates. This lets Front know when Jira resolves an issue. If Front is not reopening closed issues, please check with your Jira admin to see if a webhook to frontapp.com exists in your Jira settings. It may be necessary to re-authenticate on Front's side with a Jira admin that is able to create webhooks through the Jira API.

Step 5

Click Save in the pop-up to finish enabling the Jira integration. You’ll see updated values in the Created by, Date created, and Status fields.

Once you’ve connected your organization’s Jira account to Front, you can select which Jira Connectors you’d like to enable (see How it works section for the full list).

In this example, we’ll select the Auto-create Jira issues in Front macro template.

Step 1

In the Get started tab, navigate to the Auto-create Jira issues in Front Connector, then click Go to macro template.

Step 2

In the pop-up, select which workspace you’d like to create this macro in. Click Save.

Step 3

You’ll be navigated to the macro library. Hover over the Create Jira issue template, click View template, then select Use this template.

Step 4 (optional)

In the Flow builder tab, click the Collect teammate answers step to adjust the fields you want teammates to fill out. Click the Preview button to see how the pop-up will look. 

In this example, teammates are required to provide an issue summary and description when they trigger the macro.

Step 5

Click the Apply actions step to modify the actions the macro should take when it is triggered. See here for a list of supported actions.

In this example, we want the macro to take the following actions:

Step 6 (optional)

Use the plus sign to add branches based on specific conditions. This allows your macro to dynamically react to the context of the conversation to perform the correct actions.

Step 7

Click Create. Teammates can now see and use the macro in their conversations.

Once your admin sets up Jira Connectors for your team, you can auto-create and link Jira issues, send and receive comments, and get real-time Jira status updates—all within Front. Connectors are customizable, so your experience can vary from pre-built settings.

In the conversation, select your Jira macro and fill in the required fields.

After you click Submit, a Jira issue is automatically created and linked to your conversation. The actions will display in the conversation’s activity history.

When a teammate mentions a Jira issue in a comment or message, the issue will automatically link to the conversation.

If a customer checks in on a request, use a macro to ask for an update in the Jira issue. A pop-up will appear allowing you to send a comment from Front to Jira.

Once you’ve sent your comment:

• The action will display in the conversation’s activity history.

• The comment will also be posted in the conversation. 

When teammates add comments to a Jira issue or changes its status, you’ll see those updates are visible in the conversation’s comments.

This depends on your team’s workflows and how you’d like to use Jira and Front together. Each integration provides different benefits: 

• Jira Connector: Great for teams who want to enhance their Front<>Jira workflows using automations

• Jira plugin: Helpful for teammates who want to see Jira issue details side-by-side with their conversations

See the table below for details on supported features:

You can connect one Jira instance to the integration.

When sending comments from Front to Jira, the comment will send to all of the Jira issues associated with the conversation.

Yes. By default, Jira issues or comments created via the Jira Connector are tied to the teammate account used to authenticate the integration (Admin setup, Part 1). e.g. If Sophia set up the Jira integration, all Jira issues and comments created by the integration look like they are created by Sophia.

You can adjust the Jira account in your Front macro settings, depending on the configuration of your Jira instance. In this example, we can adjust the Reporter field.

If you're currently using the Jira plugin integration, an admin will need to disable then re-enable the Jira app in the app store to access the Jira Connector.

Note: Legacy plugin users will lose access to the legacy plugin. Users will gain access to the current plugin and Connector moving forward.

When a Jira issue changes status, Front will post a comment to the conversation if you have the "Get status updates from Jira to Front" setting enabled. To reopen a conversation when a comment with the Jira issue status change is posted, you can either:

• Change your company bump settings to reopen conversations when comments are added

• Create a rule to reopen conversations when a comment is added

This feature is available on the latest Growth plan or above.