How-to create multiple users in Jira with one batch run

[#1]

Requirement

You have a lot of users in a CSV file and you don't want to add them manually to Jira.

Your skills

• you know how to create and edit CSV files
• you can edit configuration files
• you have create user rights on Jira (Administrator)
• you have PHP installed
  • for Linux: there a packages for most distributions available (Ubuntu: apt-get install php php-curl php-xml)
  • for Win: get a package here https://windows.php.net/download
    
    • enable curl in php.ini: extension=C:\<path to>\php\ext\php_curl.dll
    • enable ssl in php.ini, if your site is HTTPS: extension=C:\<path to>\php\ext\php_openssl.dll
• (optional) PHP coding xp if you would like to extend the script.

Before you run the script

• Atlassians REST API function to create users is experimental.
• This function doesn't allow to select a specific user directory. Make sure the one where you would like to create users is the primary (in the UI).
• The created users will grant access to Jira-Software.
• The script has just the minimum required lines of code - you can spend a couple of hours to make it more comfortable / dynamic.
• The script supports sites with self-signed SSL certs.

Prepare the CSV file

• one line per new user
• delimiter is ";"
• column 1 = username
• column 2 = password
• column 3 = email
• column 4 = displayed user name
• save the file to users.csv

Adapt the script to your needs

Copy & paste the script to a file called createusers.php and modify the 5 "define" values to your needs. Note that adding a password with special characters (like '$') will not work without escaping.

<?php
define('JIRA_URL', 'https://mydomain.com');
define('USER', 'user');
define('PASS', 'pass');
define('CSVFILE', 'users.csv');
define('FILELENGTH', 2048);


function create_user($json) {
   $ch = curl_init();
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
   curl_setopt_array($ch, array(
      CURLOPT_POST => 1,
      CURLOPT_URL => JIRA_URL . '/rest/api/latest/user',
      CURLOPT_USERPWD => USER . ':' . PASS,
      CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $json,
      CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array('Content-type: application/json','User-Agent: x'),
      CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
      CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => 0
   ));
   $result = curl_exec($ch);

   if(!$result) {
      trigger_error(curl_error($ch));
      exit(1);
   }

   if (!curl_errno($ch)) {
      switch ($http_code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE)) {
         case 201:
            break;
         default:
            echo "Request failed with HTTP-Code: ", $http_code, "\n";
            var_dump($result);
            exit(1);
      }
   }

   curl_close($ch);
}

$handle = fopen(CSVFILE, "r");
if ($handle) {
   while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, FILELENGTH, ";")) !== FALSE) {

      $uname = utf8_decode($data[0]);
      $upass = utf8_decode($data[1]);
      $uemail = utf8_decode($data[2]);
      $udname = utf8_decode($data[3]);

      $request = '{"name":"'.$uname.'","password":"'.$upass.'","emailAddress":"'.$uemail.'","displayName":"'.$udname.'","applicationKeys":["jira-software"]}';

      echo "New user " . $uname ;
      create_user($request);
      echo " created.\n";
   }
   fclose($handle);
} else
   echo "The file " . CSVFILE . " could not be opened!\n";

?>

Run the script in Linux

php -f /path/to/createusers.php

Run the script on Win PowerShell

.\php.exe -f \path\to\createusers.php

 (developed and tested with PHP 7.0.33-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 an Jira Server 7.12.3)

[M Amine]

a suggestion : if you can adapt the script for shell. Thank you for this article.

[Benjamin Yu]

This code works in jira 8.13 with php 7.2. But it is not working in jira 7.13 with php 7.0. Why? The error is New user ?username PHP Notice: in /cmtools/atlassian/createusers.php on line 24

Please help!

[Thomas Deiler]

Dear @Benjamin Yu ,

can you please post what's in line 24? Can you get a more specific error message? (more verbose?).

Most probably the rest api call differs from 8.13 to 7.13. 

PHP Version should not be a problem.

So long

Thomas

[Benjamin Yu]

I can't run it again since it is in production. What should be the syntax for REST API 7.13?

[Thomas Deiler]

Dear @Benjamin Yu ,

by comparing both API documentations, I cannot see any difference. Further investiation is required, but I have no 7.13 anymore at hand. I also recommend to upgrade - 7.13.x has reached EOL.

So long

Thomas