Atlassian IDE Connectors : Working with JIRA Issues in Eclipse

Created by Sarah Maddox [Atlassian], last modified by Giles Gaskell on Sep 15, 2010

The Atlassian Connector for Eclipse allows you to monitor, add and update JIRA issues while remaining in your integrated development environment.

Before reading the information below, please make sure that you have installed the Atlassian Connector for Eclipse, as described in the installation guide, and defined a task repository for at least one JIRA server, as described in the configuration guide.

Configuration Guide

For information on setting up your JIRA server in Eclipse, please read the configuration guide.

On this page:

Creating a Query

The first step is to connect to a JIRA repository.


To connect to a JIRA repository,

  1. Make the Task Repositories view visible using the menu Window > Show View > Other and select Tasks -> Task Repositories.
  2. Click the 'Add Task Repository' icon in the toolbar of the view.

    A wizard for setting the repository properties is displayed.
  3. Choose JIRA (supports 3.4 and later) from the list of connectors and select Next. The 'JIRA Repository Settings' screen will display:
  4. Enter the URL of your JIRA instance as the 'Server' URL (e.g. 'http://jira.atlassian.com').
  5. Enter the label for the JIRA instance (e.g. 'JAC'). This will display in your Eclipse IDE for the JIRA instance.
  6. Enter your 'User ID' and 'Password' for the JIRA instance.
  7. Click the 'Validate Settings' button to verify that the entered credentials are valid.
  8. Select Finish to create the repository. You will then be prompted to create a query.
  9. Click 'Yes' to start creating a new query.


To create a new query,

  1. 'Create query using form' will be selected by default. Click Next. On the query creation, Mylyn will download the repository configuration which can take a few minutes. The 'Edit Repository Query' window will display. Enter the following information:
    • Enter a Query Title that for your query.
    • Choose search parameters that define the query.
  2. Click the Finish button to add the query to your task list.

The Java perspective displays the task list in the upper right section of the workbench. If it is not visible go to Window > Show View > Other and select Tasks > Task List. The task list shows the list of tasks that match the query. The blue arrow icons indicate that the task have incoming changes. Double clicking a task will bring up the task editor.

Screenshot: Task List

The task editor displays the attributes, description and comments of a JIRA issue and allows you to edit the issue.

Screenshot: Task Editor

Creating a New Issue

To create a new issue,

  1. Click the 'New Task' icon in toolbar of the Task List. The 'New Task' wizard will display.
  2. Choose your repository (e.g. 'JAC') from the list of repositories.
  3. Select Next to and choose a project from the list of projects.
  4. Select Finish to open the editor for entering task details.

Screenshot: Creating an issue in Eclipse

Viewing an Issue

To view an issue in Eclipse,

  1. Open the 'Task List' in Eclipse if it is not already opened, i.e. Click 'Window' -> 'Show View' -> 'Other' -> 'Tasks' -> 'Task List'. The queries that you have set up will be displayed.
  2. Click the arrow next to the query to show the list of issues returned by the query.
  3. Find the desired issue and double-click it. The issue will be displayed in Eclipse.

Screenshot: Viewing an issue in Eclipse

Starting/Stopping Work on an Issue

You can start work on an issue in Eclipse by activating it in your IDE. This assigns the issue to you and starts progress on it.

To start work on an issue,

  1. Open an issue in Eclipse. The issue will be displayed.
  2. Click the icon ('Start Work in JIRA and Activate Task'). The icon will be indented. This will also do the following:
    • Activates the issue in Eclipse.
    • Assigns the issue to you in JIRA.
    • Transitions the issue to 'In Progress' in JIRA (in the default JIRA workflow).
      (info) If you log work on an issue, it will automatically calculate and suggest the period of time from when you first activated the issue. Please note, you need to enable time tracking in Mylyn for this ('Windows' -> 'Preferences' -> 'Tasks' in Eclipse).
  3. To stop work on an issue, simply click the indented icon. This will do the following:
    • Deactivates the issue in Eclipse.
    • Transitions the issue back to 'Open' in JIRA (in the default JIRA workflow).
RELATED TOPICS

Refer to the JIRA documentation for more information about JIRA functionality.

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