How to use a Variable to improve Data Source Reusability

In this demonstration, we will use a variable instead of a fixed JQL query. That way the data source will be reusable for different JQL queries and it is not necessary to copy the data source multiple times. This approach will also work for other Data Source types.

Prerequisites:

A data source that supports variables. In this example: Local Jira using the expression endpoint

Steps:

We create a local Jira data source configuration with the POST body using the expression endpoint with a fixed JQL first.

NONE

.../rest/api/3/expression/eval

CODE

{
    "expression": "issues.map(i => {
            id: i.id, key: i.key, summary: i.summary, description: i.description
        })",
    "context": {
        "issues": {
            "jql": {
                "query": "assignee = EMPTY ORDER BY created DESC",
                "maxResults": 50
            }
        }
    }
}

We are using the fixed JQL query assignee = EMPTY ORDER BY created DESC which will return a specific set of issues.

The next step is to utilize a variable to dynamically create queries. In this example we replace the JQL query asignee = EMPTY ORDER BY created DESC with {jql}.

This is how the post body in our example should now look like:

CODE

{
    "expression": "issues.map(i => {
            id: i.id, key: i.key, summary: i.summary, description: i.description
        })",
    "context": {
        "issues": {
            "jql": {
                "query": "{jql}",
                "maxResults": 50
            }
        }
    }
}

Now you can use this Data Source in multiple Field Configurations with different JQL queries. In this example we use Field Options Sync and entered the previously used JQL here instead.

Here is the result of the Field Configuration used in the issue to identify which issues have an empty Assignee field.

In a similar manner, we can use various Field Configurations and use different JQL queries to fetch the information and make our Data Source flexible.