Jira Cleanup with CLI

[#1]

Let Bob ('s CLI) do the work

As I mentioned in my article Tidying Up Jira, the Bob Swift's CLI is incredibly useful for doing cleanup of configuration objects in Jira that are not used.

I'm talking about screens or workflows that nobody uses, issue type schemes that were discarded but never deleted, etc.

A former client was very insistent that we clean these up on a weekly basis, and it bugged me having to manually delete one or two of these schemes, etc. all the time. So I started looking for ways to automate the process, and CLI was perfect.

By the time I worked with a different client who had tons of unused objects, I was very happy I had saved all of the commands I figured out for the previous client. And so I'm happily sharing those commands with you. (Note: most of these were developed and tested with ACLI client versions 9.6.0 and 9.7.0. Most recently I had to update to 9.8.1 because of what looked like changes in the Cloud. Especially if you're on Cloud, you're going to want to be on the latest version.) 

Screens Cleanup

The Find commands below let you preview which schemes/screens will get deleted (it only will delete schemes/screens that are “Deleteable” in the UI (options=deleteEnabled).

After confirming, you can use the Delete commands to automatically delete them.

You can use regex to exclude certain unused schemes/screens we want to keep around. (Example shown in Screens.)

You can also run the delete commands with a --simulate flag to see what it will do.

Find Unused Issue Type Screen Schemes

acli --action getIssueTypeScreenSchemeList --options "deleteEnabled"

Delete Unused Issue Type Screen Schemes

acli --action runFromIssueTypeScreenSchemeList \
--common "--action deleteIssueTypeScreenScheme --id @schemeId@" \
--options "deleteEnabled" --continue

Find Unused Screen Schemes

acli --action getScreenSchemeList --options "deleteEnabled"

Delete Unused Screen Schemes

acli --action runFromScreenSchemeList --common "--action deleteScreenScheme --id @schemeId@" \
--options "deleteEnabled" --continue

Find Unused Screens

acli --action getScreenList --options "deleteEnabled"

Delete Unused Screens

acli --action runFromScreenList --common "--action deleteScreen --id @screenId@" \ 
--options "deleteEnabled" --continue

Field Configuration Cleanup

Find Unused Field Configuration Schemes

acli --action getFieldConfigurationSchemeList --options "deleteEnabled"

Delete Unused Field Configuration Schemes

acli --action runFromFieldConfigurationSchemeList --options "deleteEnabled" \
--common "--action deleteFieldConfigurationScheme --id @schemeId@" --continue

Find Unused Field Configurations

acli --action getFieldConfigurationList --options "deleteEnabled"

Delete Unused Field Configuration Schemes

acli --action runFromFieldConfigurationList --options "deleteEnabled" \
--common "--action deleteFieldConfiguration --id @fieldConfigurationId@" --continue

Issue Type Scheme Cleanup

In the UI, Jira displays which Issue Type Schemes are associated with "No projects" (and thus are good candidates to clean up). But it turns out that Jira will let you delete that are associated with projects, warning you that "This project will revert to using the default global issue type scheme."

So you only want to delete Issue Type Schemes that are not associated with any projects, and thanks to a tip from @Michael Kuhl {Appfire}, I've learned how to use the select command to produce a list of these unassociated schemes, which you then can use with runFromCSV to delete them.

Here's how to use the command:

Find Issue Type Schemes with no associated projects

acli dev --action getIssueTypeSchemeList --outputFormat 999 \
--select "Projects:.+"  --options negative \
--file deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv

So review that list -- maybe do a sanity check against the UI to make sure the list is accurate (schemes on the list should show "No Projects"). If it looks good, then you can proceed to delete them.

Delete Issue Type Schemes with no associated projects

acli --simulate --action runFromCSV --file deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv \
--common "-a deleteIssueTypeScheme"

Workflow Cleanup

Find Unused Workflow Schemes

acli --action getWorkflowSchemeList --options "deleteEnabled"

Delete Unused Workflow Schemes

acli --action runFromWorkflowSchemeList --common \
"--action deleteWorkflowScheme --id @schemeId@" \
--options "deleteEnabled" --continue

Find Inactive Workflows

The CLI command getWorkflowList when used with is able to display a column named "Delete Enabled", which also works with the select option:

acli --action getWorkflowList --outputFormat 999 \
--select "Delete Enabled:Yes" --file deleteableworkflows.csv

Again, validate the list, and you can proceed to delete.

Note: On my test server, I see a workflow named: "Builds Workflow (Read-only System Workflow)", which does not show as deleteable, but CLI lists it as "Delete Enabled". I tried deleting it using the CLI below, but it fails with "Client error: Unknown error occurred. Workflow not deleted." So that's why I had to add continue.

I will file a bug with Bob about this, but you can either remove any "Read-only" workflows from your list, or just not panic when the error shows up.

Delete Inactive Workflows

acli --action runFromCSV --file deleteableworkflows.csv \
--common "-a deleteWorkflow" --continue

Resources:

• CLI Documentation of “runFrom” commands.
• CLI Property File Setup - great for if you work with multiple servers (Prod/Dev, or different clients, orgs, etc.)

[Bob Swift {Appfire}]

Nice job Darryl :)

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Hi @Darryl Lee - This is a great article!  Here's a way to skip the step of using Excel, etc to filter issue type schemes which have empty projects:  You an add --select "Projects:.+"  --options negative to filter the result set to those without any value in the projects column.
[Edited to add "--options" to find rows with empty project columns]

[Darryl Lee]

@Michael Kuhl {Appfire} Oh man, that is awesome!

Man, it would be really good if there was some examples of this. I'm going to try this and update my original article!

Oh also, I tried to use this with runFromIssueTypeSchemeList and bummer, got this:

Parameter error: The select parameter is not available for run actions. An alternative is to use the select parameter on a get...List action and then runFromCsv to process the file.

Man... I guess it's still a a bit of a two-step process.

Will run actions ever support the select parameter?

[Darryl Lee]

Oh, thanks to the tip from @Michael Kuhl {Appfire}, I ended up deleting this from my original article, but wanted to call it out:

Back in Dec 2020, @Manisha Kharga _Appfire_ suggested that the CLI command getIssueTypeSchemeList could output a list of all Issue Type Schemes, along with associated Projects, and then you could use Excel, etc. to filter on that column (where it is blank), and then run another command to delete those specific schemes.

Unfortunately the feature to include Projects didn't actually work in v9.6.0, but Manisha helped get a bug filed and Appfire got it working in v9.7.0 of CLI.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Hey @Darryl Lee  re: "Will run actions ever support the select parameter?"
I noticed that myself and am looking into it.

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

This is such an awesome, kick butt article! Takk, @Darryl Lee !

[Jeff Gunawan]

The script for "Delete Issue Type Schemes with no associated projects" oddly deleted 30 issue type schemes so be meticulous! I'm still not sure why that occurred. Thankfully we could reference the sandbox environment to recreate the deleted ITS.

[Darryl Lee]

Ohey @Jeff Gunawan and OH NO!

Did you NOT use "--simulate" in the delete command first?

You're talking about these commands right?

Find Issue Type Schemes with no associated projects

acli --action getIssueTypeSchemeList --outputFormat 999 \
--select "Projects:.+"  --options negative \
--file deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv

Delete Issue Type Schemes with no associated projects

acli --simulate --action runFromCSV --file deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv \
--common "-a deleteIssueTypeScheme"

As I wrote, it's essential that you open up deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv to make sure that the list of schemes it found is correct.

So review that list -- maybe do a sanity check against the UI to make sure the list is accurate (schemes on the list should show "No Projects"). If it looks good, then you can proceed to delete them.

So I just tested the commands with ACLI version 11.3.0 and they still seem to work as they did before. And again, if you used my exact command, the "--simulate" would've shown you if it was going to delete the wrong schemes.

Here's a sample run I did on my test site. I have 7 Issue Type Schemes with no projects associated with them:

darryllee@DXF574VV9C ~ % acli boojira --action getIssueTypeSchemeList --outputFormat 999 --select "Projects:.+" --options negative --file deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv
7 issue type schemes in list written to file: /Users/darryllee/deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv

darryllee@DXF574VV9C ~ % acli boojira --simulate --action runFromCSV --file deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv \
--common "-a deleteIssueTypeScheme"


Simulate: --id "10224" --name "BTC: Kanban Issue Type Scheme" --description "" -a deleteIssueTypeScheme

Simulate: --id "10253" --name "TP2: Software Development Issue Type Scheme" --description "" -a deleteIssueTypeScheme

Simulate: --id "10254" --name "TP3: Software Development Issue Type Scheme" --description "" -a deleteIssueTypeScheme

Simulate: --id "10255" --name "TP4: Software Development Issue Type Scheme" --description "" -a deleteIssueTypeScheme

Simulate: --id "10256" --name "TP5: Software Development Issue Type Scheme" --description "" -a deleteIssueTypeScheme

Simulate: --id "10257" --name "TP6: Software Development Issue Type Scheme" --description "" -a deleteIssueTypeScheme

Simulate: --id "10252" --name "TP: Software Development Issue Type Scheme" --description "" -a deleteIssueTypeScheme

Run completed successfully. 7 actions were successful from file: /Users/darryllee/deleteableissuetypeschemes.csv.

[Jeff Gunawan]

Hey Darryl! 

Did you NOT use "--simulate" in the delete command first?

I did not...

I'll run that script in our sandbox environment on the next run to ensure it works as intended. Appreciate it :) 

[Darryl Lee]

Hey Jeff! Ooof, yeah, --simulate AND a Sandbox are both great tools. CLI and scripts are super-powerful, but also super-dangerous, so you always want to test test test.