Is it possible to remove the 10 character limitation on project keys in JIRA?

[Ben Kunkel]

I've got a couple projects I'd like to set up and _really_ want to give them some 14 and 15 character project keys. Is there a configuration I can change to get rid of this 10 character constraing on the size of Project Keys?

[Ben Kunkel · Accepted solution]

OK, turns out working around this isn't nearly as difficult as I had feared.

Right there on the "Add a new project" screen is a link titled "import projects from another system". On that page is a CSV option.

I created a csv file with a header row and a data row. It only needs 3 fields. After a small amount of trial and error, it looked like this:

Project Key,Project Name,Issue Summary
REALLYLONGKEY,Editable later so this part is not critical,Dummy summary for an issue

I followed the CSV import dialogue and mapped the fields according to the (now) very obvious headers and pushed next a few times until the import ran. ...and it worked!

NOTE: I tried this with multple projects and it did not like it. It would always only take one.

My next thought was, "I wonder if JIRA is going to choke on this long key somewhere down the line."

I eased my conscience by trying to submit the same key in an older test instance of JIRA 4.4. I was able to submit the 13 character lonk project key through the normal web interface in JIRA 4.4, so I'm thinking that anyone who upgraded from 4.4 to 5.0 has the potential of having a long project key via legit means... and it ought to work fine.

...I'd love to get a comment or two on users who have witnessed just this, or better yet, from an Atlassian who can confirm this.

[Nic Brough [Adaptavist]]

Interesting piece of work - I'm looking at moving a v4, with a long key as I mentioned earlier, onto v5. So thanks for the investigation! If I get there before you, I'll let you know what happens!

[Heather McKinnon]

:( I am not sure which version of jira or the plugin you are using, but even the CSV import is blocking me with the "Invalid project key REALLYLONGKEY: The project key must not exceed 10 characters in length." I am on Jira 5.0.6 and the plugin is 4.3.1.

I have raised an issue with atlassian, and they say existing 'long key' projects will not impact future upgrades or data integrity. What a complete pain this is.

There is also a jira that will make this restriction configurable which should be voted on :)

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-28577

[Ben Kunkel]

Good point Heather; I should have mentioned this before.

When I performed the steps listed above, I was using JIRA 5.0.1. We're now on 5.0.4 and I have not tested this solution again. The importers plugin is at 4.3.2.

[Partha Kamal]

Please note that from JIRA 6.x, the character limit can be configured.

Please see: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-28577

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Go2Group]]

Which version of JIRA is it? I don't see that restriction in jira5!

[Ben Kunkel]

This is JIRA 5.0.4.

[Nic Brough [Adaptavist]]

Jira 3 and 4 don't have it either - much as I dislike having a project key of TECHNICALARCHITECTURE, it works fine in both.

[Kathleen James]

Crumbs. Just saw this. What happens to existing project keys that are 11+ characters in 4.4 on upgrading? Does it just truncate them?

[Ben Kunkel]

Pre-existing project keys over 10 characters will be left untouched by the upgrade.

[Kathleen James]

Well, that's reassuring. But I'm not sure that changing something as fundamentally useful as long key length counts as an "upgrade".

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Go2Group]]

Looks like a new 'feature' then!

[JesperJ]

As long as you don't have a _ in the project name I think it will work. If you have a _ in a project and then upgrade to 5.x the activity streams will not show that project.

[Lars Lundegård]

I desperately need to create projects with a key longer than 10 characters.

The method of using Import is not so good because:

1. I always get 1 "dummy" issue.

2. I cannot use the Copy Project feature in Script Runner to clone a project (and its settings)

Someone that knows a way around this?

Preferably remove this limitation in Jira.