Create Automation based on an Excel/JSON File

[Tommy]

Hello There! 

We have multiple products within our project, till today we were using excel to track all the activities(more than 60 tasks). The tasks start/end-date depends on the Go-Live and for now we had to set-up a really extensive automation, to generate all the tasks and to adjust the start/end-date based on the Go-Live date. 

Since we have few excels to track different products, we are looking for a way to create an automation based on the excel details we have already in place. Is it possible? If yes, how can we proceed?

Thank you all for your help and wish you an amazing day! :) 

[Łukasz Modzelewski _TTPSC_]

Hi @Tommy ,

I'm from the team behind Excel 365 Connector for Jira , our app our app allows to import issues to Excel, edit them and send back to Jira or even create new issues. Check it, maybe it could simplify your proces a bit.

[Mark Segall]

Hi @Tommy and welcome to the community!

I really like the approach @Darryl Lee took for this one, but I have to ask why Jira can't be your source of truth rather than trying to force Excel into it?  For example, each product could be a component and then you would leverage releases to manage your launch schedule. 

[Tommy]

Hi @Mark Segall

The thing is, we have multiple excels already in place, not only in our area, but also in other, thus I was thinking if there would be a way to use what we have already. 

Another thing is, that the excel would be easier to handle for the people, that have no experience with jira. 

For the moment we handle this on the 3 levels -> Epic -> Issue -> Task. We are still building it up and I hope it will create more value and better project tracking, rather than additional work :D 

Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate it! :) 

[Darryl Lee]

Hey @Tommy - I'm wondering if you ever got this implemented and how you did it?

[Darryl Lee]

Hi @Tommy -- Ooooh, yeah, that's tricky and cool, and I love/hate it!

At first I thought you might be able to do a "pull" from Jira, using Automation's Send web request action

But ugh, that would require Excel being able to "publish" data as JSON, which... while you can "create" JSON (Output Excel table data as JSON), I think you can only "publish" HTML: Share it: Embed an Excel workbook on your web page or blog from OneDrive 

But googling around, I thought of a different idea: What if Excel could "push" a web request to an Automation Webhook?

Yeah, that might work using the Excel WEBSERVICE function.

So right then. You'd need to update your Excel sheet so that when certain things change, it makes a WEBSERVICE call to an Automation triggered by a Webhook. You probably would need to add some conditions to look at the data that the Webhook receives, and if something changed (start/end date), etc. then you take action (update corresponding start/end date in the appropriate ticket.)

So, there's some thoughts. Let us know if you come up with something, or if you have questions about/problems with the Automation bits.

[Dan Vats]

Hi, Darryl @Darryl Lee ! Maybe u know how to solve it:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/How-to-integrate-Jira-and-google-docs/qaq-p/2529279