Configure Change Management Systems

FlexDeploy change management systems integration (out of box or custom) can be configured globally for use by various Projects or Pipelines. Configurations can be overridden at the Application, Folder or Pipeline (external approval gate) levels as necessary.

To configure the integration at the Global level, select the Administration->Change Management Systems menu item.

Select a particular change management system by clicking its name, or by selecting the row and clicking on the Edit button. To create a new Change Management System click the New button.

You can the update name, description and Java implementation for custom integrations, whereas, only the description may be modified for out of the box integrations).

Field Name	Required	Description
Id	Yes	System generated identifier (read-only).
Name	Yes	Name of the change management system. (read-only for out of box integrations)
Description	No	Description of the change management system.
Java Implementation	Yes	Java Implementation class for the change management integration. (read-only for out of box integrations)

Ticket Fields

A change management "ticket" is the generic term for a change object, which may be referred to as a "change request" or another term by a particular provider. Every provider has different fields (or attributes) within the ticket, and most often supports decorating the object with your own custom fields. The Ticket Fields tab provides the metadata data describing the relevant fields for a the provider implementation.

To add a new ticket field, click on the Create button and enter the required Field Code, Display Name, Description, Data Type, and whether or not a value is required in order to create a new CMS Ticket.

For ServiceNow, BMC Remedyforce, Freshworks Freshservice, and Jira ITSM, there are a number of out of the box fields which are made available for you by default. These included fields cannot be removed.

The Field Code must match the unique identifier as defined by the provider (i.e. JSON attribute names used in the provider's REST API).

@Since 5.5.0.1, dot-notated fields are supported. This allows for setting fields that are not at the root JSON level in the provider's REST API. At this time, using dot notation to access JSON arrays is not supported.

Example: Adding "fields.customfield_10102.name" to Jira ITSM as a custom field allows accessing and setting the name attribute within the customfield_10102 JSON object while creating a change ticket.

ServiceNow Ticket Fields

Field Code	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required
short_description	Short Description	A short description for the change ticket	String	No
description	Description	A description for the change ticket	String	No
state	State		String	No
sys_class_name	Sys Class Name		String	No
approval	Approval		String	No
start_date	Planned Start Date		String	No
end_date	Planned End Date		String	No
closed_by	Closed By		String	No
impact	Impact		String	No
priority	Priority		String	No
risk	Risk		String	No
requested_by	Requested By		String	No
assignment_group	Assignment Group		String	No
assigned_to	Assigned To		String	No
category	Category		String	No
cmdb_ci	CI		String	No
type	Type		String	No

BMC Remedyforce Ticket Fields

Field Code	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required
BMCServiceDesk__Change_Description__c	Change Description	A description for the change ticket	String	No
BMCServiceDesk__Reason_for_Change_Details__c	Change Details

Freshworks Freshservice Ticket Fields

Field Code	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required
subject	Subject	A subject for the change ticket	String	No
description	Description	A description for the change ticket	String	No
change_type	Change Type		Long	Yes
status	Status		Long	Yes
priority	Priority		Long	Yes
impact	Impact		Long	Yes
requester_id	Requester Id		Long	Yes
risk	Risk		Long	Yes
planned_start_date	Start Date		String	Yes
planned_end_date	End Date		String	Yes

Jira ITSM Ticket Fields

Field Code	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required
fields.summary	Summary	Summary of the change	String	Yes
fields.project.key	Project Key	Key of project the change is in	String	Yes
fields.issuetype.name	Issue Type	Type of issue for ticket	String	Yes
fields.description	Description	Description for the change	String	No
fields.priority.name	Priority	Priority of the change	String	No

Default Configuration

The Default Configuration tab allows global configuration for the CMS integration, which defines whether a ticket is required for deployment requests or whether tickets should be automatically created. When creating tickets automatically as part of a deployment request, default values can be provided for one or more of the ticket fields.

The Default Configuration tab provides configuration for the Global scope, meaning it applies to all deployment system-wide. One or more of these options may be selected.

Require Change Ticket for Deployment - When submitting deployment requests, a user is required to specify a valid Change Management Ticket number.
Create Change Ticket on Deployment - When a deployment request is submitted, a Change Ticket is automatically created within Change Management System.

When choosing Create Change Ticket on Deployment you have the option of providing a Groovy expression to calculates values for specific fields using a number of context variables.

Since the field values are Groovy expressions, String literals must be entered in double quotes.

All Groovy script fields have access to the following variables, and can be selected using the drop-down on the right side of the field:

Field	Description
EnvironmentName	The name of the target environment.
PackageName¹	The package name requested for deployment. Same as ProjectVersion for full deployments.
ProjectName¹	The name of the project requested for deployment.
ProjectVersion¹	The project version which was requested for deployment.
StreamName¹	The stream from which the project version was built from.
WorkflowRequestor¹	The FlexDeploy username which requested the deployment.
ReleaseName²	The name of the release being executed.

¹Variables are only applicable when the ticket scope is Project/Package

²Variables are only applicable when execution occurs within the context of a release

Example Groovy expressions

"Deployment request to " + EnvironmentName + " for project " + ProjectName + " by " + WorkflowRequestor
"Deployment for " + ProjectName + " failed in " + EnvironmentName
"Simple String"

If you will be creating CMS Tickets per project/package in a pipeline external approval gate, EnvironmentName is the only Groovy variable that is applicable since the context is not related to a particular workflow request. The other variables will resolve to an empty String in that case.

Environment Configuration

Likewise, the Environment Configuration tab allows overriding these settings globally, by environment (e.g require a change ticket for Production deployments only). Click the Add button to add a new configuration, and select an environment. This overrides any configuration on the Default Configuration tab for the selected environment.

The remaining configuration options are exactly as defined for the Default Configuration. Optionally, click the Add button again to add configuration for other environments.

Configuration use within Pipeline

The Require Change Ticket for Deployment option, for both Default Configuration and Environment Configuration, is not applicable for CMS integration within a Pipeline. That configuration is implied by the presence of an External Approval Gate within a pipeline stage. The Create Ticket checkbox of the External Approval gate is defaulted based on the global configuration.

Properties

The Properties tab lists the metadata which is required for this Change Management System. Values for these properties will be provided when you create a Change Management Instance in the topology. See Creating/Editing a Change Management Instance, Property metadata is read-only for out of box integrations.

ServiceNow Properties

Key Name	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required	Encrypted
SN_URL	ServiceNow URL	ServiceNow URL	String	Yes	No
SN_PORT	ServiceNow Port	ServiceNow Port	String	No	No
SN_USER_NAME	ServiceNow User Name	ServiceNow User Name	String	Yes	No
SN_PASSWORD	ServiceNow Password	ServiceNow Password	String	Yes	Yes
SN_APPROVED_SCRIPT	Approved Check Script	ServiceNow approved check Groovy script	String	No	No
SN_REJECTED_SCRIPT	Rejected Check Script	ServiceNow rejected check Groovy script	String	No	No
SN_DONT_POLL	Don't poll	Disable automatic polling (every minute) of ServiceNow tickets for status changes. Check if using REST API to communicate status changes to FlexDeploy.	Boolean	No	No

BMC Remedyforce Properties

Key Name	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required	Encrypted
FDBMCHR_URL	BMC Helix Remedyforce URL	BMC Helix Remedyforce Instance URL (https://<instance_name>.salesforce.com)	String	Yes	No
FDBMCHR_USER_NAME	BMC Helix Remedyforce User Name	BMC Helix User Name	String	Yes	No
FDBMCHR_PASSWORD	BMC Helix Remedyforce Password	BMC Helix Remedyforce Password	String	Yes	Yes
FDBMCHR_CLIENT_ID	Client Id	Connected App Client Id	String	Yes	Yes
FDBMCHR_CLIENT_SECRET_ID	Client Secret	BMC Helix Remedyforce Client Secret	String	Yes	Yes
FDBMCHR_APPROVED_SCRIPT	Approved Check Script	BMC Helix approved check Groovy script	String	No	No
FDBMCHR_REJECTED_SCRIPT	Rejected Check Script	BMC Helix rejected check Groovy script	String	No	No
FDBMCHR_DONT_POLL	Don't poll	Disable automatic polling (every minute) of BMC Helix tickets for status changes. Check if using REST API to communicate status changes to FlexDeploy.	Boolean	No	No
FDBMCHR_SOBJECT_URL	Specified Object URL	Object Name URL (/services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/{OBJECT_NAME})	String	Yes	No
FDBMCHR_INCIDENT_CATEGORY_ID	Category Id	Category FK Id (e.g a216g0000005NvDAAU)	String	Yes	No

Freshworks Freshservice Properties

Key Name	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required	Encrypted
FDFS_URL	Freshservice URL	Freshservice URL (https://<your_helpdesk_domain_name>.freshservice.com)	String	Yes	No
FDFS_API_KEY	Freshservice API Key	API key for Freshservice	String	Yes	Yes
FDFS_APPROVED_SCRIPT	Approved Check Script	Freshservice approved check Groovy script	String	No	No
FDFS_REJECTED_SCRIPT	Rejected Check Script	Freshservice rejected check Groovy script	String	No	No
FDFS_DONT_POLL	Don't poll	Disable automatic polling (every minute) of Freshservice tickets for status changes. Check if using REST API to communicate status changes to FlexDeploy.	Boolean	No	No
FDFS_REQUESTER_ID	Freshservice Requester Id	Freshservice agent id for API access(should be a number)	String	No	No

Jira ITSM Properties

Key Name	Display Name	Description	Data Type	Required	Encrypted
FDJIRAITSM_URL	Jira URL	Jira URL (http://myjira.atlassian.net)	String	Yes	No
FDJIRAITSM_USER_NAME	Jira User	Jira User Name	String	Yes	No
FDJIRAITSM_API_TOKEN	Jira API Token	API token for Jira	String	Yes	Yes
FDJIRAITSM_TICKET_URL_PATTERN	Jira Ticket URL Pattern	Jira Ticket URL Pattern (/browse/{JIRA_CHANGE_NUMBER})	String	Yes	No
FDJIRAITSM_TICKET_REST_GET_PATTERN	Jira GET Rest API Pattern	Jira Rest API Pattern for GET request (/rest/api/2/issue/{JIRA_CHANGE_NUMBER})	String	Yes	No
FDJIRAITSM_TICKET_REST_POST_PATTERN	Jira POST Rest API Pattern	Jira Rest API Pattern for POST request (/rest/api/2/issue)	String	Yes	No
FDJIRAITSM_APPROVED_SCRIPT	Approved Check Script	Jira approved check Groovy script	String	No	No
FDJIRAITSM_REJECTED_SCRIPT	Rejected Check Script	Jira rejected check Groovy script	String	No	No
FDJIRAITSM_DONT_POLL	Don't poll	Disable automatic polling (every minute) of Jira tickets for status changes. Check if using REST API to communicate status changes to FlexDeploy.	Boolean	No	No

Groovy API

All out of the box Change Management Systems are implemented using Java. For custom integrations, either Java or Groovy can be used to provide the implementation. The Groovy API tab is enabled for custom integrations if no Java Implementation Class is provided. On this tab you can enter the Groovy script defining the implementation. A template script will be generated and should be modified according to your custom implementation.

See Custom Change Management System for details on creating your own custom integration using Java or Groovy.