CSV to Jira Discovery Project import errors

[Karthiga Sethuraj]

Hello JPD team,

I get the following errors while importing ideas from a CSV file using the External System Import. I made sure I mapped them right.

1) Issue creation date is not getting imported.  I get the following error.

Unable to parse created date: 5/19/2020 7:20

2) Can I import comments from two different columns in my CSV to the single comment field in the discovery project ?

3) I also get this warning for commenter field. This is not a big deal but just wondering why the importer is throwing this error.

Commenter named null not found. Creating issue with currently logged in user instead

Please advise.

Thank you,

Karthiga

[Jacques]

Hello @Karthiga Sethuraj 

I think that most of your questions are answered by going through this article, but here are a few pointers:

1. Months and days are usually the problem in csv interpretation. In some Jira interprets the month for a day, and in others vice-versa. For dates, I usually use the following format: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm. For your example this would be: 2020-05-19 07:20. I also use the 24 hour format, as to not have an issue with am/pm. 
2. Each comment column is a different comment in Jira. If you want to merge 2 comments into one, then you would need to rework your csv file (in Excel or the like) and merge the 2 columns.
3. The commenter field should be a user that exists in your instance. As mentioned in the article I shared at the beginning, this can either be their email address or Atlassian account id.

Hope this helps! 
--- Jacques.

[Rohan Swami]

@Karthiga Sethuraj if @Jacques' suggestion doesn't work for you please create a support ticket for us: In the bottom left of JPD select Give feedback then Get help from the support team.

[Karthiga Sethuraj]

@Jacques that worked. I converted the date to a text field in the format you suggested. However I used the am/pm while converting to text.

One more question:
- Some of the custom field's content gets truncated due to exceeding the 255 character limit.  Is there a workaround or solution for this ? Please advise. 

Thank you for your quick response. 

[Jacques]

Hey @Karthiga Sethuraj

It depends for which field you're trying to import this. System fields (those provided by Atlassian) can't be changed. So if they truncate there, then you'll have to actually reduce the text you want to import.

If this happens for custom fields you've created yourself, then the only solution is to (re-)create the custom field, but instead of a single line custom field, use a multi-line text custom field.

I strongly recommend NOT creating 2 different custom fields with the same name, as it only gets confusing in the long run.

Hope this helps,
--- Jacques.

[Karthiga Sethuraj]

Hello @Jacques 

Thanks again for the clarification. A couple of more questions:

1) The truncated fields are all custom fields which are of long text field type in the source csv file. However they are mapped to "short text fields" in JPD. Does JPD support multi line text field type for custom fields ? If not is there a workaround to import text fields that have more than 255 characters ?

2) Can I clone an existing Discovery project and create a new discovery project to copy over the custom fields and a custom modified workflow ? So that I do not have to recreate the custom fields and the custom workflow.

3) Can I change the type of a custom field (say for e.g. change from text to numeric) after it has been created ?

4) I have custom defined statuses in my discovery project's workflow. Can I create a Kanban board with columns corresponding to my custom statuses similar to how a Kanban board is configured in a software project ?

Please advise. Thanks in advance.

[Rohan Swami]

1) Text fields are capped at 255 characters and don't support multi-line but you can insert long form content into the description of the idea. Can you help me understand why you need this?

2) Not at the moment but we are working on this!

3) Not at the moment.

4) Yes you can do this!

[Karthiga Sethuraj]

I have a couple of text fields in our old idea portal aha (see below Bullet list) that have to be ideally migrated to its own individual custom fields in JPD . 

Would you recommend importing the below questions and responses to insights using the API ? If yes could you share more details/doc please ?

• Data Purpose / Use Case
• How is this data essential to the client(s) or Zego’s daily operations and in what way?
• How often do you need this data/report?
• Impacted User(s) / Client(s) Requesting
• Is there an existing method or process for getting this data today?
• Proposed Solution
• User Workflow
• What is the problem we are trying to address?
  Idea status

Question on number 4) Could you share documentation on how to set up a kanban board, I couldn't find any and wasn't able to figure it out myself. 

[Karthiga Sethuraj]

I did get a response for point nr 1 from Tanguy in this post today. However it is not clear how to append all the text fields into a single the description field without losing the formatting. Each question should have a header in a different font and a new line must be inserted between each text field. Any advise on how to do it would be helpful. 

Thank you!

[Rohan Swami]

Hi Karthiga, CSV import will keep formatting as long as you keep the same markup language that we use (\* bold text \*, \- strikethrough \-, that kind of thing). See the examples below for markup guidance.

To create a Kanban board: Create a view > Create a new board > For columns, select Status.

[Karthiga Sethuraj]

@Rohan Swami  could you explain the steps or share some doc on how to do this using code ? I am not a developer so I will have to get a developer's with this I think. Thanks in advance for your help. 

[Rohan Swami]

Hi @Karthiga Sethuraj please continue this in the support ticket you have open with us and we'll be able to give you more targeted help.

[Karthiga Sethuraj]

Thank you!

[Andrea McDougall]

Hi, when I try to import a csv of ideas from our current solution (Aha!), I get to the field mapping step, specify which columns to map to which field, but the Next button remains deactivated and I am unable to proceed to the next step of mapping the values. Is there a relevant article for this use case? :) Thank you

[Christopher Hogan]

Hi Karthiga,

The answers above should have addressed your "created date" problem. I had a similar one, whose answer may be interesting to people trying a mass import.

I was using a .csv to import a number of ideas from another application, and most already had dates for start and target completion. I did get it working, though it took some work in Excel:

I inserted two columns in the workbook that would be the import .csv, just left of my "start" and "end" columns, and named them "Project Start" and "Project Target."

The goal was to recreate the interesting date format native to JPD: 

{"start":"2023-12-06","end":"2023-12-06"}

 I came up with a wacky formula - but it worked:

=IF(OR(U2="",U2=0),"","{""start"":"""& "" & TEXT(U2,"yyyy-mm-dd") & "" & """,""end"":""" & "" &  TEXT(U2,"yyyy-mm-dd") & "" & """}")

The goal was to check if the date field was empty or zero, and if not, to re-create the JPD string with the formatted date field included. You would need to change the column reference to match yours, obviously.

I associated the JPD "Project Start" and "Project Target" fields with these columns, and it worked the first time I tried it in production.  I hope this helps.