Search Jira from your Browser

[#1]

Are you still opening Jira to search Jira? That’s so 2020! There’s a much faster way. Instead, use your browser’s “search engines” feature to quickly jump to Jira projects, issues, and pages.  No navigation or clicks required!

This is my absolute favorite Jira tip because it saves time. Once it’s set up simply type a specific set of characters to jump straight to your favorite Jira locations!

Example

In the video (link below), I’ve set my browser to take me to the “DEMO” Jira project when I type:  “p“ tab “DEMO” in the address bar.

After I type “p” and a space, my address bar changes to a search bar that looks like the screenshot below.

Notice how the address bar changes

After I type “DEMO” and press the “Enter” key, I’ll be directed to the DEMO project in Jira.

Similarly, I’ve designated the “i” character to go to a specific issue ID and other characters for other frequently accessed Jira admin pages. Here’s how to set it up:

Chrome Browser Instructions

Let’s set up the “i” character to visit a Jira issue like in the example above.

1. Launch the Chrome browser
2. Right click in the address bar and select “Manage search engines”
3. Click the “Add” button next to the “Other search engines” header
4. In the “Add search engine” overlay, enter:
   • “Jira Issue” in the “Search engine” field
   • “i” in the “Keyword field
   • “https://your-jira-url.com/browse/%s” in the “URL with %s in place of query” field
5. Click the form submission button

Chrome “Add search engine” overlay

The “%s” in the URL is a variable and represents a word or phrase you’re searching Jira for.

That’s it! To try it out, type the “i” key, then the “tab” key, then any Jira issue ID in the browser’s address bar.

Example: “i“ tab “DEMO-1“

The browser will take you directly to the URL for issue DEMO-1. It’s easy and the possibilities are endless!

Sample Jira URLs

To craft other Jira search URLs, simply find a location in Jira, copy the URL in the address bar, and substitute “%s” for the variable search term. Here are some examples:

• Project: https://your-jira-url/projects/%s
• Issue: https://your-jira-url/browse/%s
• Dashboard: https://your-jira-url.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa?selectPageId=%s
• Board: https://your-jira-url.com/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=%s
• Issue search page: https://your-jira-url.com /issues/?jql=%s
• Filter: https://your-jira-url.com/issues/?filter=%s

Other Applications and Websites

Use this search trick with other websites too

You can this same trick with other applications and websites that have predictable search URL patterns like, Confluence, Dictionary.com, Twitter, and even your own website. I frequently use “d“ tab “word” to look up a word at dictionary.com.

You can also do this in other browsers. Here are the Firefox instructions, for example.

[Kat]

[Rodney Nissen]

Now to figure out how to do this in Firefox....

Still, a great quick how-to @Rachel Wright!

[Christian Macy]

The only issue I can see is that there doesn't appear to be a way to support multiple Jira URLs. The search engine name is "Jira" regardless, so you can only add it once—i.e. for one Jira URL.

Otherwise it's certainly handy!

[Rachel Wright]

Hey @Christian Macy, just create one search engine record for each "type" of Jira URL you want to use.

For example, I have three records: "p" for Jira projects, "i" for Jira issues, and "b" for Jira boards.

Ex: Typing "p [tab key] DEMO" takes me to https://your-jira-url/projects/DEMO

Hope that makes sense!

[Christian Macy]

Thanks @Rachel Wright ! Unfortunately I can't find a way to make that work with Firefox. You can change the shortcut for an engine, but not the name, so AFAICT in Firefox you can only add one record. :-(

You're right WRT Chrome, though—Chrome allows you to specify a name for an engine when adding it.

I commented on a relevant FF bug report providing some more info, but I'm not sure it'll go anywhere in the near future. If the search engine name included something relevant to the context (e.g. the account name and search type) then this wouldn't be an issue, but I'm not sure where to request this change on the Atlassian side.

[Corey Puffalt]

@Christian MacyThere's another way to achieve something very similar in FireFox.  This is done by adding bookmarks with the Keyword field filled in.  For example you define a bookmark similar to what is mentioned above.  Use %s for the placeholder value (similar to Chrome above).  The keyword field defines the "shortcut" that directs the search to your bookmark.  For example define a new bookmark where Name = "JIRA Account 1", URL = "https://<sub-domain>.atlassian.net/browse/%s", Keyword = "i1".  You can then define other bookmarks for other accounts simply by modifying the subdomain and keyword values.  To perform a search simply type "<keyword><space><search-text>" into the URL bar.

[Christian Macy]

@Corey Puffalt: That is EXTREMELY handy. Thank you! I had no idea we could use string interpolation in bookmark URLs. I'm usually looking for a specific story number, so this works out really well for my use-case.

[Matt Ball]

Here's another option to try, which seems to provide the same search intelligence as when typing terms into the search window of Jira itself:

https://<your-subdomain>.atlassian.net/secure/QuickSearch.jspa?searchString=%s

This has the advantage that if you type a ticket number, it directly opens the ticket, but if you type another search term, it opens a search results window.

[Christian Macy]

Thank you, @Matt Ball ! That was a really great tip. I've added a new bookmark with this trick and so far it's fantastic. I love that a story number (without prefix) will be found right off, but arbitrary text will result in a search. Excellent!

[Danny Derks]

This is a nice one! @Matt Ball , that searchstring update is great. Really usefull!

[Chris Hadley]

I recently switched to Firefox for work and have been looking for a way to quickly jump to a ticket. Thanks @Corey Puffalt and @Matt Ball for the helpful tips.