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    Authentication

    about_JiraPS_Authentication

    SHORT DESCRIPTION

    In order to authenticate with the Jira server, the user can provide the credentials with each command or create a session.

    LONG DESCRIPTION

    At present, there are two main methods of authenticating to Jira:

    • HTTP basic authentication
    • session-based authentication, which uses HTTP basic authentication once and preserves a session cookie.

    Be sure to set JIRA up to use HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate if you are concerned about security!

    HTTP Basic

    Each JiraPS function that queries a Jira instance provides a -Credential parameter. Simply pass your Jira credentials to this parameter.

    $cred = Get-Credential 'powershell'
Get-JiraIssue TEST-01 -Credential $cred

    HTTP basic authentication is not a secure form of authentication. It uses a Base64-encoded String of the format “username:password” and passes this string in clear text to Jira. Because decrypting this string and obtaining the username and password is trivial, the use of HTTPS is critical in any system that needs to remain secure.

    API Token

    API tokens (also called Private Access Token (PAT)) are tokens generated by the user for authenticating against the API of Jira Cloud server.

    An API token can be used for authenticating JiraPS with the server in the same way as described in HTTP Basic. The difference is, that instead of providing the username and password for the account, the email address and the API token must be used.

    As of December 1st 2018, Atlassian requires API authentication with Cloud Servers to always use API Tokens. More information in the Deprecation notice.

    More information on the API tokens and how to create one can be found at: https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/api-tokens-938839638.html

    Sessions

    Jira sessions still require HTTP Basic or API Token Authentication once to create the connection. But in this case a persistent session is saved as a WebRequestSession. This is Powershell’s way of reusing the data provided with the first call.

    Previously Jira allowed for the authentication to use a session token. This token did not contain the username and password. Unfortunately, this API can no longer be used in combination with this module.

    To create a Jira session, you can use the New-JiraSession function:

    $cred = Get-Credential 'powershell'
New-JiraSession -Credential $cred

    Once you’ve created this session, you’re done! You don’t need to specify it when running other commands - JiraPS will manage this session internally.

    The session is stored in the module’s runtime. This means that it will not be available in a new Powershell session or if the module is reloaded.

    What About OAuth

    Jira does support use of OAuth, but JiraPS does not - yet. This is a to-do item.

    SEE ALSO