Table of Contents
Introduction
In the "System Administration / Applications" area, all connections to external applications are configured in foreknown. Currently, foreknown supports an integration of the task and project management solution "Atlassian Jira".
The administration of applications is only possible for users with the role "Account Administrator".
General Maintenance
If one or more applications are already created, they will be displayed in the form of a scrollable, sortable and filterable list.
Here, the action menu can be opened in each line via the three dots at the beginning. This offers the options to edit or delete the respective application.
In addition, the names, App-Id and status of the individual applications can be found in the list view.
Edit Application
To edit the details set in step 1, click on the action menu and then click on "Edit Application". This will open the "Update Jira Application" dialog.
The "Save" action applies the changes. The action "Reset"(arrow in circle) clears all fields and with the action "Cancel" the dialog is closed.
Delete Application
To delete an application, you have to click on the action menu and then "Delete application". The "Delete Application" dialog will open, which must be confirmed with "Delete".
Also in Jira the connection to foreknown can be deleted. To do this, go to "Settings / Apps / foreknown / Configuration", click on the action menu for the corresponding App-ID in the list and then select "Remove".
Connecting Jira with foreknown
The following three steps will show you how to connect your Jira projects to foreknown and synchronize projects or individual tasks.
Step 1: Create Jira application in foreknown
To add a new Jira application in foreknown, first click on the plus in the top right corner.
This will open the "Create Jira Application" dialog:
The following inputs can/must be specified for a new application:
- Name: A unique name must be entered here.
- Automatic creation of users: If this checkbox is activated, new users will be created in foreknown during synchronization.
This checkbox should usually be activated to allow a smooth synchronization.
Note: Users that do not yet exist in foreknown will be created with the user ID from Jira and the first and last name in foreknown and linked to the tasks, comments, work logs. Subsequently, the user data can be completed in foreknown. The creation ensures that the foreknown user is linked to the Jira user via the Jira user ID and can thus be uniquely assigned during future synchronizations.
- Automatic creation of projects: If this checkbox is activated, new projects (and their data such as tasks, comments, and working hours) are directly created when the project is created in Jira. If the checkbox is deactivated, only projects and their data that have been synchronized at least once will be transferred.
The "Save" action saves the new Jira application. The "Reset" and "Cancel" actions discard the entries, and in the case of the "Cancel" action, the dialog is closed.
If a new Jira application has been created, it is displayed in the list with the app id and status.
The App-Id is displayed in the list behind the name. This ID is required when setting up the Jira plugin in the desired Jira instance in order to connect to the foreknown instance.
In the list of applications / Jira, one status is displayed per entry:
- Disconnected: no connection to a Jira instance has been established yet.
- Connected: the connection with a Jira instance has been established.
Step 2: Install foreknown Plug-in in Jira
The foreknown Jira plug-in is currently still configured as a "private plug-in" and therefore not yet available via the Atlassian Marketplace. If you are interested, please contact our support (support@foreknown.io) to get the required URL to install the foreknown plug-in.
In order to install the app with the URL provided by us, you must first go to "Manage apps/apps" in the corresponding project. There you have to activate the checkbox "Enable private listings" in the "Settings", which can be found below the "User-installed apps".
After that, on the "Manage apps" page, you can find "Upload app" in the top right corner. Clicking on it will open the "Upload app" dialog.
In this, the URL provided by us must be entered. By "Upload" the installation of the app begins, "Cancle" discards the input and closes the dialog.
Step 3: Establish Connection
Via the configuration page "Settings / Apps / foreknown / Configuration" the link "Connect new foreknown App..." opens the popup dialog "Connect Foreknown App", where the "App-Id" of the Jira application created in foreknown has to be entered.
With the action "Submit" the App-Id in foreknown is checked. If a Jira application is found in foreknown, a connection is established and the status of the Jira application in foreknown is set to "Connected".
Synchronize Project
In the project settings, under the "Apps" section in the navigation, you will find the entry "Foreknown". This link opens the dialog "Foreknown project config", where the action "Synchronize project" opens the popup dialog "Synchronization with foreknown".
The following inputs can/must be specified for a new application:
- Synchronize work logs: If this checkbox is active all work logs from the given date will be synchronized.
- Synchronize comments: If this checkbox is active all comments from the given date will be synchronized.
- Date: The start date from which data will be transferred.
With the action "Submit" the project will be synchronized, the action "Close" closes the dialog.
Synchronize Task
It is also possible to synchronize a single task in Jira with foreknown. To do this, select the desired task and open the "Sync with foreknown" action via the action menu. This action also opens the "Sync with foreknown" dialog (See: Synchronize Project) with the difference that only the selected task and not the whole project will be synchronized. The same setting options apply.
Note: Specifying a date from which comments and working times should be synchronized serves to optimize the synchronization, since often only the last changes to comments or working times are missing and should be transferred by the synchronization.
Connect Tempo
Important: The following steps must be performed by a user with FULL ACCESS to ALL working hours.
In case you also want to connect the "Tempo" Jira App with foreknown, you first need to open the API Integration under "Apps/Apps Manage/Timesheets/Configure/API Integration".
Here you need to create a token under "+ New Token". In the "Create Token" dialog, the checkboxes
- View worklogs
- View accounts (optional, creates a label for the assigned account of the task)
must be activated. After saving a new token is created, which has to be copied and pasted in the foreknown configuration of jira under "Tempo API Token setup...".
If the dialog is confirmed with "Submit" after entering the token, Tempo connects to foreknown. With the action "Close the entries are discarded and the dialog is closed.
Documentation Note: Integration with Jira and Tempo Timesheets will submit additional information (labels) to your foreknown instance. These are very helpful for the automatic generation of service entries via rules. Therefore you can find additional information in the documentation under Billing / Manage Rules concerning these labels.