Creating plugin integrations#

Defining integration allows you to communicate with external tools.

Before you can create an integration, ensure 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 before starting.

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

A plugin is a software add-on designed to communicate with external services and applications. Each plugin defines an expected record type and communication method. Communication can be uni-directional or bi-directional. To use a plugin, you must install and configure an integration.

Note: Starting in HCL™ Accelerate version 2.4.0, user access keys are auto-generated. To understand how user access keys are managed, you can find details here.

To view the plugin in HCL Accelerate, on the Home page, click Settings > Integrations.

The Integrations page has three tabs:

  1. Configured
  2. Installed
  3. Available

Configured#

The Configured tab lists all plugins that are configured for integration. Click the right-angle bracket to view the details of the configured plugin. All integrations are listed regardless of how they are created.

You can use search to find configured plugin integrations. The search query finds matches in the Name and Type fields. On the Configured tab, you can sort by the Name, Status, Type, and Last sync fields in ascending or descending order by clicking a table header.

Click Show Archived to see the archived plugin integrations. The following table details the fields on the Configured tab:

Field Description
Name The name of the plugin. Click the right-angle bracket to view details of the plugin integration. Click to view plugin documentation.
Status The working status of the configured plugin integration. Possible values are Online and Failed. The Online status is displayed for working plugin integrations. The Failed status is displayed for plugin integrations that are not working. Disrupted communications or inaccurate integration configurations can cause the integration to fail.
Type The type of the plugin.
Last sync The last plugin synchronization time.
Disable/Enable Set to disable or enable the plugin integration.
Click to Edit, Upgrade/Downgrade, View logs, and Archive/Delete plugin integrations.

Installed#

The Installed tab displays all plugins that are installed by default with the HCL Accelerate installation. The installed plugins are ready to configure for integration.

You can search for installed plugins. The search query finds the matches in the Name field. On the Installed tab, you can sort the Name field in ascending or descending order by clicking the header.

The following table details the fields on the Installed tab:

Field Description
Name The name of the plugin. Click to view all installed versions of the plugin. Click to view plugin documentation.
Version The version of the installed plugin.
Image The image of the plugin.
Release Date The release date of the installed plugin.
Actions Click Add integration and provide details to configure the integration. Click and select Delete to delete the installed plugin.

The latest version for Parser plugins are installed with the Non-Configurable status.

Available#

The Available tab displays all supported plugins for HCL Accelerate.

You can search for the supported plugins. The search query finds matches in the Name field. On the Available tab, you can sort the Name field in ascending or descending order by clicking on the header.

The following table details the fields on the Available tab:

Field Description
Name The name of the plugin. Click to view all versions of the plugin. Click to view plugin documentation.
Version The version of the available plugin.
Image The image of the plugin.
Release Date The release date of the available plugin.
Actions Click Install to install the required version of the plugin.

Advanced usage#

You can configure integrations for some plugin 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-vsm.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.

Additional HCL Accelerate product features requiring you to perform plugin installation before use include the following:

  1. Handlebars Reporter
  2. Bottleneck detection
  3. Parser

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

Integrations start providing data when 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 when the integration is added. For example, JUnit is a quality-type plugin.

Other integration types require additional configuration before you can start using the associated data. Native integrations require that tasks are 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 tab, add a reference to the integration name in the JSON file. If you define an integration directly in a JSON file described in Step 3, no additional configuration is required.

Parent topic: Extending product functions