3 Ways to Create Custom Issue History Reports in Jira Data Center

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Creating custom issue history reports in Jira Data Center is important to track changes, ensure compliance, and understand workflow efficiency. These reports are useful because they help teams see what issues have been updated, and keep an audit trail of what progress is being made, as well as tracking bottlenecks.

Jira has built-in history tracking, but when it comes to filtering, exporting, and customizing the data, it has limitations. Users have different options to rely on, such as Jira’s built-in issue history, advanced JQL queries, or specialized Marketplace apps to create detailed reports.

In this article, we look at the best ways to create an issue history report in Jira Data Center, and compare several options to help you decide which is the right one for your reporting needs.

Method 1: Using the Activity Stream Gadget

The Activity Stream gadget is a built-in feature in Jira Data Center. Using it, you can get a chronological list of recent activities across projects, issues, and users. However, it does not track specific field changes like, for example, assignee or priority updates.

How to use the Activity Stream gadget for custom reports

To start using the Activity Stream gadget, you need to follow these steps:

• Open Dashboards in Jira Data Center and select an already existing dashboard or start creating a new one.
• Search for Activity Stream within the Add Gadget menu before adding it to your dashboard.
• You should apply filtering options to see particular projects along with their users and update dates. For example:

• The stream displays the activities according to the filters applied. In our example, it will look like this:

Advantages of the Activity Stream gadget

The Activity Stream gadget in Jira Data Center shows real-time activity updates such as issue comments and changes, so your team members have current information about work progress. Also, the gadget enables project and user filtering to help teams show specific information that suits their requirements.

Limitations of the Activity Stream gadget

The Activity Stream gadget shows limited recent activities, which prevents its use for deep historical analysis. Export capabilities are missing from the gadget, so users cannot retrieve data for thorough analysis. The basic filtering options in the gadget include user and date ranges but lack the capability to monitor specific field modifications.

Method 2: Advanced JQL Queries

JQL allows teams using Jira Data Center to generate custom issue history reports by retrieving historical changes according to specific criteria. JQL as a native Jira feature allows users to filter and extract issue updates by status changes, assignee, priority, reporter, and resolution updates, enabling it to be used for auditing and workflow analysis.

How to use JQL for tracking historical changes</h23

JQL helps in tracking changes to fields like status, assignee, priority, or custom fields. It allows users to create reports on specific transitions or updates changing over time.

The examples of JQL queries that allow monitoring issue history changes:

To track changes related to changes of issue statuses:

status changed AFTER "2025-01-01"

This query will return all issues whose status changed after January 1, 2025.

To find issues that were assigned to a specific employee after some date:

assignee changed TO Anastasiia after "2025-01-01"

This query filters issues that were assigned to a specific user after the given date.

To track the changes related to issue priority:

priority changed FROM Medium TO High AFTER "2025-01-01"

This query filters issues that had their priority increase from Medium to High after the specified date.

To find the issues that were reopened after being closed:

status changed FROM Closed TO Reopened AFTER "2025-01-01"

It can be useful for fixing workflow inefficiencies by tracking cases where previously closed issues were reopened.

In Jira Data Center, users can export the results of JQL queries for further analysis in external tools. To do this, execute the JQL query in the Issue Navigator, click Export, and select a format.

Advantages of JQL queries

JQL in Jira Data Center enables teams to track issue history by filtering data based on fields, dates, users, and changes. Reports will always show the latest updates because it provides real-time results. It is a budget-friendly option since users can create custom searches to monitor changes in status, assignee, and priority without any extra plugins. It is possible to export JQL results into CSV or Excel for further analysis, for example, for audits and compliance checks.

Limitations of JQL queries

JQL cannot show you detailed historical records in a structured format since it only shows you the latest issue state, not a full change log. JQL can search for past changes only in such fields as Assignee, Fix Version, Priority, Reporter, Resolution, and Status. It doesn’t show who was responsible for the changes to the issues and when the updates were made.

The only visualization that is built in is not advanced enough, and thus, users have to export data to external tools for advanced reporting and trend analysis.

The automation is not available in JQL, and it has to be run manually every time the report is needed. It also does not support complex historical comparisons, such as a single query to track the change in multiple fields over time. To overcome these restrictions, teams often rely on third-party apps for deeper insights.

Method 3: Using the Issue History for Jira app

The Issue History for Jira app provides an alternative to built-in features and JQL queries for teams that require detailed and customizable issue history reports in Jira Data Center. It is a great app for audits and reporting, offering advanced filtering, export options, and better data visualization.

Issue History within Jira offers these features:

• Users can track changes through an easy filtering system that enables reports with detailed information by selecting user, field, date range, or project.
• The app lets you export reports through CSV and Excel formats for both deep investigation and simple data sharing.
• All historical data remains accessible through a unified view, which eliminates the need for complicated JQL queries.

How to use Issue History for Jira app

To install Issue History for Jira via Atlassian Marketplace, do the following:

• Search for "Issue History for Jira" through the Atlassian Marketplace.
• Choose the Data Center hosting type.
• Click “Try it free” to begin the installation process.

• Select your site within atlassian.net and begin your free trial by clicking “Start free trial”.

To generate reports via Issue History for Jira in Jira Data Center, you need to do the following:

1. Access Issue History for Jira app.
2. In the app, you can create reports based on different filters. For example, you can choose the needed project, date range, user, or specific fields to track issue changes.

3. You can save the selected view, generate a link to share the report with colleagues, or download the report in Excel or CSV for further analysis.

Advantages of Issue History for Jira app

With the Issue History for Jira app, you can get a clear view of issue changes by status, assignee, priority, or any standard and custom field. The app makes it easy to export the data in CSV or Excel, which is perfect for audits, compliance, and workflow analysis.

Unlike Jira’s built-in history feature, it displays changes in a structured, organized table that makes it easier to see and report on. Centralizing the history of issues in one place saves time and increases team accountability.

Limitations of Issue History for Jira app

This app needs to be installed, and the users need to have admin rights to add it to Jira Data Center.

Summing Up

For audits, compliance, and workflow improvements, it is essential to track issue changes in Jira Data Center.

Basic tracking is provided through Jira’s built-in history, but there are no filtering or export options.

JQL queries provide more flexibility, but they support only six fields for past searches and do not show structured historical data.

Issue History for Jira app provides advanced filters, tables with a clean look, the ability to track changes to any field, and create custom reports.

🚀 Try Issue History for Jira app now ! 📊✅

You can try these methods and see what works for you better.