How to search for issues with a change in description?

[Dan Ny]

Background information

My team works on two Jira instances: our clients' Jira instance and our internal Jira instance. As for our clients' Jira instance, we usually collab with our clients to create issues and keep track of changes in the issues while we use our internal Jira to keep track of project timelines and -- which is not done on our customers' Jira. 

Our customers' Jira instance is set rather differently than ours. And we export the issues from our customers' Jira then import them to ours (with the help of our python script). 

As mentioned above, we make changes to the issues on our customers' Jira instance when we discuss with them and we don't usually export the change right after each meeting (because there are usually more meetings after and so on). So, we tend to do it once a week. So, when we want to export the issues that we made changes especially to the description, we do not know which issues. 

Our workaround

What we do so far is: we search for issues with updated >=-7d (updated within the last 7 days) then we have to gothrough each issue whether there is any change in the description field. Then export them to our Jira instance. This is a time-consuming and inefficient task.

Question

Is there a better way to search for issues with the changes in description? 

Thanks in advance!

[Yuliia_Borivets__SaaSJet_]

Hi @Dan Ny 

As JQL doesn't support history searches for the description field, I might suggest a workaround solution developed by my team. You can check the Issue History for Jira app. It's not a JQL , but it provides the ability to get changes for any specific field, including a description. Also, you can filter by dates, project, sprint, etc.

Here is an example:

Export available. Free trial available, so you can check if it works for you.

[Dan Ny]

Hi @Yuliia_Borivets__SaaSJet_ 

As I mentioned, we are working on our clients' Jira instances therefore we can't install or customize anything. 

Like I said, the issues that we want to export are on our clients' Jira instances not on ours. 

Thanks for your help anyway

[John Funk]

Hi Dan - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

One way would be to create a custom field that is not on any screen. Use a radio button or dropdown or even just a text field. 

Then create an automation rule based on a Field Value Changed trigger and select the Description field. Then add a Condition for the Initiator to check for only certain people. 

Then add an action for Edit Issue and select the new custom field. Change the value to Yes for the field. 

When you do the export, also do a bulk change and set the value back to No or clear it so it doesn't show up the next time you run your report. 

[Dan Ny]

I forgot to mention, we only have basic user rights on our customers' Jira meaning all I don't have access to customization (settings) as well as custom fields. Therefore creating a new custom field is not possible.

We normally bulk export and import via REST API because we need to do some coversion and mapping on our side first, this is done by our python script. 

[John Funk]

You could do it with a label then - just set a particular value for the issues once you have reviewed. Maybe even just "reviewed".

[Dan Ny]

I don't see this option viable because there are already a handful of labels for each issue for tracking the sprint, iteration billing cycle, source of project finance, etc.. Adding this a new label means that we have to discuss with our clients first because it's their instance not ours.

Our goal is to update and sync the issues from our clients' Jira to ours so that we can track the time spent on each tasks internally. 

Again, here's what we do thus far:

Our clients' Jira

• Check if there are any issues that have been update in the past 7 days
• Manually go through each issue in the history field and check whether there is any changes in the description field.
• Make a note of the issues with the description changes. Then bulk export them in CSV

Python Script 

• Convert the fields from the csv into a compatible json payload

Our Jira Instance

• Update issues via postman

The process of manually go through each issue on our clients' Jira for a description change is time consuming. The rest is just a piece of cake. 

[John Funk]

Sorry, but that's really dumb to have to do all of that because they simply won't create a custom field for you or allow you to use a new label. Tell them how much extra you are charging them because of the extra work they are making you do and how it can be solved very easily. 

[Dan Ny]

It really is dumb. But they're big corporations. So, it's not easy to get them onboard with this. 

I developed 3 python scripts: a script for bulk importing issues, a script for updating issues, and a script for creating subtasks. 

So, doing this has already minimized our "labor" work by a lot. 

[John Funk]

Another option might be to create an automation rule that emails you when the Description changes. So you then you could put those in a particular folder in Outlook with a rule or some thing like that. 

[Dan Ny]

Is there a way to do that without an admin right? What I (can) do is create filters where changes have been made and subscribe to the filters that I have created. So I receive an email every x days. That's how I go through all the updated issues. But I've never seen such an option where you can see the changes in the description field right away.

[John Funk]

That's the problem - writing a query to catch the Description field getting updated.  So you are not even allowed to create an automation rule? Would they create it for you? 

[Dan Ny]

 So you are not even allowed to create an automation rule?

- No, we're not allowed to do so. The clients have been very strict with their instance. We don't even have a permission to delete an issue (in case there is a duplication or something like that -- if there's a duplication, we are only allowed to add "(duplicate)" in the summary field. 

Would they create it for you? 

- We just have to ask.

[John Funk]

You should probably ask for that first. They are being unreasonable otherwise. I hope they pay you a lot of money because otherwise, I would be looking for a different client. 

[Sreenivasaraju P]

Hi @Dan Ny,

As per my knowledge, History searches do not support the 'description' field.

You can try automation like updating/set date field based on on description change. so you can filter the tickets based on the date.

[Dan Ny]

Could you elaborate how to do it? Please note that we only have a normal user right on our customers' Jira instance. And I have a limited project admin right (not full project admin rights) in my organization. 

Thanks in advance