Category: ScriptWalker

The Problem

One of the problems we encounter with migrating large Jira instances is that when it comes to JCMA, you either have to add all of the Advanced Roadmaps plans or none of them. There’s no facility for selectively adding Roadmaps plans.

One such migration involved moving a subset or portion of the instance data, rather than the whole thing.   Though the instance had 1400+ Roadmaps plans, we only needed to migrate about 100 of them.

The solution we came up with was:

  1. Take a backup of the current production instance
  2. Delete all of the Advanced Roadmaps plans that didn’t need to be migrated
  3. Perform the migration
  4. Restore the production instance from the backup

Naturally, none of us fancied deleting 1300 Roadmaps plans by hand, especially if we had to do it more than once during the course of testing.  So we scripted it.

The Solution

The actual deleting of an Advanced Roadmaps plan is pretty simple.  To delete a plan, just send a DELETE request to the plan’s API endpoint, /rest/jpo/1.0/plans/<planID> .  So long as you have a list of plan names or IDs that you want to keep, you can tell the script to delete any plans

…

Intro

(If you haven’t read the previous post in this series, I highly recommend starting with that.)

In order to make use of the Jira API documentation, we need to understand what classes, packages, and methods are.   That’s because the JIRA API is documented, but only in the most technical sense.  It is predicated on you having some knowledge of Java.    You can go to https://docs.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/api/latest and get information about all of the internal libraries that Jira uses to function, but it’s not much good to you without that prior knowledge.

At the same time, knowing how to read and make use of the API documentation is a vital skill when it comes to working with ScriptRunner.   All of Jira’s functionality is available for you to use, but only if you can harness it through the power of classes.

What’s the Problem?

The problem I ran into when I was first starting to learn how to use ScriptRunner is that very little is written in a context that a beginner could make use of, and few examples are provided.  A lot of the Jira’s internal functions are interdependent, and someone who is new to both Groovy and Jira

…

Introduction

So you or your organization have decided to purchase, or at least trial, ScriptRunner. Now what?

If you’re going to learn how to use ScriptRunner, I would very strongly advise that you set it up in a test environment.  This allows you to learn to use the tool, and to not have to worry about making mistakes or deleting production data.

In order to use ScriptRunner, you’ll need to be an admin on the Jira system in question.   As well, I’ll do my best to explain the Groovy code that we’re using, but it would be of great benefit for you to read some primary learning materials on the subject.   Some of what I’ll say will assume a basic knowledge of object-oriented programming principles.   Please note that Groovy is case-sensitive, but is agnostic to whitespace.

All of the testing and learning we’re going to be doing is done in the ScriptRunner Script Console.   You can think of this as sort of a window into your Jira system, in which Groovy code can be run.  The Script Console is accessed by going to your Jira System Setings > Manage Apps > ScriptRunner > Script Console.  ScriptRunner has many

…

I am entirely self-taught when it comes to ScriptRunner and Groovy.   Everything I’ve learned has been through trial and error, and Googling different permutations of words until I find a solution.

A great deal of the information out there assumes that you already know how to work with ScriptRunner, Groovy, and Jira or Confluence.   I found this to be terrifically frustrating when I first started, as I did not have the requisite knowledge to make use of the information that I was finding.  I didn’t have the skills to put it into context, never mind making use of it in the specific use case to which I was trying to apply it.

For that reason, I’m going back to the beginning.  I’m starting an ongoing series of blog posts about how to get started with ScriptRunner for both Jira and Confluence.  You need to learn to walk before you can run, so for that reason I am calling this series the ScriptWalker series.

Not only will this hopefully be a resource for persons just starting out with ScriptRunner, but it will also force me to be sure that I can teach what I’m doing. In the end, that will make

…