Importing CSV

[Chris Churchill]

Hi,

To give you some background, we have recently started using JIRA and have now built up quite a large list of projects and associative issues.

We regularly have roadmap meetings where we list down the epics and stories within an Excel spreadsheet.

Now, instead of manually entering these issues into JIRA which I'm finding is quite time consuming, I have noticed there is a CSV importer. However, Im hesitant to use this as there is a list of backup prerequisites, and a notice saying it will remove all previous JIRA data within the instance.

Is it possible to import a batch of issues to an existing project (or even create a new project) without affecting the current list of issues or the entire JIRA instance?

I have read in some places that the import wont affect any previous issues with the On-Demand version, but other threads say it will.

Can you clarify what the correct procedure will be for appending a batch of issues and if a backup/re-import will be required as entering content manually afterwards can be quite time consuming.

Many thanks

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist] · Accepted solution]

First of all, what is the point of JIRA if you are still cpaturing it in spread sheets?

Secondly, Importing from CSV won't remove existing issues.

[Chris Churchill]

First of all, what is the point of JIRA if you are still cpaturing it in spread sheets?
- The reason for this is when we are in the fast paced meeting room, cracking open a spreadsheet for quick notes of issues is quicker than creating the issues themselves in JIRA. An import of this is ideal for a placeholder stories so we can refine it further when more time is available, and bin the spreasheet post import.
We initially trialed the "proper way", but found everyone was waiting for me to complete forms before moving on which somwhat doused the energy of the gathering.

Secondly, Importing from CSV won't remove existing issues.
- Winner! I've just been very concerned about the bold red text saying the instance will be reset

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

JIRA CLI runFromCsv action can be used to load a bunch of new issues or do mass updates. There are an umber of use cases for doing mass importing of issue data from other sources. We use it to load test case data where copy/paste in an editor is better than ui interactions.

[Chris Churchill]

Do you have access to the JIRA CLI within the on-demand version?

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

JIRA CLI is a client tool (install on your own PC for instance) and accesses JIRA through remote APIs. This works for OnDemand or download JIRAs.