How to Integrate Jira and Salesforce in 6 Steps

Jira is an issue and bug tracking tool, and Salesforce is a popular CRM. To enhance the potential of the two tools, you can consider an integration between them.

Such integration can automate information flow between these platforms and allow teams to share data with each other, helping them to work harmoniously.

Let us see how a Jira Salesforce integration can be implemented in a hassle-free manner.

Teams using different platforms like Jira or Salesforce, can coordinate with each other by sharing information and expertise to help enhance overall customer experience.

But this information exchange if manual (through emails or phone calls) leads to inaccurate, misplaced, or even wrong data exchange.

With a Jira Salesforce integration:

• information is synchronized bi-directionally, automatically, and in real-time, helping teams collaborate better. All this without having to leave the platforms they already use.
• each side will independently control what information is sent to and received from the other side without disturbing each other.
• have a complete overview of customer issues, feedbacks and queries from Salesforce in Jira, so developers can take up feature requests or dev updates instantly.
• automate back-office tasks like licensing and contracts by sending relevant information between Jira and Salesforce.
• experience consistent, accessible, and accurate information in Jira and Salesforce.
• handle downtimes and outages in systems automatically without manual intervention. So your system is always up-to-date with the latest information.

For such an integration, choosing the correct tool is important. We have chosen Exalate, because it inherently supports all the above features.

It is flexible as it has a scripting mode suitable for advanced or complex use cases.

It is also reliable, so synchronizations are queued and applied in the order of their initiation whenever there is a system failure or downtime.

And it ensures autonomy with the help of sync rules that can be edited on either side of integration independently.

Note: You can also have a look at Exalate’s security and architecture whitepaper if you want to learn more.

We saw how a Jira Salesforce integration can help your teams work harmoniously with each other. Let’s now see how we can use Exalate to implement this integration.

Here’s how you can help your sales team using Salesforce to integrate with teams using Jira.

First, install Exalate on Jira. Check out the detailed Jira cloud and Jira on-premise documentation of Exalate.

We will see the Jira cloud installation here.

For this, click the cog icon at the top right of your Jira screen and select “Apps”.

In the left menu, click “Find new apps”.

In the Atlassian Marketplace, type “Exalate” in the search field.

Click “Exalate Jira Issue Sync & more” > “Free trial”.

After this, follow the wizard for installation. It is quite straightforward.

For now, Exalate for Salesforce is available through an Early Access Program.

For this, visit the integrations page. Choose Salesforce as your tracker, fill a form and click Submit. You will receive an email.

Meanwhile, go to “New Connected App” in Salesforce by clicking the cog icon on the top right> Setup> Apps> App Manager.

Fill in the necessary fields for the app. Enable the OAuth settings, add scopes and save it.

Then click on the email you have received from Exalate.

Configure Exalate for Salesforce by following the instructions in the installation wizard.

Once it has been installed on both sides, proceed to step 3.

To establish a connection, you need to initiate it from one side and accept it on the other. It doesn't matter which side you start from.

Let’s assume you start from the Jira side. Go to “Connections” in the left-hand menu of Exalate. Then click “Initiate Connection”.

Enter the URL of the destination instance i.e Salesforce.

After a while, new fields appear asking you to choose the configuration type. Exalate offers 2 types: Basic and Script.

Basic mode is recommended for simple integration cases. It comes with pre-defined mappings between Jira and Salesforce entities that cannot be changed. It also comes with a Free Plan.

For this mode, select the Jira project you want to synchronize Salesforce entities with. Then confirm admin access on the Salesforce side and start synchronizing your first issue or Case immediately.

To use Exalate for advanced use cases we recommend the Script mode.
Give a name and description to your connection and select the project on the Jira side.

Copy the invitation code.

Then on the Salesforce Exalate console, click “Accept Invitation” in the “Connections” tab.

Paste the code in the text area.

After verification, the connection is successful.

You can now configure the connection to decide what data is shared between these tools.

For this, click the edit connection button in front of the connection name in the “Connections” tab or click the “Configure sync” button shown above.

Configuration is done using sync rules that are present on both sides of the connection.
You can choose to send or receive additional information by adding scripts.

Or choose to stop sending or receiving current information by deleting or commenting the sync rules.

You can also create conditions called triggers, which synchronizes information according to the rules you have configured.

You can create them by clicking “Triggers” in the edit connection screen.

Click “Create Trigger” to create a new one.

On the “Add trigger” screen select the Jira and Salesforce entities you want to add the trigger to.

Use Java Query Language for Jira or Salesforce Object Query Language for Salesforce to add the query condition in the “If” section.

Leave some “Notes” to help you identify why you have created the trigger. Then click “Active” and finally “Add” it.

Click “Publish” once you have finished configuring the connection!

Once you create triggers, information is automatically synchronized. You can even sync existing entities in bulk using the “Bulk Connect” option. Whichever option you choose, wait for some time for information to appear on the other side.

An integration between Jira and Salesforce can boost productivity and efficiency of teams and allow them to work on things that matter.

Apart from Jira and Salesforce, you can use Exalate for integrating other platforms like ServiceNow, Azure DevOps, Zendesk, GitHub and more. It will help you experience a frictionless collaboration within your company and outside its borders.