Bulk change (or add / remove) issue link type

Adam Taylor
Contributor
June 26, 2023

I have a hundreds of issues that are linked together using a 'blocks' and 'is blocked by' relationship. 

I'd like to replace all of those links with a 'needs to be done before' and 'needs to be done' after' relationship.

I can do this on a ticket by ticket basis by adding a new issue link and removing the old one, but is there a way I can do this in bulk?

2 answers

1 vote
Trudy Claspill
Community Leader
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June 26, 2023

Hello @Adam Taylor 

Natively Jira doesn't support changing issue links through the Bulk Change operation.

You might be able to use Automation Rules to find the issues that have the links, add the new link, and remove the old link.

Automation Rules do have actions to Link Issues and Delete Link, but I haven't worked out the details of using them in your specific scenario.

Amna Khan September 20, 2024

thanks for the idea, i created an automation rule and it worked like a charm. thank you

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Leena Siddamshetty October 8, 2024

Amna Khan, I am facing the same issue, can you share details of the automation rule that you created. It would be helpful.

Thanks!

Amna Khan January 15, 2025

sorry for the delayed response, here is the rule that worked for me. in the 3rd step i added all the Jira Key numbers that needed to be linked to all the other Jira tickets resulted from the filter in 2nd step. Hthrule.png

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0 votes
Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
Atlassian Partner
June 26, 2023

Hi @Adam Taylor

I'm curious about more targeted solutions, but you should be able to do this relatively easily using the app that my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you’d do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. It also allows bulk-editing any editable issue fields - including an issue's issue links - via copy/paste. This works across JXL and pretty much any other app, like for example Excel. 

So what you could do is,

  • Create a JXL sheet with the issues that you want to update, and add the "Issue links" column
  • Copy/paste the column to Excel or Google Sheets, and update all issue links, e.g. via find-and-replace. 
  • Copy/paste the updated issue link values back into JXL.

This is how this could look in action:

bulk-change-issue-link-type.gif

(Just an obvious disclaimer to be cautious to make the right changes to the right issues, since reverting unwanted changes in Jira can be quite a pain.)

Best,

Hannes

Keith Mangold October 20, 2023

Hannes,

I am trying this and not getting the same results in the Linked issues column as you have in the video above; it just shows the Issue key and isn't editable. 

I did try the Edit column option, cell format, and don't have any options to display the link type.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong? Thanks!

2023-10-20_07-34-36.jpg

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
Atlassian Partner
October 20, 2023

Hi @Keith Mangold

mind trying the Issue Links column (as opposed to the Linked Issues column)? 

The Issue Links column will list the individual issue links (like, e.g., clones EA-1100) and is editable, while the linked issues column is just listing the linked issues (e.g., EA-1100) and isn't currently editable.

If there are any further questions, please feel free to reach out to https://jxl.app/support anytime and we'll have a look into it!

Best,

Hannes

Keith Mangold October 20, 2023

That was it @Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira ! Thank you!

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
Atlassian Partner
October 20, 2023

I'm just realising that we actually renamed this column from Linked Issues to Issue Links a while ago - so no wonder you ended up with the wrong column. Updating my original answer now!

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