Load, Update and Create Jira Issues in Excel

Owned by Pooja Vedwal
Last updated: Apr 22, 2024 by Bernhard Doleschel
4 min read

Overview

The Excel add-in allows you to import Jira issues into an Excel spreadsheet, modify them offline, and export the changes back to Jira. You can also create new issues offline and export them to Jira. The issues from entire projects or only specific subsets can be imported and exported back to Jira.

Load Jira Issues in Excel

To load Jira issues in the currently selected Excel worksheet, follow these steps:

  1. Select Load Data under the Jira ribbon.

  2. Select one of the options for loading issues in Excel:

    • Project: Select a project from the list.

    • Saved filter: Select the Filters tab and choose a saved filter from the list.

    • JQL: Select the JQL tab and enter a JQL query. The expression can be validated before proceeding.

  3. Select Next.

  4. Select the Jira fields to be loaded. Key, Project key, Issue Type and Summary are required. (The choice of fields is saved for future sessions.)
    For supported field types check out the field reference.

  5. Select the desired sorting to be applied after the issues downloaded from Jira.

  6. Select Finish.

After loading the data, the Jira issues are displayed in the worksheet, one row per issue - for example:

A number of fields are read only. Some examples are Key, Project Key, Issue Type, Workflow Status, Creator. The color scheme of the column headers identifies such read only fields:

  • Dark gray: should not be modified

  • Light gray: may be freely modified

An attempt to update Jira with any of these read only fields modified is refused and reported as an error.

The value of the Resolution field of an unresolved issue is always empty, following the standard practice in Jira.

Reload Jira Issues

To reload issues in the currently selected Excel worksheet, simply Reload the issues again in the worksheet. Any values that have been changed in Excel are overwritten with the current values in Jira. You will be prompted to confirm the action.
The system remembers the configuration of your Excel sheet and retrieves issues from the query with selected fields.

Update Jira Issues

To update Jira issues from Excel, follow these steps:

  1. Load the Jira issues to be updated (make sure the desired fields are selected for import).
    For supported field types check out the field reference.

  2. Modify the fields of the issues you want to update.

  3. Optionally, select the Check option to review the values that have been changed in Excel vs. the current Jira values.

  4. Select Upload Data.

  5. A summary report after the upload lists successfully updated issues, warning and errors.

The add-in does not check whether modified values have been concurrently changed in Jira. The new values in Excel overwrite the values in Jira. If you suspect that issues are being changed in Jira while you are working with the issues in Excel, you can take the following precautions:

  • Update issues frequently rather than accumulating many changes.

  • Use the Check option frequently to see if the values you see in Excel are different from those in Jira.

Create New Jira Issues

The recommended way to create new issues is to use a worksheet in which existing issues have already been loaded. To create a new issue, add a row with the desired values in the columns, leaving the Key column empty. After preparing the new issues, select Upload Data. A summary of the results of the operation (including any errors) is then displayed.

If you don’t intend to use the worksheet to update issues or to create links between new issues and existing issues, you may delete the rows for existing issues and use the worksheet as a template for creating new issues.

Values for Project Key, Issue Type and Summary are required. If the project configuration has other required fields and values are not provided, the Results dialog indicates the errors after the attempt to upload.

In case you want to upload new issues to Jira from scratch, follow these steps:

  • Prepare an Excel worksheet with the following required column headings: Key, Project Key, Issue Type, Summary. Depending on your project configuration, additional fields may be required. Add additional optional fields as needed, using the names of the Fields in Jira as column headers. For supported field types check out the field reference.

  • Add rows with the the new values for the issues to be created, leaving the Key column empty.

  • Select Upload Data.

Check Data

Before uploading, you can compare the data in Excel to the current values in Jira using the Check option:

  • Fields with differences are shown with a yellow background.

  • If the configuration option “Show changed values as Excel comments“ is enabled for the Jira instance, the differences are displayed in Excel comments.

This feature is useful since the issues in Jira may have been changed since the data was loaded in Excel.