Best way to bulk create sub-tasks

[Kelly Arrey]

Micha Kops' Quick Subtasks for Jira application for Server is a really good way to quickly create an arbitrary set of sub-tasks for a given issue in a simple text-based interface.  I know I can use the CSV Importer to do the same task, but that process is very cumbersome, and is not practical for everyday use by end users.

Is there a better way to do this in Jira Software Cloud ?  The set of sub-tasks is not necessarily a fixed template, it can vary from one story to another. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks.

[Kelly Arrey · Accepted solution]

We've found another approach to solving this problem in our installation: the Smart Checklist app. There are two variants:

• Smart Checklist for Jira - Pro
• Smart Checklist for Jira - Free
  
  
• Free vs Pro Plans Comparison

This supports checklists within an issue, which is a bit lighter-weight than sub-tasks, but which allows both templated checklists and very quick markdown input of non-template checklists.

(I have no stake in Railsware, just a happy customer).

[Olena Brazhko_Railsware_]

@Kelly Arrey hi there!

Thanks for your sincere recommendation!

We are flattered to know you are a happy customer of ours. Feel free to contact us any time if need be.

All the best,

Olena

[Carson Price]

Here's how to do it without add-ons.

You need to create a label and name it whatever you want, for this example we will call it "MagicLabel"

1. Search for every item that you want to add a subtask to
   1. have that search open and open another tab/window 
2. Create automation 
   1. Field Value Changed
      1. Field to monitor for changes = Labels
      2. Change Type = Value Added
      3. Save
   2. Condition - Issue fields condition
      1. Field = Labels
      2. Condition = contains any of 
      3. Value = MagicLabel
      4. Save
   3. New Action - Create Sub-task
      1. Name the sub-task whatever you need to.
         1. If you want to use a smart value check out here
      2. You can also add other fields here, so if you want to assign all the tasks to a person just click the "add fields" select the field you want to add, and include the value you want to put in that field. 
      3. Save
   4. Name your automation = whatever you want to call it.
   5. Turn it on
3. Go back to the Window or Tab that has your search results in it,
   1. Click the three dots in top right and select "Bulk Change"
   2. Select the stories you want to bulk change or just the top box to select all fo them.
   3. Next
   4. Edit Issues
   5. Next
   6. Change Labels 
      1. Add to existing
      2. Put "MagicLabel" (or whatever you call it) in the box below. 
      3. (This should automatically check the box next to "Change Label"
   7. Next
   8. Confirm

It will run through and change all the items you bulk edited and will include that subtask. After this was done I ran a search for all the stories with "MagicLabel" in the Labels and bulk edited them, there is an option next to "Change Label" that is "Find and remove these" and put in "MagicLabel" and confirm. This will erase that label from all your stories. Now just go delete the automation or turn it off and you're golden! 

Good Luck, I know it seems complicated but it was pretty fast and easy for me. 

[Robb Corbett]

amazing! exactly what I was looking for!

[HeatherS]

This was great!  Thank you! Exactly what I needed :)

[Alexander Pappert]

there is no "best way". it depends on which addon you already have and use.

there are a lot of addon which can do this for you

since automation is free for cloud, you could use it

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/automation-template-library/software-teams

if you work with other ones like scriptrunner, you can use it

[Kelly Arrey]

Thanks Alexander, It looks like that would work if I were trying to create the same set of subtasks every time, but that's not the problem I'm trying to solve.  I'm looking for a solution that allows the user to input the specifics of a variable number of subtasks in a simple text format.  The CSV Importer supports this, albeit awkwardly. Quick Subtasks supports it almost perfectly, but alas, not on cloud.

[Daniel Serodio]

The best way I've found it to write a shell script that calls https://github.com/ankitpokhrel/jira-cli with the apropriate parameters.

Since my need is for a one-off bulk creation and I had the necessary parameters on a Google Sheet, I've used Google Sheets to write this shell script.

Hope this helps.

[Nishanth Thimmareddy (Appfire)]

Hi Kelly,

You can use Create on Transition for Jira Cloud app to bulk create subtasks on any transition in the workflow including the Create transition. You can easily configure conditions to determine when a subtask should be created using substitution variables, regex patterns, or JQL queries for even more flexibility. Let me know if you have any questions!

Full disclosure, I'm the product manager for the app.

Thanks,

Nishanth T

[Kristian Walker _Adaptavist_]

Hi Kelly,

Thank you for your question.

I can confirm that with ScriptRunner for Jira Cloud then it is possible to write a script which can be used to programmatically create multiple subtasks below an issue.

I can confirm we have an example of how to do this in the Adaptavist Script Libray located here and you will be able to take this script and to modify this to help achieve your requirements.

Using this you would be able to take a value which a user has inputted on an issue and to pass this into the logic of your script and to create this number of subtasks.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Kristian