Creating plug-in integrations

Work with external tools by defining integrations.

Before you begin

Before you can create an integration, make sure that you have the user credentials and connection information required by the external tool, such as URLs, and API endpoints. To create an integration with HCL Launch, for example, you need a user token generated by HCL Launch, and the URL where the server is located. Ensure that you have all the necessary connection information at hand before starting.

Credentials and other connection properties vary among individual plug-ins. You can find property descriptions and use cases for all plug-ins on the product website.

About this task

A plug-in is a software add-on designed to communicate with external services and applications. Each plug-in defines an expected record type and communication method. Communication can be uni-directional or bi-directional. To use a plug-in, you configure an integration. There are three ways to configure an integration:

  • Create an integration definition on the Plug-ins page.
  • First installing the plug-in and then creating an integration definition.
  • Add an integration definition to a value stream JSON file.
  • Configure a deployment plan task for one of the native integrations types.

This topic describes the first three methods. Native integrations are described in a separate section.

To configure an integration, complete the following steps:

Procedure

  1. On the HCL Accelerate Home page, click Settings > Integrations > Plugins.

    The Plug-ins page lists the available plug-ins. For some plug-ins, you use the Add Integration button and for others you use the Install button first before you can create integrations for the latter. Parser-type plug-ins generally provide metric or quality-type data. You can access the data supplied by parser-type plug-ins by using the Insights feature. Installed parser-type plug-ins are listed on the Plugins tab.

  2. Use the following table to configure the plug-in by clicking on the Actions available for the required plug-in on the Integrations page.
    ActionsProcedure
    Add Integration Define the integration properties. For information about the properties that are unique to the plug-in, visit the product website.
    Install Install the plug-in and after a successful installation, click Add Integration and follow the above instructions to create an integration for the plug-in. Note: If any issues are encountered during the installation process, typical status codes are displayed to provide information related to the cause of the problem. A status code of There was an error when trying to install this plugin (Reason: xxx) is one such example of the aforementioned case with xxx identifying the status code number.
  3. Optional: You can configure integrations for some plug-in types by adding an integration definition to a value stream JSON file.
    Using a text editor, define an integration object in the integrations array of the value_stream_name.json file. The following code example illustrates a Jira integration.
    
         {
              "_id": "velocity-generated-id",
              "type": "ucv-ext-jira",
              "tenant_id": "velocity-generated-id",
              "name": "my-JIRA",
              "disabled": false,
              "properties": {
                "baseUrl": "http://my-jira-url",
                "username": "admin",
                "password": "****",
                "jiraProjects": [
                  "My-Project"
                ]
              }
            },

    Integrations created by the value stream method are displayed on the Integrations page along with integrations created by the other methods.

  4. Optional: Additional HCL Accelerate product features requiring you to perform plug-in installation before use include the following:
    • Handlebars Reporter
    • Bottleneck detection
    • Parser

Results

The integration is listed on the Integrations page. The Integrations page is where you can manage integrations.

What to do next

Integrations start providing data as soon as they are successfully configured. For some integration types, such as quality-data types, you can start using their data without additional configuration. For example, you can create dashboard charts that contain quality data as soon as you complete the integration. JUnit is an example of a quality-type plug-in.

Other integration types require additional configuration before you can start using their data. Native integrations require that tasks be added to deployment plans. Value stream integrations, such as GitHub™, require a reference in the value stream JSON file. If you define an integration on the Plugins page, add a reference to the integration name in the JSON file. If you define an integration directly in a JSON file as described in Step 3, no additional configuration is required.

See installing plug-ins in products for additional information.