the presentation describes how to connect the issue tracker software atlassian jira with apex, using REST Webservices. The slides were presented in Rotterdam at the APEX World conference in the netherlands.

1. APEX connects Jira
Oliver Lemm
APEX World
07.03.2016

2. Facts & Figures
Independent Technology House
with Cross-Industry Expertise
Headquarter
Ratingen
(North Rhine – Westphalia)
240
Employees
Founded
1994
Branches
Dortmund, Cologne,
Frankfurt
Top Company
for Trainees &
Students
Privately-
Owned
Corporation
Oracle
Platinum
Partner
24 Mio. Euro
Revenue
2

3. about me
 Oliver Lemm
 since february 2007 working for MT AG in Ratingen
 Junior Consultant > Consultant > Senior Consultant
> Competence Center Leader APEX & Service Center Leader APEX
 Diploma applied computer science at the university of Duisburg-Essen
 Projectleader, IT-Architect and Developer
 working with Oracle Databases and Oracle Application Express since 2007
 Blog http://oliverlemm.blogspot.de
 Twitter https://twitter.com/OliverLemm
3

4. APEX Connect
26th – 28th April 2016 in Berlin
Get your early-bird ticket now!
APEX.DOAG.ORG#APEXCONN16

5. Agenda
1. Motivation
2. Jira
3. Webservices
4. JSON
5. Livedemo
5

6. Motivation
„Working with one tool to handle the developing process,
controlling and all other processes in one project“
„Calculating key figures based on Jira values which are not delivered by Jira itself.“
„Using integrated Jira Plugins and adding additional
functionality by using APEX as known technology“
6
requirements

7. Jira
 https://www.atlassian.com/JIRA
 Issue tracking and code integration
 Supporting Dashboards & Plugins
 perfect integration from Confluence (wiki)
and Subversion (versioning)
 supporting complex workflows
 Issue import from Bugzilla, Mantis, GitHub, …
 Supporting von REST-Webservices
7

8. 8

9. Jira
9
Workflow

10. Jira
 supporting a huge number of attributes
 time tracking (estimated, time spent, remaining)
 Components (can be used for APEX pages and database objects)
 versions
 fields and screens adjustable per project
 external issue numbers, date of commision, date of payment
 Supporting own workflows
 Describing a whole process, usable for non developing processes
 Every step can be defined by user rights or issue dependencies
 Using „JIRA Timesheet Reports and Gadgets Plugin“
10
Integrated features

11. Jira
 key figures not in desired aggregation
 time per year/month
 no further support for SOAP Webservices in Jira
 SOAP Interface doesn‘t return all values
 Using Jira-Plugins
 Listed Plugins not fullfilling all requiremends
 Developing own Jira-Plugins is complex and time consuming
11
lack of features

12. Jira
 API documentation for Jira REST-Webservices
https://docs.atlassian.com/jira/REST/latest/
 URL structure
 http://host:port/context/rest/api-name/api-version/resource-name
 Using an issue identfiied by the key JRA-9 would be like:
 https://jira.atlassian.com/rest/api/latest/issue/JRA-9
 Using JQL Language (syntax)
https://jira.mt-ag.com/rest/api/2/search?jql=project=BP
 Returning values in JSON Format (testable also in browser)
12
REST-Webservice

13. Jira
13
JQL
https://jira.mt-ag.com/rest/api/2/search?jql=project=BP

14. Jira
 addional information when getting REST-Webservice Result
 Default max 50 entries
 1. solution: add parameter &maxResults=XXX
 2. solution: add Parameter &startAt=50
 Sort the results
 If no Authentication needed, don‘t submit username/password -> you get Unauthorized (401)
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REST-Webservice
"expand":"schema,names","startAt":0,"maxResults":50,"total":827,"issues":[….]}
https://jira.mt-ag.com/rest/api/latest/search?jql=project=BP&maxResults=1000
https://jira.mt-ag.com/rest/api/latest/search?jql=project=BP&startAt=50
https://jira.mt-ag.com/rest/api/latest/search?jql=project=BP+order+by+duedate

15. Webservices
 getting Error:
 Example: https://jira.atlassian.com/rest/api/latest/issue/JRA-9
15
ACL
ORA-29273: HTTP request failed
ORA-24247: network access denied by access control list (ACL)
begin
dbms_network_acl_admin.create_acl(acl => 'jira.atlassian.com.xml'
,description => 'An ACL for Calling REST Webservices.'
,principal => l_principal
,is_grant => true
,privilege => 'connect'
,start_date => systimestamp
,end_date => null);
dbms_network_acl_admin.assign_acl(acl => 'jira.atlassian.com.xml'
,host => 'jira.atlassian.com'
,lower_port => 443
,upper_port => 443);
commit;
end;

16. Webservices
 Getting existing ACL Entries
 Important for ACL
 Using Web Service References (shared
components or the APEX_WEB_SERVICE
(package)
 principal = APEX_050000
 using utl_http or other packages calling
external resources
 principal = my_schema_name
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ACL select a.acl
,a.host
,a.lower_port
,a.upper_port
,p.principal
,p.privilege
,p.is_grant
,to_char(p.start_date
,'DD-MON-YYYY') as start_date
,to_char(p.end_date
,'DD-MON-YYYY') as end_date
from dba_network_acl_privileges p
left join dba_network_acls a on a.acl = p.acl

17. Webservices
17
exporting certificate

18. Webservices
 calling https:
 To solve this problem, you have to get the certificates which are used by the server which
runs Jira
 Getting certificate
 use your browser and call the URL from the REST-Webservice or even from Jira
 click on the lock symbol
 click show certificate
18
exporting certificate
ORA-29273: HTTP request failed
ORA-29024: Certificate validation failure

19. Webservices
19
importing certificate

20. Webservices
 use the Oracle Wallet Manager (OWM) to import the certificate
 run ORACLE_HOMEbinowm.cl (on windows a link is created)
 Import of the certificate is also possible using the command line
 create a wallet for the certificate using a path like this
ORACLE_BASEadmin<SID><name_wallet>
 Use automatic login for your wallet (otherwise you have to use the wallet always with your
password in your plsql code)
20
importing certificate

21. Webservice
 APEX documentation
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E59726_01/doc.50/e39151/adm_wrkspc002.htm#BABHEHAG
 Login into your INTERNAL Workspace
Manage Instance
Instance Settings
Wallet
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certificate in APEX

22. Webservices
 Shared Components
 Web Service References
 Create
 Problems
 based on single items
 authentification
 result as CLOB
only in Collection.
No support in
 apex_items
 report columns
 JSON Format
23
Web Service Reference

23. Webservices
24
Web Service Reference

24. Webservice
 Call REST
 p_http_method GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE
 Username & Password supporting Basic Authentication
 Parameter if parameter beside the URL itself are needed
25
APEX_WEB_SERVICE
l_clob := apex_web_service.make_rest_request(
p_url => 'https://jira.atlassian.com/rest/api/latest/issue/JRA-9'
,p_http_method => 'GET'
,p_wallet_path => 'file:C:oracleadminorclmein_wallet'
,p_username => 'lemmo'
,p_password => '123456 '‚
,p_parm_name => apex_util.string_to_table('param1:param2'),
,p_parm_value => apex_util.string_to_table('val1:val2')
);

25. JSON
 Datentypen
 String
 "QS - Demo Feature"
 "2015-11-03T13:48:16.630+0100"
 Number
 20
 Boolean
 true / false
 Null
 null
 Array
 [ {…}, {…}]
26
format
{
"id": "17149",
"self": "https://jira.mt-ag.com/rest/api/latest/issue/17149",
"key": "BP-7",
"fields":
{
“summary": "QS - Demo Feature",
"progress":
{
"progress": ​19800,
"total": ​19800,
"percent": ​100
},
"created": "2015-11-03T13:48:16.630+0100",
worklog": {
"startAt": ​0,
"maxResults": ​20,
"total": ​2,
"worklogs": [
{ ... },
{ ... }
]
}
}
}

26. JSON
 convert clob
to JSON object
 looping entries
 get value
27
processing
l_values apex_json.t_values;
….
apex_json.parse(p_values => l_values
,p_source => l_clob);
for i in 1 .. apex_json.get_count(p_values => l_values
,p_path => '.')
loop … end loop
l_jira_issue.key := apex_json.get_varchar2(p_values => pi_json_issue
,p_path => 'key');
l_jira_issue.timespent := apex_json.get_number(p_values => pi_json_issue
,p_path => 'fields.timespent');

27. JSON
 Number as String
 you have to convert
 Datetime as String
 Converting with
apex_json.get_date
doesn‘t work because
of format
 custom fields
in Jira are named like
customfield_xxxxx
28
special cases
"id": "17149"
"created": "2015-11-03T13:48:16.630+0100"
l_timestamp := to_timestamp_tz(pi_string
,'YYYY-MM-DD"T"hh24:mi:ss.FF3TZHTZM');
l_string := to_char(l_timestamp
,'yyyy.mm.dd hh24:mi:ss');
l_date := to_date(l_string
,'yyyy.mm.dd hh24:mi:ss');
apex_json.get_varchar2(p_values => pi_json_issue
,p_path => 'fields.customfield_10000');

28. JSON
 Time worked / Worklog not with information by day encapsuleted in issue
 you have call the worklog for every single ticket by one REST Call
29
special cases
for i in 1 .. apex_json.get_count(p_values => l_values, p_path => 'issues')
loop
l_rest_response := make_rest_request(pi_url => pi_jira_base_url || c_jira_rest_base_path || '/issue/' ||
apex_json.get_varchar2(p_values => l_values, p_path => 'issues[' || i || '].key'
,pi_username => pi_username
,pi_password => pi_password);
apex_json.parse(p_values => l_values_issue, p_source => l_rest_response);
l_jira_issue := get_issue_from_json(pi_json_issue => l_values_issue);
for j in 1 .. apex_json.get_count(p_values => l_values_issue
,p_path => 'fields.worklog.worklogs')
loop
l_jira_issue_worklog := get_issue_worklog_from_json(pi_json_issue_worklog => l_values_issue
,pi_path => 'fields.worklog.worklogs[' || j || '].'
,pi_jira_issue_id => l_jira_issue.id
,pi_jira_issue_key => l_jira_issue.key);
pipe row(l_jira_issue_worklog);

29. JSON
 transform JSON into type
 easier to use
 Transformation in package instead APEX
 testing possible by using sql
 Entities defined as column names
 documentation von
CollectionSpalte – JSON – Spaltenname im Type
 using table function based on defined types
30
processing create or replace type t_jira_issue force as object
(
-- { id: "16276"
-- c001
id number, -- Jira Issue ID
-- { self: https://jira.mt-
ag.com/rest/api/2/issue/16276
-- c003
url_json varchar2(32767), -- c003 - JSON URL
-- { key: "UITFPP-1057„
-- c001
key varchar2(32767), -- Issue Key
select *
from table(jira_rest_ws_pkg.get_projects(pi_base_url => 'https://jira.atlassian.com'))

30. APEX
 using APEX_COLLECTIONS
 not every search means new webservice call
 loading page doesn‘t call a webservice
 APEX itself relies also on collections when working with Web Service References
 problem authentication for webservice call
 every call needs a username & password
 using Web Service Reference it‘s inconvenient
 using Application Items instead
 when logging into the apex application password is saved on server-side by application item
 attention the password value is visible in session state
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31. APEX
32
Livedemo

32. Conclusion
 complexity is huge because of many different technical aspects
 all important key facts are calculateable
 transforming JSON in JavaScript or PL/SQL is not easy in the beginning
 first time parsing JSON even with APEX_JSON needs practice
remember in 12c you can directly parse JSON by SQL
 Using APEX integrated „Web Service Reference“ only for simple examples
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33. @OliverLemm
http://oliverlemm.blogspot.de/
http://de.linkedin.com/in/OliverLemm
https://www.xing.com/profile/Oliver_Lemm
Thanks!