Custom Jira Project template; How to clone board from "Create New Project" window?

[mhulse]

Hi all,

We have JIRA cloud solution. Not sure what version it is.

Yesterday, I created a customized project with all the settings, fields, screens, permissions, Kanban board, etc., and saved the project as "MY COMPANY PROJECT TEMPLATE" (for example).

Now, I would like all new projects to use everything about this template.

Question #1:

Is it possible for me to have my custom project "template" show within the "Create Project" modal window?

Screenshot 2016-01-22 09.02.45.png

Question #2:

When I use the "Create with shared configuration", see screenshot above, I am able to choose my "template" project to use for my new project, but unfortunately, this technique does not copy the kanban board settings. 

What is the best way to include my Kanban board settings from another project (i.e., my project "template")?

Question #3:

Is it possible for me to create an option similar to the "Kanban software development" (as seen above) that will create a project and a Kanban board all in one fell swoop?

Honestly, I just want to click a button and have it create a project, with a board included (like Kanban option in above screenshot) and start working.

Optimally, I'd like to not have a project "template" lingering around just so we can use it as a default starting point.

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Hopefully that all makes sense. Please let me know if I can clarify any of my questions. Thanks a bunch in advance!

[mhulse]

So, here's my workaround to this issue:

1. From the Projects dropdown, choose "Create project"
2. From modal window, at the bottom, click the "Create with shared configuration" link and click "Next"
3. Choose an existing project (the settings from your chosen project will be used for your new project) and click "Next"
4. Enter in the new project's details and click submit
5. Create a "test" issue within your new project (this will allow you to make sure your configuration is working as you go through the following steps)
6. Navigate to an existing Kanban board
7. Under the "Board" dropdown, choose "Copy"; JIRA will then take you to the new board's "General" configuration page
8. On the "General" page of the configuration section, give a name to your new board
9. Next, click the "Edit Filter Query" link
10. On the filter query search page, click the "Advanced" link

11. Edit the filter query so that it searches for your new project's issues … Example query (replace MR with your project's key):

    project = MR ORDER BY Rank ASC

12. Click the search magnifying glass icon (you should see the test issue we created above)
13. IMPORTANT: Click the small down arrow next to the "Save" button and choose "Save as" (if you click "Save", you will overwrite the filter query and this will affect the board you copied it from)
14. In the modal window, name your new filter (I like to name it after the project and the project's Kanban board so they are all named the same)
15. Once saved, click the "Boards" dropdown and navigate to your newly created board
16. On the new board's page, click "Board" and choose "Configure"
17. On the "General" page of the configuration section, click the "Edit Filter Shares" link
18. Give a name to your filter share (again, I like to name my project, Kanban board, filter query, etc. the same name)
19. For the "Add Shares" choose "Project", choose the related project name and choose "All"; click the "+ Add" button
20. Click "Save"

Pheeeew, I think that's all the steps!

Note: It is helpful to have a project and Kanban board "master template" to use for the "copy" steps above.

So yah, that's my workaround. Not sure if there's a more streamlined process.

Optimally, I would want the ability to click one button and be done! As you can see above, having to jump through all those hoops is not optimal.

Possible bug alert:

We have noticed that "Users and roles", found in "Project Settings", do not copy from the previous project. This may or may not be an issue for you. It could be problematic for users that need their project restricted to certain groups. The best suggestion I have is to check this section, after you're done with the above steps, to make sure it's locked down based on your project's requirements.

[Scott Falbo]

Thanks - this is similar to what I've found too.  It's very manual but it gets the job done.  I haven't had a chance to explore the Gaia plugin yet but it seems like it might help our use case - https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/ca.nuum.gaia/server/overview

Thanks for taking the time to document the granular steps above - it has helped me and will help others.

[mhulse]

Glad to help! Thanks for taking the time to comment and share links. Also, thanks for tip on Gaia plugin, taking a look now. 

[Bonnie_Cresswell]

omg @mhulse I wish I had've found this 2 weeks ago!  Through trial and error and going down (many) rabbit holes in the documentation and community I came up with pretty much the same workaround, but thanks for the detailed steps - I see now how to set up the filter for a board a bit better, thank you!! :)

[mhulse]

@Bonnie_Cresswell@Glad it helped! Cheers!

[Romain]

@mhulse  Thanks a lot I have tested various options during hours and finally came across your solution!

There is just one step that I would add or maybe I missed it: To move the newly created board into to new Project. 

Thanks again !

[Andrew Holden]

We'd like this functionality too.  The Kanban board is an integral part of the project for us.  Being able to create a new project with our preferred settings, board configuration, etc, would be a valuable time-saver.

[Stu]

seems such an obvious requirement, not sure why they don't have this

[James van der Hoven]

Especially because free Trello has this option by default and Atlassian bought out Trello.

So surely if you pay for Jira, this should come with the option to duplicate boards like in Trello.

[webks GmbH]

I completely agree 4 years later... is there a feature request for that?

[Limor Hader]

Here you go: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-6790. Created in 2012 !!!!

[Prathiba V]

Has anyone got a solution for this yet ? Apart from carrying out "create with shared configuration" is there another way where we can copy the boards too along with the schemes?

[Lisa Frykman]

Hi Micky et all,

thanks for this work around, we too want to just be able to duplicate a master project with settings/configuration and board carried across.

We also wanted to have master issues (for those recurring tasks on every project) set up as part of the master project and board which we struggled with (most efforts resulted in the tickets still being under the master project or both master and new project).

After some trial an error we found that this works (though we haven't yet used it for a real project, only a couple of tests so far) in case of any use to the rest of you;

21. From master project, go to Issues and select 'View all issues and filters'.

22. Hit the export (down arrow in top left corner) button and select 'Export Excel CSV (all fields)' to save out CSV file of all issues (this can be done as a one off as oppose to each time you need to copy the master issues).

23. Go to your new project (duplicated from master), then go to Issues and select 'View all issues and filters'.

24. Hit the options button (... button in top left corner), select 'Import issues from CSV' and find the exported CSV file.

25. Select import settings incl your new project and map all possible fields (for some reason we don't seem to have a list of fields that tally even though the file was exported by Jira).

26. Confirm map values.

27. Viola! Your new project now have the master issues which can be moved into the duplicated board.

That elusive one button to do these nigh 30 steps would indeed be very handy...

[mhulse]

Interesting, master issues I had not thought of using before! Thanks so much for the extra steps and inspiration (I'll be looking into how to utilize master issues).

[Lisa Frykman]

Our pleasure, without your work around on the first part we would have hit a brick wall so just happy if we can provide something in return.

[Litew8 GmbH]

Hi @mhulse

since you have not accepted any answer, we hope you do not mind me posting under this rather old question. There is an official feature request for what you asked, but since we did not see any progress there, or sufficient addon solution for cloud, we built our own Project Templates for Jira app.

Question 1

It is not possible to list custom project templates inside the Jira native 'Create project' modal. Therefore we built our own global page, where you can list custom project templates and even allow non-admins to create projects based on them.

Question 2

'Create with shared configuration' is a great native solution to reuse configurations. But is lacks some abilities, like clone boards, project category, components, versions, issues & project role assignments.

While we were able to build a great solution to support most of the shortcomings of 'Create with shared configuration'. Based on limited Jira cloud APIs, copying boards was something we can only help to reduce the necessary manual steps. Let's talk through it.

As part of the custom project template, you can select that a basic Kanban/Scrum board should be created in the new project. With that board comes also a new JQL filter with the following attributes:

• Filter name: 'Filter for <PROJECT_KEY> board'
• Filter owner: Creator of the project
• Filter will be shared with the new project
• Filter JQL: 'project = <PROJECT_KEY> ORDER BY RANK ASC'

Having that preconfigured filter reduces the manual steps to copy a board with all its settings into a new project to the following.

1. In Jira cloud, top navigation, click on Search, click on Boards
2. Find the board you want to clone, click on Copy in the dropdown
3. Click 'Edit settings' in the new created board clone
4. In general board settings, change the board name, location and switch the saved filter to the filter that was created by the app.

Question 3

Our app provides a great way to avoid having a project just lingering around to be used as a template. Instead you define all the project configuration ('Workflow scheme', 'Issue type scheme'...) and create a custom project template that will utilize them during project creation.

Having those separate custom project templates also helps to make it more clear what should be used, instead of selecting between all existing projects.

In regards to creating a project and Kanban board in on swoop, you can do that with our app, but only with basic boards as mentioned in question 2.

There are also other solutions on the marketplace (ours is cloud only) so make sure to check them out.

Best regards

Wolfgang from Litew8 GmbH

[Rik Viergever]

we need this too!!

[Deleted user]

Is there an outstanding feature request for being able to create a project that includes the boards (same issue described throughout this thread)?  I agree with all that this would be a very useful feature.  It seems like the settings when you choose to base a project on another project are incomplete on what is brought over.  

[Bob van der Panne]

@mhulse thanks for your workaround unfortunately it doesn't work in the new jira experience.

Does anybody else have a workaround? Currently I have to create a new board and set it up for every project.

This is pretty bad, because we have to create every board from scratch.

[mhulse]

(Replying on phone) A few things have moved around (at least, last time I made one a few months back). Off the top of my head, one of the bigger changes is the “copy board” is now only in the overall list of boards (look in the ... menu). I will look at my notes, when I get into work today, and post an updated step-by-step.

[Tom Rogers]

In the new Jira experience the quickest way we've found to copy  a board is click

• Search icon
• View all boards
• Three dots next to default board
  • We have a board with the required settings and columns etc to use as a template
• Copy
• Edit filter query and location to place it under a specific project etc

If anyone has a quicker way let us know!

[Bob van der Panne]

Thanks! Works, hope a faster solution will be available in an update.

[Ali Arvanaghi]

Thanks @Tom Rogers That was the answer I was looking for.  I wish your solution was at the top! :)

[mhulse]

@Ali Arvanaghi this issue is really about how to duplicate a project and board via a defined template. In terms of answers, it's part of the puzzle for the original question. Also, what @Tom Rogers said above, that's what I was trying to get at in my phone reply; they moved the board copy to the official board list. The other thing that changed is the new "People" section found in a project’s settings ... I think this section used to be called “Users and Roles”. Other than that, the instructions above should still work.

[David Thomson]

2024 new Cloud user, setting up my projects. 3 of them use the same Board setup, so wanted a template but is none. Writing detailed steps for the process described in '17. If I later find this to be wrong, I'll update it:

- global search at the top right, then Go to all: Boards (at the bottom of the pulldown). Shows a list of all Boards.

- click 3 dots on right of the Board to be used in new Project, click Copy

- Find the new Board copy in the list, 'Copy of (board name)', click 3 dots on right of the new copied Board, click Move. Select the new Project to be moved to.

- This is now an exact replica of the old Board, so it will always show the exact same Issues as what is showing in the old Board, even thought it's in a new Project. This is due to the filter settings.

- click 3 dots on right of the new copied Board, select Edit Settings.

- go to General tab, change the name of the Board appropriately. Then under Filter you see Saved Filter, and 'Filter for (old Board name)'. Click Edit Filter Query

- You'll see a pulldown at the top left that shows your old Project. Click it, and unselect your old Project, and select your new Project.  To the right of that pulldown you can select the proper Issue Types etc, whatever is relevant.

- Then go to Save As, and save it as 'Filter for (new Board name)'. Now it'll show the new Project's selected Issue Types, but using the same columns as the old Board.

[Aaron Shapiro]

We have this problem as well. If you work for a consultancy or an agency that handles dozens of clients, creating a Jira project from scratch every time we have a new project start up is kind of BS and Atlassian is missing a core feature that is very useful for agencies and consultancies who work with hundreds of clients. But alas, I'm not the product owner, what I do I know? It's not certain features like this could actually greatly expand their user base. Most other consultancies I know use AzureDevOps anyways or like Accenture, their own home-grown solutions that they sell to their clients. 

Right now we have about 75 active Jira projects. I manage our implementation and I've found some third party add-ons that I can use to help with some of this.

What I need in a project template: 

• boilerplate epics
• boilerplate user stories
• boilerplate tasks + Sub-tasks 
• boilerplate components
• boilerplate releases 
• Permissions schemas unique to the project 
• Inclusion of a customized workflow and associated 
• Kanban board.  

This would allow us to create different project templates for different types of clients, projects, and billing structures. All that being said, we also use Mavenlink and they have some pretty good features around project templating. Even down to assigning unnamed resources on tasks that you can then swap out for actual people during project creation. It's pretty slick and if Atlassian ever wants to really provide some good template functionality that would be useful for agencies and consultancies, they should take as much out of Mavenlink's book as they can. 

However if I had to choose what they built out, I would much rather have them fix the authoring  performance issues with big pages in Confluence cloud. UGH. 

[Sandy Garrido]

My company is also looking for the ability to create a project using a board template - Also the ability to set this via api

[Joshua Broadway]

Hi, thanks for posting these steps. If anyone from Atlassian is watching, my company would like this too...

[mhulse]

@Scott Falbo Not really. I was able to boil it down to several (annoying) steps though. I will post an answer with less-than-optimal workaround.

[Francesc Rul·lan Solana]

Hi, we need these functionalities at my organisation too... 

[Scott Falbo]

Hi Micky, did you ever find a solution to this?  I'm looking to do the same thing.  Thanks.

[mhulse]

We noticed today, when creating a new project using the "create with shared configuration" link, the new project creates a "Default software scheme" permission scheme, and not the permission scheme assigned to the project it was copied from (in this case, I had assigned "Default Permission Scheme" to the template "starter" project). Not sure if we're doing something wrong here, or if that's a bug (too)? Unfortunately, the "Default software scheme" has barely any restrictions … Not good if you are trying to keep projects hidden from certain users/groups.

[paul]

hi @mhulse , 
I've had similar issue on creating an easier way to make custom project templates,
but with regards to using the "create with shared configuration", I believe this is fixed now. When I try to create a New Project with ""create with shared configuration", it also copies the same Permission Scheme set by the source project.

Thank you for the steps you shared regarding this workaround.

[mhulse]

Hi Paul! Thanks for showing interest in my question.

In regards to getting an existing kanban board to be associated with a new project, here’s my theory:

1. Duplicate an existing project via the "create with shared configuration" link (in the new project modal window).
2. View all kanban boards and "copy" desired kanban board to create a duplicate.
3. Edit the kanban board copy’s configuration and assign a new "filter query" which would grab issues from your new project.

I'm not even sure if the above is even a halfway decent solution as I have not had time to test step #3 above. Even if the above steps do work, this is not optimal workflow.

We would like the ability to create a project with all of our desired settings in one single step. 

[Paul Morris]

We're experiencing this problem too.

Also having problems when trying to share a configuration between two Service Desk projects - It makes up Request Types that aren't in the original project instead of cloning the ones that are.