• Article
  • Aug.6.2019

Exploring Jira and Confluence Integration for Better Collaboration

  • Aug.6.2019
  • Reading time mins

Many of you use Jira and Confluence. But are you fully exploiting the potential of integrating these two tools? This article focuses on native features that allow you to link Jira and Confluence, increasing the power of your collaborative platform.

1. Listing your Jira requests in Confluence

It is possible to view Jira requests from Confluence using the Jira Issues macro. This is one way to integrate your Jira and Confluence instances. To accomplish this task:

  1. Open the Confluence page in editing mode;
  2. Position the cursor where you wish to insert your Jira query table. You can move this item later if you wish;
  3. Select the Jira Issues macro from the macro browser;
  4. Enter the search criteria in JQL format and confirm.

 

List Jira requests in Confluence

2. Creating your Jira requests from within Confluence

Another feature of the Jira Issues macro is the ability to create Jira or Jira Service Management requests from within Confluence. There are two ways to do it. Here’s the first:

Option 1— The Fastest Method

  1. Go to any Confluence page you like;
  2. Select the text you want to use to create your request in Jira;
  3. Fill in the fields as shown below.

The results will immediately be visible in Jira. Note that the link to return to Confluence is automatically created in the Jira request.

 

Create requests from Confluence - fast method

 

Option 2—Via Jira Filter/Request

In this case, you’ll want to switch to editing mode on your Confluence page, then follow the guide—it’s very easy.

  1. Enter edit mode
  2. Click on the Jira Issue macro and click edit
  3. Click Create New Issue

 

Create requests from Confluence - method 2

 

The result is the same as for Option 1: the link to the Jira ticket will appear on your Confluence page as soon as you have confirmed everything.

 

3. Viewing Jira dashboards in Confluence

It’s also possible to integrate your Jira dashboard gadgets into Confluence. To do so, you must first register them as described here and shown below:

View dashboards in Confluence

 

The gadget is now available in Confluence and accessible in the macro browser, as you can see here.

4. Viewing Confluence pages in a Jira dashboard

Similarly, it is possible to display Confluence pages as gadgets in a Jira dashboard.

  1. Export the gadget from Confluence;
  2. Save the gadget in Jira to make it available:

 

View Confluence pages in Jira

 

3. In Jira, select the gadget to add your Confluence page to the Jira dashboard as follows:

 

Select gadget

 

5. Linking Jira requests to Confluence pages

The most knowledgeable of you certainly know that it is possible to link a Jira application to a Confluence page.
Doing so takes only 3 steps:

  1. Click the “Link” button, from the “More” menu of the Jira application display screen;
  2. Select the “Confluence Page” tab, as shown in the illustration below;
  3. Find the Confluence page you want, and confirm.

 

Link requests

 

6. Powering a knowledge base with Jira Service Management

Confluence user guide articles and technical documentation pages can be turned into knowledge base articles, which can then be linked to Jira Service Management to give users valuable information that could potentially solves their issues. It acts as a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topics.

Click here to read more on the different steps needed to create a knowledge base with JSM and Confluence.

7. Creating a table of Jira requests in a Confluence page

Get the JQL of the Jira requests you want to insert on the page, and then insert a Jira Issue Filter. Paste the JQL and select the columns you want to be displayed on the table. Then click insert and save the page. A list of the Jira issues relating to your JQL will appear.

 

Create table of Jira requests in Confluence

 

8. Creating Jira reports on a Confluence page

To create Jira report pages that can be used for presentations or to visualize the progress of your work, simply add a Jira report by following the steps shown below.

 

Create Jira reports on Confluence

 

The features mentioned in this article are available natively and do not require any particular development work or app. However, they require pre-configuration. Don’t hesitate to contact us or register for our Jira and Confluence training sessions if you need guidance.

 

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