jira-bulk-loader

Create tasks in Jira via RESTful API


License
Apache-2.0
Install
pip install jira-bulk-loader==0.3.1

Documentation

Introduction

The key idea of jira-bulk-loader is an activity template.

The template is written in human language with a few markup rules. jira-bulk-loader.py uses the prepared template to create the corresponding set of tasks easy and effortless.

Requirements

  1. Python 2.7, 3.4, 3.5
  2. JIRA REST API version 2 (i.e. JIRA v5.0 and above)

Linux installation

To install jira-bulk-loader, simply run: ::bash

$ pip install jira-bulk-loader

Windows installation

To install jira-bulk-loader on Windows:

  1. Download and install the latest Python 2.7 - https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
  2. Run C:\Python27\python.exe -m pip install -U pip jira-bulk-loader
  3. Run C:\Python27\Scripts\jira-bulk-loader.py -h to verify installation

Very simple case

Template:

h5. First task summary *assignee*
=description line 1
=description line 2

h5. Second task summary *assignee*
=description line 3
=description line 4

command:

jira-bulk-loader.py -U <your_username> -P <your_password> -H jira.your_domain.org -W PRKEY template_file

two tasks will be created and assigned to assignee in the project with a project key PRKEY.

One more simple case

Template:

h5. Task summary *assignee*
=description line 1
=description line 2

# First sub-task summary *assignee1*
=description line 3

# Second sub-task summary *assignee2* %2012-09-18%
=description line 3

and the command:

jira-bulk-loader.py -U <your_username> -P <your_password> -H jira.your_domain.org -D 2012-09-20 -W PRKEY template_file

It will create a task with two subtasks. Moreover it also sets due date 2012-09-18 (YYYY-mm-DD) to the 2nd sub-task, and 2012-09-20 to the task and its first sub-task.

Link issues

A task can be linked to another task.

h5. Task1 summary *assignee* <JIRA-1234>
h5. Task2 summary *assignee* <JIRA-1234|Relates>
h5. Task3 summary *assignee* <Blocks|JIRA-1234>

where 'Relates' and 'Blocks' are link types. If it is not specified, default value 'Relates' will be used. For the full list of possible link types see: https://<your-JIRA-URL>/rest/api/2/issueLinkType

In this example Task1 will be included in JIRA-1234, JIRA-1234 will be blocked by Task2 and Task3 will be blocked by JIRA-1234.

Dry run option

jira-bulk-loader.py has an option --dry. If it is specified in command line, jira-bulk-loader checks template syntax, verifies project name and assignees but doesn't create tasks.

I would strongly recommend using it every time.

User story and 'included in' tasks

Sometime an activity is too complex and it is much easier and appropriate to create several tasks with sub-tasks and link them to a user story.

h4. User story summary *assignee*
=description

h5. First task summary *assignee1*
=description
# Sub-task summary *assignee1*
=description

h5. Second task summary *assignee2*
=description
# Sub-task summary *assignee2*
=description

In this case h5 tasks will be linked to h4 user story.

Create subtask of existing task or user story

If you have a task in JIRA and want to create a subtask for it, use the following syntax:

... JIRA-1234
# Sub-task summary *assignee1*
=description

Task parameters

It is possible to define task attributes in template:

{"project":{"key":"PRKEY"}}
{"priority": {"name": "High"}}
{"duedate": "2012-09-20"}
{"components": [{"name": "Production"}]}

h5. 1st task summary *assignee1*
=description

h5. 2nd task summary *assignee2* {"components": [{"name": "Test"}]}
=description

h5. 3rd task summary *assignee3*
=description

In the example project, priority and duedate will be applied to all tasks by default. The component 'Production' will be applied to task 1 and 3. However, the second task will use the component 'Localizations'.

This part of Jira documentation could give a clue how to find out relevant parameters in your project and their format.

A short summary

Let me summarize what are the possible markups to begin a line with:

  • a user story: h4. summary *assignee*
  • a task: h5. summary *assignee*
  • existing user story: .. JIRA-1234
  • existing task: ... JIRA-1234
  • a sub-task: # summary *assignee*
  • one more sub-task: #* summary *assignee*
  • description: =

Every task definition can be followed by one or more inline auxiliary parameters:

  • %YYYY-MM-DD% - due date
  • <JIRA-1234> or <JIRA-1234|Inclusion> - link
  • {"components": [{"name": "Localizations"}]} - any json data that will be sent directly to JIRA API as a part of create request.

Template variables

[REVISION=194567]
[QA=John]

h5. First task summary *$QA*
=description $REVISION

h5. Second task summary *$QA*
=description $REVISION

is equivalent to

h5. First task summary *John*
=description 194567

h5. Second task summary *John*
=description 194567

the important difference is that you don't need to change assignee or description of each task in your template. You change variable value instead and it is applied to every line in the template.

Run-time variables

Sometime it is necessary to create a reference to another task in the template. Such requirement can be fulfilled with a help of template run-time variables.

h5. h5 task1 assignee [TASK_KEY1]
h5. h5 task2 assignee [TASK_KEY2]
h5. h5 task3 assignee
=description $TASK_KEY1
# Sub-task assignee
=description $TASK_KEY2

When jira-bulk-loader creates 'h5 task1' and 'h5 task2' in Jira, $TASK_KEY1 and $TASK_KEY2 will be have their issue_id.

The only restriction is: you can't reference a task that has not been created yet, i.e. a template variable cannot be used before assignment.

Issues and new ideas

If you found an issue or if you have an idea of improvement please visit https://github.com/oktopuz/jira-bulk-loader/issues