Guide to Centralized Jira Connections

What is a centralized Jira connection?

If your community sends feedback to Jira from more than one project, you've likely had to enter the same Jira credentials over and over. A centralized Jira connection lets a community admin set up a Jira instance once, in the Integration Center, so any project in the community can use it.

Project admins still choose whether to use a shared connection or authenticate independently. Nothing about an existing project-level setup changes unless you switch it.

Common use cases

• Send feedback from multiple projects to the same Jira instance without re-entering credentials in each one
• Rotate a Jira API token in one place instead of updating every project that uses it
• Control which team members can view or edit Jira credentials, separate from who can pick a connection
• See at a glance which projects depend on a given Jira connection before editing or removing it

Before you start

You'll need:

• A Community Administrator role to add, edit, or remove community-level Jira connections. Project admins can select a connection but can't view or edit its credentials.
• A Jira account with access to submitting issues in the desired Jira project. A dedicated service account that doesn't use an SSO-only login to Jira is best, since Centercode authenticates directly using Jira-provided access tokens.
• Your Jira base URL and an API token or personal access token, depending on your authentication scheme.

Adding a Jira instance in the Integration Center

Community-level Jira connections live in the same place as your Slack integration.

1. Click Community configuration > Integration center
2. Select the Jira tab
3. Click Add a Jira instance 
4. Enter an Instance name to identify this connection (for example, "Centercode Engineering")
5. Enter the Base URL of your Jira site, including https
6. Choose an Authentication scheme: Basic or Bearer
7. Enter the Username and API token (or personal access token, depending on scheme)
8. Click Test to confirm Centercode can reach your Jira site
9. Click Save

A successful test lists the Jira projects Centercode can see, so you know the connection works before any project relies on it. If the test fails, double-check that the API token is valid and has access to the project you expect.

Using a community connection in a project

Once a community connection exists, project admins see it as an option when they configure a Jira External Destination.

1. From the feedback type's External destinations tool, create or edit a Jira destination
2. Choose a connection from the dropdown, or select Project-specific connection to authenticate independently

Field mapping, dynamic tags, and workflow triggers work identically no matter which connection source you choose. See the Guide to Centercode & Jira Integration for those steps.

Managing existing connections

From the Integration Center, each Jira instance shows which projects currently use it.

• Edit: update the instance name, base URL, or credentials. Rotating a token here updates every project using that connection automatically, no re-entry required.
• Remove: Centercode warns you which projects rely on the connection before you confirm. Projects that revert to a project-specific connection they'd previously configured don't need to re-enter those credentials.

Notes

• Existing project-level Jira connections aren't migrated automatically. They keep working as project-specific connections until you choose to switch a project to a community connection.
• Credentials are encrypted at rest.
• The Integration Center tracks who last edited a connection and when, but doesn't keep a full change history.
• Looking for the project-level setup steps, including field mapping and dynamic tags? See the Guide to Centercode & Jira Integration.
• Running into an error? Check the Jira Integration FAQ and Troubleshooting.