JIRA Plug-In for Greenshot

A couple weeks, I wrote about Greenshot–a wonderful free & open-source screenshot utility. During the installation, there were a number of optional plug-ins that I didn’t select because I was skeptical of the application, one of which was for JIRA. I was intrigued and, after my trust was earned, I re-ran the installation and selected to include the plug-in.

The plug-in is pretty cool. I have Greenshot configured to always open the image editor, and the plug-in adds a little JIRA button to the toolbar. When I click it, a dialog pops up that allows me to pick a JIRA issue from a saved filter or enter the JIRA number manually. Click the Upload button, and the image is attached to the specified issue in JIRA. I actually prefer this to JIRA’s attach file process. Quick & easy!

While the plug-in itself is slick, the configuration was not. The first time I clicked the button, it straight-up crashed. I figured out where to enter my JIRA URL, clicked it again, and it crashed. I restarted Greenshot, clicked again, and it crashed. Finally, I ran as administrator, and it worked. Jeesh!

It’s pretty easy to configure once you know what’s up, but knowing what’s up is tricky. So, without further ado…

Configuring the Plug-In

I haven’t taken any time to figure out how to add the plug-in if you didn’t select to include it during installation. So, if you were like me and didn’t install it, go re-run the installer and include it. Once installed, the plug-in is configured in Greenshot’s Settings dialog. Right-click the task tray icon and choose Preferences, then go to the Plugins tab.

Click to highlight the JIRA plug-in and click the Configure button. Another dialog is displayed, prompting you for a URL. Enter the following:

https://YOURJIRAURL/rpc/soap/jirasoapservice-v2?wsdl

You can test the URL you’ve entered by browsing to it in your favorite browser. If it’s good, you’ll get the WSDL XML. (The plug-in works by generating a class at runtime using the WSDL, so it’s not going to work if you can’t get to the WSDL.) Click Ok to save your changes and Ok to close the Settings window. You need to restart Greenshot for the changes to go into effect. Right-click the task tray icon and choose Exit, then start it back up.

Now you should be good to go. Click the JIRA button in the Greenshot image editor, and you’ll be prompted for your credentials. If you elect to save your credentials, you’ll only be prompted once. If the credentials work, you’ll get the upload-to-JIRA dialog.

In the upload dialog, you can pick a saved filter to see a list of issues. Picking from the list populates the issue number text box at the bottom. You can also manually enter the issue number into the textbox. When a valid issue is entered, the Upload button enables, and clicking it uploads the image to the specified JIRA issue. Good stuff!

Got UAC?

As mentioned previously, the plugin works by dynamically generating a proxy class from the JIRA service WSDL. It saves the generated assembly to disk and then uses it to interact with the JIRA web service. Since it’s generating and saving an assembly to disk, it needs to have administrative priveleges. If you click the JIRA button and receive a crash message that says it can’t find an assembly with a seemingly-random name, try running Greenshot as Administrator.

Author: Adam Prescott

I'm enthusiastic and passionate about creating intuitive, great-looking software. I strive to find the simplest solutions to complex problems, and I embrace agile principles and test-driven development. View all posts by Adam Prescott