I need help extracting employee leave information from the Big Picture plugin in our Jira instance through API calls. I’ve been attempting various endpoint URLs but haven’t been successful in retrieving any meaningful data yet.
Our setup details:
Big Picture plugin version: 8.47.0
Jira deployment: On-premises server (not cloud-based)
My goal is to fetch vacation and leave records for my entire team members if possible with a single API request. However, I’m open to making individual calls for each team member if that’s the only available option.
Does anyone have working documentation or code samples that demonstrate how to successfully pull this leave data? I’m specifically looking for the absence/time-off information that appears in the Big Picture interface showing employee vacation schedules and leave periods.
Had the same issue with Big Picture’s time off extraction. Their docs are garbage for this. Here’s what worked: combine the user profile endpoints with calendar data API. Hit /rest/bigpicture/1.0/users/{userId}/calendar for individual schedules, then cross-check /rest/bigpicture/1.0/projects/{projectId}/timeline for absence blocks. Big Picture doesn’t treat time off as leave objects - it’s negative resource availability instead. Include proper date parameters in your requests and verify the calendar module’s enabled in admin settings. Some installs disable timeoff by default, which is why standard endpoints return nothing.
Been there with Big Picture’s messy API structure. You’re fighting a system that wasn’t built for clean data extraction.
I hit this same issue last year when our HR team needed automated leave reports. Instead of wrestling with Big Picture’s scattered endpoints and auth headaches, I built a workflow that pulls everything automatically.
It connects directly to your Jira instance and handles all the Big Picture quirks. Maps leave data properly, runs on whatever schedule you want, and spits out clean JSON or CSV files.
No more guessing which endpoint has your data or dealing with permission issues. The automation figures out if your time off data’s in custom fields, resource allocations, or calendar objects.
Set it up once and you’re done. Way better than maintaining brittle API calls that break every plugin update.
i’ve hit the same problem with big picture’s api - their timeoff endpoints are buried. try /rest/bigpicture/1.0/team/{teamId}/timeoff but make sure you’ve got proper auth tokens first. also, check your big picture version supports the timeoff api module. older versions don’t enable it by default.
Big Picture’s time off API drove me nuts until I figured out the trick. They don’t handle time off like normal leave records - instead, it’s all resource allocation data. Skip the time off APIs completely and hit the resource management endpoints instead. Use /rest/bigpicture/1.0/resources/allocations and filter for allocation types that show absences. You’ll get start/end dates plus allocation percentages that match your leave info. Here’s the catch - your API user needs resource viewing permissions in Big Picture settings or you’ll just get empty responses. Pro tip: query by date ranges rather than pulling everything at once, especially if you’ve got bigger teams.
Big Picture’s API docs are terrible, especially for time off data. Hit this same wall trying to sync leave data with our HR system.
The API route is a nightmare - Big Picture stuffs time off data into custom fields that don’t show up in standard endpoints. You end up digging through internal REST endpoints that break when they update.
I ditched the API headache and built an automated workflow that connects straight to Jira and Big Picture’s database. Pulls data reliably and spits it out in whatever format I need.
The automation handles auth, data mapping, and runs on schedule. No more manual API calls or reverse engineering their undocumented mess.
Saved me weeks of fighting their API quirks. Set it once, done.