Accessing / Parsing / Exporting "Development" Field in Jira Coud

Question

If one integrates Jira (cloud or other) to your source code repo / build system, the Development custom module displays useful stats and active links to your Branches, Commits, Merges, and Builds.

One can even write JQL to query based upon conditional on values associated with the "Development" field (see Advanced Searching Development Field)

The export JSON in the "Development" field seems to contain either commit details, or PRs, but the number don't appear to align to what is displayed in the detail view in artifact, only in the token view in query results (an icon mostly).

It is possible to access a substantially larger set of data via a Groovy Script (see Accessing full Development details via Groovy). But this is not very viable for analytics purposes, in some regards.

So the questions I have are:

1. Is there a way to view in JQL results the full "Development" field information without Groovy?

2. Does Atlassian Analytics have access to the full "Development" field data (as visible in groovy)?

3. Why on earth would you create a set of JQL query options for advanced search on sub data elements for the Development field but not expose the underlying data?  ... Okay that one is rhetorical ...

Any insights would be appreciated.

Aron Gombas _Midori_ · Answer

You can export that field to Excel with the Jira app called Better Excel Exporter:

As you see that field is mapped to a single Excel column (there is a 1:1 mapping between Jira fields and Excel cells), but nothing prevents you from splitting the exported value at the comma characters and parse the parts separately. Then your reporting possibilities are endless!

(Discl. it is a paid and supported app developed by our team. Free for 10 users!)

Dan -minware- · Answer

Disclaimer: marketplace partner!

Hey @Paul Vilevac - I see Shikha mentioned this is not supported natively in JQL. If you are not able to find a solution we can should be able to help at minware.

What information are you looking for exactly? Here you can see an example of Git + Ticketing pulling into a custom report:

It is very quick and easy to customize with minQL and we offer a free trial if you want to check it out!

Shikha Verma_xy1o3z · Answer

Hi @Paul Vilevac Welcome to the community!

1. Unfortunately, Jira's JQL (Jira Query Language) does not natively support returning detailed information from the "Development" field directly within the query results. The "Development" field is typically shown in the Jira issue view with a summary, and the detailed data is stored in a way that’s optimized for display, not querying. While JQL allows you to filter issues based on specific aspects of the "Development" field (like whether an issue has a linked branch, commit, or pull request), it doesn't expose the detailed data directly.
2. Atlassian Analytics (formerly known as Jira Align Analytics or other advanced reporting tools within the Atlassian ecosystem) typically provides access to aggregated data from Jira and other Atlassian tools, but it might not expose the full, detailed "Development" field data directly as seen in Groovy scripts.
3. The "Development" field likely pulls data from external systems (like Git, Jenkins, etc.) in a summarized form, and this summary is what's available for JQL queries. The rationale is probably rooted in performance considerations and the design philosophy of keeping JQL queries lightweight, focusing on finding and filtering issues quickly rather than performing complex data retrieval tasks.
You can use REST API, Custom Scripts, Data Integration Tools.

Thanks!