Load Jira Issues in Excel
To load Jira issues in the currently selected Excel worksheet, follow these steps:
Select Load Data under the Jira ribbon.
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 filter from the list.
JQL: Select the JQL tab and enter a JQL query. The expression can be validated before proceeding.
Select Next.
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.)
Select Finish.
After loading the data, the Jira issues are displayed in the worksheet - 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 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 Jira issues in the currently selected Excel worksheet, simply load 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.
Update Jira Issues
To update Jira issues from Excel, follow these steps:
Load the Jira issues to be updated, making sure the desired fields are selected.
Modify the fields of the issues you want to update.
Optionally, select the Check option to review the values that have been changed in Excel vs. the current Jira values.
Select Upload Data.
As summary report after the upload will list successful updated issues, warning and errors.
After the upload the Excel content is compared against the current Jira issue values. This can be blocked by de-selecting the option above the Close button.
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. (Note that Issue Type and Summary are required.) 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.
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.
Add rows with the the new values for the issues to be created, leaving the Key column empty.
Select Upload Data.
A summary of the results of the operation (including any errors) is then displayed.
Check Data
You can compare the data in Excel to the current values in Jira.
Fields with differences are shown with a yellow background.
If the 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.
Working with Fields having Defined Values
A number of Jira fields, both system fields and custom fields, have a defined list of values and the fields must have values from these lists (or possibly no value at all). For example, the Assignee system field must have a value from the list of users, the Components field must have one or more values from the project’s component list, and a select field must have one value (or possibly multiple values) from the list of values defined for it. Any attempt to update Jira with invalid values is refused and the error reported.
The values of fields that allow multiple values (e.g. Components, custom multi-select fields) are displayed in multiple lines in Excel, one value per line. Care should be taken when editing such fields to maintain this formatting.
Working with Fields that must have Values
A number of Jira fields, both system fields and custom fields, must have a value. When Jira issues are updated or created from Excel, a value must be provided in most cases. In particular, values for the system fields Issue Type and Summary are always necessary, while values for Project Key are necessary for updates. The project configuration may also designate other fields as having a required value. Here is what happens when necessary values are not provided:
Update issue: The updates of the fields lacking necessary values are refused and the errors reported.
Create issue: If all fields lacking necessary values have defined default values, the issue is created. Otherwise, the action is refused and the errors reported.
It is also possible that fields that are not explicitly necessary in Jira are in fact treated as necessary by third party apps. Such fields are handled in the same way.
Working with Issue Links
Link relations between Jira issues can be specified as documented in supported field types page.