Issue with Import of CSV with Start and End Dates

[Jamie Meredith]

I am banging my head against the wall trying to import start and end dates for a simple single task with a summary and a set of start and end dates for the task.  

The end goal is to be able to import a set of tasks into Jira WM with the task (summary) and a start and end date.  I have tried more than 15 times of this scenario with only a summary and the start and end dates and it fails to insert the start and end dates (both as custom fields and reusing fields already established in our system).  I have tried adjusting the formatting, I have tried exporting defined records with start and end date and then re-importing.  All of them fail.  Please help. 

[David Nickell]

This was so much tougher than I thought it would be ... but I have a (verifiable) answer.

I tried many times to get the the CSV to honor the suggested format but no matter what I did, the date was still stored in a format Excel preferred.

I finally decided to see if I could get Jira to understand the Excel format. 

So -- in Excel (CSV), my date looks like this 12/13/2024

On the second screen of the import process, I changed the format to M/d/y

This first screen shot shows the change to make

This second screenshot is to hopefully convince you that it really is a single capital M for month.  Just like the documentation says.  My January records exist because I was using multiple combinations of lower case M's 

Enjoy

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Thanks for sharing!

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Hi @Jamie Meredith ,

Welcome to the Community! What formats did you use? Did you try 'dd/MMM/yyyy' (e.g.: 29/Aug/2023)?

[Vitalii_Bobak_SaaSJet]

Hi @Safa Al Shuaili 👋

Welcome to the Atlassian community!

If an app from the Atlassian Marketplace is an option for you, look at the app that my team and I are working on, Time In Status. To extract duration of each status in eazybi

 Just simply:

1. Choose the Status Entrance Date Report
2. Filter issues by created, updated, resolved and apply date and time ranges 
3. Enjoy your report in table, chart or dashboard view  🥳
4. Click Export and choose CSV or XLS format 

You can also book a live session or contact us at Support - we'll help you with add-ons. 

I hope you find this helpful 🚀

[Jamie Meredith]

Here are a couple of gists with my attempted data and the formats.

I am completely beside myself why this is not working. 

Gist #1 - https://gist.github.com/jmeredith-snyk/2107156b24ef35c2886b1560765c286f
Date Format: dd/MMM/yyyy

Gist #2 - https://gist.github.com/jmeredith-snyk/716b80141604caf7e2035806ebfe64b1

Date Format: MM/dd/yyyy
Date Format: M/d/yy
Date Format: M/d/y

[David Nickell]

I took some records out of Gist #1 and did the import without any issues....

Some Important Notes:

1. I only used the Start Date column.  (being lazy, I already had that test more or less ready)
2. And I used the task column as the Summary.   You have to have a summary field.
3. Date format used was M/d/y

I noticed when I pulled the file up in a text editor there was a suspicious new line character in the headings column. 

I'd say if you got what you needed done -done.  Move on and let it fester in the back of your mind.  The reasoning may jump out at you at some later date

 

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira]

Hi @Jamie Meredith

I trust that you'll be able to resolve this based on David's great answer.

Just for future reference, if you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, this should be quite a bit easier in the app that my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you’d do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. It also allows bulk editing your issue fields via copy/paste. This works within JXL, but also between JXL and pretty much any other app, including Excel or Google Sheets, like so:

(I'm using the due date here, but it would work with any other date fields, too.)

For date and date/time fields, JXL will accept a wide range of different formats; basically, as long as we can make any sense of the value, we'll accept it.

You can update any number of issues in one action, so you should be done with your work in no time.

(I should also add that JXL can do much more than the above: From support for configurable issue hierarchies, to issue grouping by any issue field(s), sum-ups, or conditional formatting.)

Any questions just let me know!

[David Nickell]

Thanks for the encouragement :-)