Power Scripts - Jira Workflow Automation

This is an essential add-on for anybody wanting to customize Jira using an easy-to-learn scripting language. This is way better than coding in Groovy, for several reasons., yet most people still think you absolutely have to get into Groovy to script anything substantial (which couldn't be further from the truth). 1 - Power Scripts provides a higher-level language (SIL), so you don't need to be familiar with the underlying Java API and all of the inherent Java intricacies, like knowing which classes or packages to include. Considering the voluminous size of the underlying Java framework, bypassing this is appreciated. You also do not have to bother with coding special containers to work with certain classes. Instead, with SIL, you just focus on the business logic and hit the ground running. Resulting scripts are way easier/faster to code, way easier/faster to maintain, and typically use less lines to get the job done. 2 - If you have hundreds or thousands of Groovy scripts in a large Jira instance, this can become a nightmare to maintain in the long run for Jira Administrators and System Administrators because, when Jira is updated, you also regularly have to update the underlying Java framework, and that comes at a price, deprecating certain classes and methods. This means all your Groovy scripts have to be reviewed for such deprecations and some will potentially need to be fixed to continue working. That can add a huge overhead to upgrading Jira, so avoiding that with Power Scripts is really appreciated. Indeed, Power Scripts does not have that problem because of its higher-level language (SIL) which, in the background, is translated to Java API or REST API calls, and this is all transparent to the user, the vendor taking care of it. If classes and methods from Jira's underlying Java framework become deprecated, the vendor takes care of modifying the SIL routines so they use the new structures in the background. As a Jira Administrator or System Administrator, you therefore don't have to review all the SIL scripts in your instance when you upgrade Jira to a new version, like you need to do when using Groovy. You only have to maintain the Power Scripts add-on so it is up to date with the correct version. 3 - Since you don't access the Java API directly, there are limits as to what Power Scripts can do, but its SIL language is constantly evolving, adding more and more routines, and there are already several hundreds available, so in my experience as a Consultant, I would say you can probably address 99% of the use cases with what is already native to SIL. If you encounter a limit with what can be done via SIL scripts, you can always, still within SIL, add REST API calls and process the resulting JSON easily. This is sometimes useful to communicate with other add-ons or systems, for example. For one, I still prefer using REST API calls and processing JSON within SIL scripts than using Groovy because SIL is so much easier to code and because of the inherent problems that come with coding in Groovy, as I mentioned before. The different REST APIs (from Jira, from other add-ons, and from other systems) provide official end-points which can safely be used to achieve your goals, instead of trying to hack your way in Groovy using the Java API's numerous classes, something that is risky and could potentially lead to system problems. In my opinion, this is by far the most important add-on for Jira because it can be used like a Swiss-army knife, allowing you to easily do so much. Therefore, if I had to chose ONE SINGLE ADD-ON to work with on any given project, it would be this one. Many many many thanks to the team who developed this, and to all those who continue upgrading and supporting this magnificent add-on. Great work !!!

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  Appfire

  Thank you for your kind words, Christian! Always happy to hear our we're making a difference with our customers. - Cheers!

Best support team ever you see. p.s. It's still the best support you can see.

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  Appfire

  Hi Kyrylo,

  Thank you for the glowing review! We're delighted to hear that you had a pleasant experience with our support team. Please remember that our agents are always happy to help.

  All the best,

  Iván García, Product Marketing Manager

Recently discovered an issue with a SIL user function in the new LTS; I reported it to Appfire through their support portal and about a month later they had a fix published. Support team (Shout-out to Hector!) was great to work with and they had things setup on their end to notify me when the fix was released so that I didn't have to monitor the changelog / release notes looking for it.

I really appreciated Ahmed's quick response to my issue. He provided clear detailed instructions that were easy to follow and we were able to resolve our problem quickly

Hector delivered great results again!!! His response times are some of the best in the business and he always quickly finds out how to resolve our SIL scripting issues when they arise.