Integrated issue tracking with HockeyApp and JIRA
As most of you guys know, TestFlight was the best mobile testing and distribution platform for iOS developers. Well, that is now a thing of the past as Apple has shut down testflightapp.com in favor of their internal testing process. One of the biggest gripes with the internal process is your app must go through review in order to be deployed to testers.
After TestFlight went offline we had to pick another mobile testing platform. We tried out a few different ones, but overall found HockeyApp to be the most robust. Even-though it does have a monthly fee (TestFlight was free) it wasn’t too bad, basically $10/mo for the first 25 apps. One of the coolest features I found (so far) in HockeyApp is the ability to integrate crash reports and issue trackers. At PixelBit, we use JIRA and to our surprise that is one of the integrated options. After some setup on HockeyApp, configuring a WebHook in JIRA and throwing some errors to test the integration, its all set up and working. Took about 5 minutes from start to finish.
Here is how the integration works. When a crash happens in your app, a notification is sent to HockeyApp. Once the integration is configured this crash log can be sent to JIRA via a webhook and create (or update) a ticket. The crash log, link to the report and high-level information is created in the JIRA ticket. Here is an example crash:
Configuring the process
Basically all you have to do is in HockeyApp visit the App settings (Manage App > Bug Tracker). Log in to your JIRA account, pick your project and make sure you enable “Auto Create Ticket” otherwise a ticket will not be created. Once your project is selected, copy the WebHook URL at the bottom of the screen. Finally, click Save.
Now in JIRA pick your project and go to (Settings > Projects > System). Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “WebHooks”. Click “Create a Webhook” and paste that URL from HockeyApp. Finally, make sure “created” is checked under Issues.
That’s it, now you should have integrated issue tracking with HockeyApp and JIRA. HockeyApp does have support for other issue trackers as well. This process is especially useful in multi-person team environments, it allows the developers to stay in sync with crash bugs and removes the tedious step of issue tracking for bugs.
Note: It only seems to alert on the first crash bug for a set, additionally you can exclude some bugs/categories/projects using JIRA JQL.
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