Converting Jira work item's components from Compass back to Jira

Keith Furnell

Jira provides a switch between its own list of component names and the components of a Compass catalog:

With the retirement of Compass some will want to switch back, rather than wait for corresponding functionality to be provided for DX Fabric, however so doing only seems to affect the Components field of work items created from that point; all existing work items that reference Compass components continue to do so.

Does anyone know:

1. A way to bulk convert work item component references from Compass back to plain text?
2. What will happen to those Jira component references (if not converted) once Compass access is removed?

Inverse question: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/discussion/3010914/converting-jira-work-items-components-from-jira-to-compass

Tomislav Tobijas

Hey @Keith Furnell ,

I just noticed you can't even switch spaces to use Compass components anymore 👀 Guess it's due to deprecation/Compass EOL.

Bulk conversion

Anyway, what we did before (and I believe that's still the case) is to use bulk updates either directly in Jira or with automation.

Basically, when you switch to Jira native components, field will still reference those Compass components, so you'll have to create some kind of mapping that you'll follow to do the update. I guess you can use one of these:

1. Within automation, use Lookup or Dynamic lookup tables to do the mapping and just run the automation once you do the switch from Compass to Jira native. Would be good if you could test this out beforehand, but I believe it will do the trick
2. You could do bulk update from JQL > basically do the search project = <KEY> AND component WAS "<Name>" and then do Component one-by-one.
   This could take some time, depending on how many you've got.
3. You could also recreate Jira components (if they don't exist already) via CSV I guess. Something like this:

Create a CSV file with headers summary and component. Add dummy rows like: Placeholder Issue, <Component_Name_A>.

Navigate to Settings (gear icon) > System > External System Import > CSV.

Upload and map the fields to create the component names automatically in your project.

Delete the temporary placeholder issues once the import is finished

Retirement on references

This is purely based on my previous experience; not confirmed. The suggestion would be to reach out to Atlassian Support directly to get a definitive answer.

It might be that you'll see something like empty shells — basically, the references will still appear on existing work items, but may not be selectable for new items. Also, you won't be able to view the component details or health scorecards and JQL may not work as expected.

Another case is that those values will appear as broken unless they prompt you (before the deprecation) to do something about it.

Usually, when they 'enforce' EOL, you'll get some choices about what you'd like to do, and those actions would mainly need to be performed by end users (or with assistance from support).

To sum it up: I don't think there's a definitive answer (yet), so it would be great if you could contact support and share any insights they might provide. 🤔

Cheers,
Tobi