tix

A command line utility for generating jira, etc tickets from a markdown document.

Installation

If you are on macOS you can install via homebrew:

brew tap ncipollo/tools
brew install tix

You can also download the binary from the releases page.

Usage

Usage: tix [OPTIONS] <markdown file> 
  -d	prints out ticket information instead of creating tickets (shorthand)
  -dryrun
    	prints out ticket information instead of creating tickets
  -h	prints help for tix (shorthand)
  -help
    	prints help for tix
  -q	suppresses all log output except errors (shorthand)
  -quiet
    	suppresses all log output except errors
  -v	enables verbose output (shorthand)
  -verbose
    	enables verbose output
  -version
    	prints tix version

Settings

Tix expects to find a file called tix.yml in the same directory as the markdown document provided. This settings file contains information needed by tix in order to communicate with ticketing systems.

The following is the expected format of the settings file:

github:
  no_projects: true # Indicates if tix should use projects or treat root tickets as issues. Defaults to false.
  owner: owner # The owner of the github repo (ex - ncipollo)
  repo: repo  # The github repo (ex - tix)
  tickets:
    default: 
      default: default # Fields to be added to both projets and issues
    project:
      project: project # Fields to be added to projects
    issue:
      labels: [label1, label2] # Fields to be added to issues
jira:
    no_epics: false # Indicates if tix should use epics or treat root tickets as stories / issues. Defaults to false. 
    url: # https://url.to.your.jira.instance.com
    tickets: 
        # All fields should be lower case. Field name spaces should be included (ex- epic name)
        default:
            field: value # Fields to be added to any kind of jira issue
        epic:
            field: value # Fields to be added to epics
        issue:
            field: value # Fields to be added to issues
        task: 
            field: value # Fields to be added to tasks (sub-issues of issues)
variables:
    key: value
    envKey: $ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
    # tix will parse the markdown document and replace each occurance of "key" with it's value (or environment variable
    # when a '$' preceeds the value)  

Markdown

Tix interprets the content of heading elements as a tickets. The indent level of the heading element will indicate the level of nesting for the ticket. For example:

# Root Ticket

This will be a root level ticket.

## Child Ticket

This ticket will be a child of root ticket.

### Grandchild Ticket

This ticket will be a child of child ticket.

The parent-child relationship for tickets will translate into specific relationships for ticketing systems. In Jira, for example, the root ticket could be an epic, the next level down a story, then the final level would be a task.

Markdown Elements

Tix parses each markdown element into an abstract representation of that element. Tix will then utilize these abstractions to generate representations which are specific to a ticketing system. For example:

• List type elements will would utilize the wiki-media style indentation markers for jira (--)
• Code blocks in jira will use the {code} markers.

Special Blocks

Tix supports special code blocks which may be used to add fields for a ticket. For example:

```tix
// Adds fields to the ticket, regardless of ticket system
field: value
```

```github
// Adds field to the ticket only if the ticketing system is github.
field: value
```

```jira
// Adds field to the ticket only if the ticketing system is jira.
field: value
```

Updating Tickets

Tickets can be updated by setting the update_ticket property to the ID of the ticket. The ID is dependent on the ticketing system:

• github: This should be set to the project or issue number (ex - 42).
• jira: This should be set to the ticket key (ex - JIRA-123)

The update_ticket should typically be set via a special code block (see above section).

Jira

Tix expects your jira account information to be stored in your environment. Specifically, it will look for the following variables:

• JIRA_USERNAME: This should be set to your Jira user name (typically an email address).
• JIRA_API_TOKEN: This should be set to your Jira api key. This may be generated by following the instructions found here: Jira Api tokens

Jira tickets have the following relationship with heading indent levels:

• #: Epic, if epics are allowed via settings. Story otherwise.
• ##: Story / issue
• ###: Task

Github

Tix expects your github account information to be stored in your environment. Specifically, it will look for the following variable:

• GITHUB_API_TOKEN: This should be set to your github access token. Access token's may be generated here: Github API Tokens

Github tickets have the following relationship with heading indent levels:

• #: Project, if projects are allowed via settings. Issue otherwise.
• ##: Issue

Github Settings

The following settings effect issue type tickets:

• assignee: (string) Sets the assignee of the ticket. Should match a github account name (ex - ncipollo).
• assignees: (array) Sets multiple assignees for the ticket. Should match a github account name (ex - [ncipollo, etc]).
• column: (string) Specifies the column the issue should be placed in when it's within a project (ex - To do). Defaults to To do.
• labels: (array) Specifies the labels to apply to the issue (ex - [label1, label2]).
• milestone: (string) Specifies the milestone to add this issue to (ex - v1.0.0). Note: This will create a milestone if it doesn't yet exist. This can cause tix to fail if the milestone already exists but is closed.
• project: (number) The project the issue should be added to (ex - 13). The project should exist and be in the open state. This only takes effect if no_projects is true.

The following settings effect project type tickets:

• columns: (array) Specifies the columns which should be created with the project (ex - [todo, working on it, done]). Defaults to [To do, In progress, Done].