Backbone Issue sync tool - link two existing issues?

[Simon Rigler]

Hi,

I’m involved in a project to improve prod support / dev processes and I’ve learned that our teams already (for years) have Jira Service Mgmt (Cloud) and Jira (Server), with the Backbone plug-ins for both so that Jira issues can be automatically created at a certain point in the JSM workflow, and then sync them for certain fields to be updated thereafter between the two systems.

Sometimes when a JSM ticket exists and gets to that particular point in the workflow, actually a Jira ticket already exists too and we don’t want Backbone to generate a new one. Instead can we choose to manually create a Backbone issue sync link between our JSM (Cloud) ticket and our Jira (Server) ticket?

I haven’t been able to find this functionality but hopefully it’s possible to link two existing issues across two Jira instances?

Many thanks, 

Simon

[francis · Accepted solution]

Hi @Simon Rigler 

I'm Francis - product manager for Exalate,  also an issue synchronisation solution.
I can understand that you will not switch to our product, but I leave the note here for the occasional reader who is looking for a similar solution.

In the case of Exalate, you can automate the pairing with an existing issue by adding in the incoming sync something like

if (firstSync) {
   issue.id = <fetch the appropriate target issue id>
}

Fetching the target issue id all depends on the environment.

Of course - once that you have a n-1 type of relation, things become interesting how the sync needs to be configured.

• Do comments made on the issue need to be rippled to all connected tickets
• What should happen when one of the connected tickets change status
• Do you want to link the tickets together

You can always book a demo to continue the discussion, or check out the exalate community for similar use cases and discussions


Francis

[Simon Rigler]

Thanks for replying Francis, good to know for the future that your product exists.

And yes, whatever the syncing tool, I'd quickly realised that a many-to-one syncing could be ... unpleasant to configure, but a realistic scenario? e.g. 5 x support tickets are raised due to the same root cause, which requires only a single Bug tixket in Jira to resolve them.

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Simon Rigler

thank you for posting your question. I'm one of Backbone's product managers and I'm happy to jump on it. I guess I have some good and bad news for you.

The good news
It is possible.

The bad news
The process is a bit cumbersome for your use case - but you may judge yourself.

How you can do it
You can tell Backbone to consider existing issues to be synchronized. This is mainly intended for cases when you introduce Backbone into projects which previously have been synchronized manually or some other way of synchronization. But you can also use this process for linking single issues.
In order to do so, go to the detail view of your synchronization and choose the option Pair existing issues. There you can upload a small csv file containing the issue keys you want to pair.
For more details, please also check our docs about issue pairing.

Call for Feedback
Please let me know if this is a feasible way for you - or what and where you'd like to have something. If you want to get more into a 1:1 conversation, let us know via help@k15t.com.

Cheers,
Matthias.

[Simon Rigler]

Thanks Matthias, I will try 'Pair existing issues' out when my colleague returns from leave later this week, at least I know that option exists now and where to find it :) 

We do not expect to have to manually link issues often, so the csv file may well be fine. I hope that, say, 90% of issues will start in JSM and can get automatically created in Jira via the sync process - but there will be 10% where we find that the issue already exists in Jira and we will want to pair this existing issue instead.

Note: I will also raise another ticket shortly as we have an issue with our synchronisation which is blocking some further investigation of things like this.

[Simon Rigler]

Hello, I have had a chance to try the Manual Pairing method now - it is a little "cumbersome" as you say, but it works well and should suffice given that I hope we won't need to do this often. Answer now accepted :) 

NOTE: I was able to test this by creating a new synchronisation via a different Jira project - however our existing (real) sync config remains broken and I will send you guys a support zip on this via my other ticket:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Backbone-Issue-Sync-Syncs-set-to-STOPPED-and-unable-to-restart/qaq-p/1633146#M127391

[Joseph Chung Yin · Accepted solution]

@Simon Rigler -

As stated in the following Atlassian page - https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/link-an-issue/.  It stated that in the new issue view (cloud) you cannot manually create links to another Jira site.  You will need to switch to the old issue view to create the links manually.

"You can't do this in the new issue view just yet. Click the issue key to go to the full-page view (if you're not already there) then click through to the old issue view at the top-right to complete this process."

Don't know much about the Backbone Issue Sync Tool add-on, so I would recommend that you contact the vendor directly.

In general, linking to existing issues are typically done manually.

Best, Joseph Chung Yin

Jira/JSM Functional Lead, Global Infrastructure Applications Team

Viasat Inc.

[Simon Rigler]

Hi Jospeh,

Thanks, but we are not using jira-software-cloud, we are on jira-server, so I am noy familiar with the new / old issue view concept.

Many thanks,

Simon

[Simon Rigler]

Hi Joseph, sorry if I confused you by selecting Cloud when raising the ticket - wasn't sure what to pick as we have one product on Cloud (JSM) and one product on Server (Jira Software).

[Joseph Chung Yin]

Hi @Simon Rigler :

If you are using Jira Server env, the need to link to multiple existing issues can be achieved manually via the UI.  On my end, we don't use Backbone add-on, so I cannot advise on that tool.  We have automation setup via WF customization (post functions call) to automatically create new linked issues in other Jira projects when a JSD issue is created or moved into a different WF statuses.

The process of linking to existing issues (based on my experience) can only be done manually via the UI as long as your application links are properly configured to connect your JSM (Cloud) and your Jira (Server).

Best, Joseph

[Simon Rigler]

Thanks Joseph, this is helpful information - I would say that we do not have that configuration in place between JSM (Cloud) and Jira (Server) such that we can link issues manually through UI, but I will raise this with the project team.

Many thanks,

Simon