How Do I Create A Table Within Jira and Update It On A Regular Basis Using the API
Asked by Kevin Uzomechine:

Hi everyone,

I'm still new to Jira so bare with me please. What I'm trying to do right now is have live asset communication between the asset managing software my company uses (its called Sunbird), and Jira: Basically, I want people in my company to be able to see assets from Sunbird on the Jira interface, and anytime a change is made in Sunbird, that change is automatically reflected in Jira.

Jira doesn't support a native CMBD integration with Sunbird and while I understand that I can use CSV/JSON import or even the API to get data into Jira assets- I do not want to use Jira assets for the timebeing as it would cost the company money and I'm just trying to create a minimum viable product to show that an integration between Jira and Sunbird is possible.

So since I can't use Assets in Jira to import the asset data (as its too expensive for what I'm trying to do), I was trying to think of alternative ways to import and display asset data in Jira, and the two options I came up with were either using custom fields to display the data, or having some sort of table displayed within the Jira interface that contains the data. I'm open to other ideas if anyone has them but that's what my plan is for the time being.

Now the issue is I have no clue how to create tables in Jira, and also have no clue how to use custom fields to display data in the way that I want (I want the asset data to be displayed in a table like manner with a couple columns for things like name of asset, location of asset, etc). Furthermore, I need the table (or whatever way the asset data is displayed) to be automatically updated every time there's a change to assets, and I figured this could be done using the Jira API but I once again have no clue how that would work- I couldn't find anything in the API documentation talking about updating a table of data within Jira.

Any help would be appreciated, I could really use some guidance on this, and am a bit strapped for time. Thank you!


Answers:
author: Valerie Knapp
body: Hi [@Kevin Uzomechine](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5449935) , thanks for your question.

I would typically advise to evaluate apps for this kind of use case, as tables in Jira are not so simple to achieve or maintain.

I have used both of these apps before -

[https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217571/table-grid-next-generation?hosting=cloud\&tab=overview](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217571/table-grid-next-generation?hosting=cloud&tab=overview)

[https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1224710/jxl-sheets-hierarchy-structure-sum-up-time-in-status-table?hosting=cloud\&tab=overview](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1224710/jxl-sheets-hierarchy-structure-sum-up-time-in-status-table?hosting=cloud&tab=overview)

I think Table Grid seems to support this integration you will need for the other system.

JXL I used more for being able to edit attributes from the table of Jira issues. I would encourage you to get the free trials and read the documentation and see if one of these can help.

Cheers


author: Laura Campbell _Seibert Media_
body: Hi [@Kevin Uzomechine](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5449935)

I don't know what authentication mode Sunbird has for it's API, but if it's one of the ones supported by [Elements Connect](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/23337/elements-connect-external-data-fields?hosting=cloud&tab=overview), you could use that app to import the data from Sunbird into fields in Jira. The app allows you to have fields on JSM requests.

If it's possible to query Sunbird with Elements Connect, you can have a main field for the asset, and then a dependent field that displays all that extra information you want (name, location etc).

comments: author: Kevin Uzomechine
body: Hi Laura,

Thank you for your response- I checked out Elements Connect but it costs money for my team size, so I was just wondering if there are any free ways (such as using the Jira API) where I can import JSON data into Jira on a regular basis using code, and have that data displayed in Jira as a table/spreadsheet of some sort


Tags: cloud

jira-service-management

jira-service-management-cloud