Announcing the ability to unlink previously used project keys for reuse

[#1]

Hey everyone!

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve began rolling out a new feature which allows you to unlink previously used project keys. This means you’ll be able to release previous keys to be used in new projects.

Please note that any previously saved links/filters/queries referring to the old key will need to be updated as they will no longer re-direct once released.

You can find previously used keys in the Details section of Project settings (both company and team-managed projects are supported):

If you’ve had a chance to use this feature, we welcome any feedback or questions here!

Regards

Carol & the Atlassian Team

[Tom Haapanen]

This is great news! It did take a long time but very happy to see that a solution is finally here! 👍

[Christoph Schaub]

Seems to work for me. I did not reuse the keys right now, but finally could release them for future use.

[Ajay]

Nice to see the feature 

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks @Carol Low - very nice to see this is now available and gives us a bit more freedom.

I think, though, in an instance like ours with over 900 projects and in total, over 1000 project keys (current and previous), it would be really nice to see, and have the ability to replace, the old key usages prior to releasing them. Like you mention, any previously saved links/filters/queries referring to the old key will need to be updated - it would be great if these can be automatically updated, even with a confirm screen, to the current key!

Also, if a project is trashed and then permanently deleted, I would love to have saved links/filters/queries to all update/be removed as well instead of the "The value 'ABC' does not exist for the field 'project'." error

Thanks for this update, though! 

[Stuart Capel - London]

Wow, I remember praying for this a long time ago. Amazing to see it live!

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

Love this! Thanks for the update 🙌

[JG Meillaud _]

Brilliant!

[Carol Low]

@Yatish Madhav - thank you for the great feedback as always!

We hear you on managing previous keys at scale. We could potentially address existing filters but with things like URLs and queries it would be difficult to get full coverage (e.g. bookmarks in browsers, saved queries in notepad etc). Please feel free to keep sending more feedback as you use it.

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks for the response @Carol Low  - i i very well understand that.

I think what Atlassian could control within the scope of a site like the filters, or links in existing issues, text fields, etc  where an old key is used, it would be awesome if those can be replaced and overcome as a starter ...

Thanks again.

[M Amine]

Great! It's very interesting

[Rachael Williams]

I am excited for this one!  I don't come across this need very often, but when I do run into conflicts with a previously used key, it's very frustrating.  With this change, I'm curious if there will be a way to easily search for previously used keys? 

In one scenario, there was a project key that a team wanted to use but it was already taken.  However, I couldn't find any record of it.  It turns out that it was an alias of a project that was rekeyed at some point in it's life, so it was hogging up 2 names. I forget how I eventually figured it out.  With a new field "Previous Project Key" being rolled out, would all of the previous keys be searchable from the project list?

[Dana Gleason]

This is huge!

[Robin Surland]

Great news, however, is this something that admins have some control over? For example, we are bound by the rules of the FDIC and we need to maintain our documentation for five years. Will we be able to either set that rule (can't reuse keys for five years) or turn it off or limit use to specific groups? 

[Susan Waldrip]

Thank you to you @Carol Low and your team for implementing this feature! A suggestion (isn't there always?): It would be really helpful to also display the project IDs on the Details screen to help clean up filters, automations, etc.

[Anne Saunders]

This is VERY cool, and the kind of new functionality I actually want!

[Carol Low]

@Robin Surland - This feature is admin only - will this control suffice for now? We don't have a separate permission for this, would love to know if you think there's a particular role that best aligns with this.

@Rachael Williams - That's a great suggestion - we'll look into it! In the meantime, if you try to re-use a key and it was previously/currently used, the error message will tell you the name of the project using it - hope that helps in not having to go through projects to find them!

 

@Susan Waldrip - just to make sure I understood, do you mean to show a list of previously used and deleted keys?

[Susan Waldrip]

Hi @Carol Low , your question actually brings up a better idea than mine! I meant add the new project ID to the Details page, but having a list somewhere of the old ones would be really helpful -- especially for admins to assume responsibility for other admins' projects and sites, quickly identifying previous projects by ID would help them understand what's been done in the past and even debug certain problems. Thanks for considering this!

[Kelly Arrey]

Thanks Carol, this is awesome news!

[Susan Waldrip]

Hi @Carol Low , thanks for the update announcement! Is this feature only for Jira (software) cloud, or does it also apply to JSM cloud? I use the latter and haven't seen it, so if it's only for JSW right now, will it be implemented in JSM? Thank you!

[sara]

@Carol Low & team: has this feature been rolled back? I had it earlier this week but it seems to have disappeared now...

[Carol Low]

Hey @sara and @Susan Waldrip

We've encountered a few edge cases for JSM which need a bit more work to support, and have temporarily rolled it back.

The feature will be back on following our deployment schedules shortly for Jira projects, and thank you in advance for your patience on JSM projects while we sort out the kinks.

[Kelly Arrey]

Thanks for the update @Carol Low.

As an aside, where do JPD projects fit into this? Thanks

Kel 

[Carol Low]

@Kelly Arrey JPD will also be re-enabled shortly!

[Wendy Imfeld]

Hi Carol 

Happy to read about it - but I would need it right now for a customer. 

Would it be possible to get in touch with me- regarding this function ? 

best regards

Wendy

[Tobias Viehweger]

Hi @Carol Low 

Thanks for sharing. As a Marketplace vendor, I wonder what this announcement might have for implications for our App, especially when reading this line:

Please note that any previously saved links/filters/queries referring to the old key will need to be updated as they will no longer re-direct once released.

This seems to imply that at the point in time when a project key is released, all existing references will stop working (e.g. in stored JQL queries, issue keys?). Would that also affect the normal REST APIs for example?

CC @Ian Buchanan [ianbuchanan] 

Thanks

Tobias