How to enable and use the Jira integration

Overview

Like other integrations, you need to be an admin in order to enable the Jira integration for the first time, but once enabled it can be used by any teammate.

The Jira integration allows you to link new or existing Jira issues to conversations in Front. There are a few key benefits:

• Once a Jira issue is linked to a Front conversation, you can easily access it directly from Front
• When a Jira issue is attached to a Front conversation, a link back to all related conversations in Front will be added to the description of the Jira issue
• When the Jira issue is completed, linked Front conversations will automatically reopen to allow you and your teammates to follow up with any updates

  

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Instructions

The instructions below are for enabling for Jira Cloud. If you use Jira on-premise, see section below.

Admin steps

Step 1

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

Step 2

Select Jira from the list of integrations. Click to the Settings tab and turn the toggle to enable the integration. 

Step 3

If you'd like to reopen conversations after a tagged Jira issue has been closed, then click the Sign in to Jira button. You will see the following screen to sign in with your API token:

This step requires a Jira admin to log in to enable the integration for the company. You will need to enter your Jira base URL, which is a unique URL to access your company's Jira database. It should be in the format of: something.atlassian.net

Your login username is the email address you signed up with, and the password is an API token you must create in your account settings. If you use SSO with Jira, your password is also the API token.

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 4

Click Save to finish enabling the Jira integration.

End-user steps

Step 5

Go into your Front workspace view. On any conversation, click the tag button and select Jira issue.

Step 6

The first time you use the Jira integration, you will be required to sign in to Jira from Front using your preferred method of logging into Jira. You will see the sign-in screen below, where you can select how you want to log in:

You can sign in with your Jira email, or use a Google/Microsft account:

If you want to Sign in with an API token, Step 3 above for details.

Step 7

Now, you can use the tag menu to create a new Jira issue to attach an existing issue by toggling between Open a new issue or Attach to existing.

 

Step 8

Once you've attached the issue, you will see a tag at the top of the conversation linking to the issue in Jira. Click the tag to see more options, such as opening the to the issue within Jira.

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FAQ

What if we use Jira on-premise instead of Jira Cloud?

There are 2 options for you: you can either create API tokens or set up an OAuth application for yourself. 

API Tokens: First try creating a token through the Atlassian portal. If you have any issues, we would suggest following Atlassian's guide on creating basic or OAuth tokens. Once you have generated an API token according to that guide, continue to log in to the Front JIRA integration with your JIRA host address, email, and this token.

OAuth Application: This will be more in depth. See this help article for more information.

Does the integration support custom fields?

No, the Jira integration does not support custom fields at this time.