Introduction

We have seen various ways to enhance JIRA functionality in the previous chapters, but how do we communicate with JIRA from another application? What are the various methods of integrating third-party applications with JIRA? Or in simple words, how does JIRA expose its functionalities to the outside world?

JIRA exposes its functionalities via REST, SOAP, or XML/RPC interfaces. Only a selected JIRA functionality is exposed via these interfaces but JIRA also lets us extend these interfaces. In this chapter, we will learn how to communicate with JIRA using these interfaces and add more methods into these interfaces by developing plugins. As REST is the preferred method for remote access in JIRA5+, the focus of this chapter is more on REST with examples of other interfaces as well. The core principle for all the interfaces is the same.

This chapter covers only a few examples and should not be treated as the final list of the supported methods. A more detailed explanation of all these...