Best ways to bulk manage and edit issues with spreadsheets?

[Grant Olson]

Hello, I'm fairly new to Jira and I'm looking for recommendations on the best ways to allow for bulk editing in a spreadsheet view that allows for quickly editing/updating issues. Ideally, I'd like to be able to edit at the epic, task, and subtask levels. The starting goal is to be able to edit templates in a spreadsheet view or format that will then automatically (or manually triggered) update templates (epics, tasks, subtasks) used in Jira.  Key to this is being able to do a 1:1 edit or change - i.e., when a row is updated in the spreadsheet view, a corresponding issue is also updated in Jira. Columns would correspond to fields for the issues. Also, being able to do this quickly and efficiently is a requirement. 

It would be great to do the spreadsheet work in Google Sheets, but I'm also open to other solutions, e.g., integrated add-ons in Jira would work as long as they are user friendly and can do what is needed.

I'm currently assessing if Zapier or other similar apps would work for this and am looking into available Jira add-ons as well (e.g., "Excel-like Bulk Issue Editor for Jira - Spreadsheet & Table"). Any suggestions or experience from the community would be much appreciated - am I on the right track with the above-mentioned solutions?

Thank you.

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Accepted solution]

Hi @Grant Olson

welcome to the community!

If you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, I'm sure you'll like 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 comes with a number of advanced features, including support for bulk editing via copy/paste (configurable) issue hierarchies, issue grouping by any issue field(s), sum-ups, or conditional formatting.

This is how it looks in action:

JXL also comes with a number of so-called smart columns and history columns that aren't natively available, including e.g. the time in status. It works in and across projects of all types, and can load up to 10000 issues into one sheet (we're happy to increase this limit for your site if required).

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes

[Grant Olson]

Thanks Hannes, I actually have been reading about JXL and think it may be a good option for my use case. I'll contact you with further questions if needed.

[Becky Brooks - Visor for Jira · Accepted solution]

Hi @Grant Olson

One of the easiest ways to make bulk edits inline is with Visor's Jira spreadsheet. Visor provides a bi-directional integration that honors your nested hierarchy (e.g., parent/child relationships), allowing you to visualize the issues you want when making bulk changes to them before pushing them out to Jira.

You can find Visor in Atlassian's Marketplace, and it's free up to 250 records: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1226209/visor-flexible-spreadsheet-for-jira-roadmapping-bulk-edits?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

I hope that helps! 

-- Becky @ Visor

[Grant Olson]

Thanks Becky, I'll look into Visor's Jira spreadsheet!

[Carlos Garcia Navarro · Accepted solution]

Hi @Grant Olson ,

Welcome to the Community! Would you consider 3rd party add-ons? If so, have you checked in the Atlassian marketplace for apps to integrate Jira with spreadsheets?

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?query=sheets

[Grant Olson]

Thank you, Carlos - I'm evaluating these options and appreciate the advice!

[Laurie Sciutti · Accepted solution]

Hello @Grant Olson and welcome to the Community!  Out of curiosity ~ why are you using spreadsheets when you can bulk edit within Jira?  If you currently have data in spreadsheets that you want to track in Jira, you can simply do a one-time import and then manage those issues directly in Jira...

If there is another reason that necessitates the continued use of spreadsheets, can you provide more info?

[Grant Olson]

Hi Laurie, thanks for your response here!

I think we just need a way to be able to easily frequently edit and apply changes to many issues via a spreadsheet format - mainly because it is easier to visualize and make updates quickly. I don't this is possible or easy to do in Jira without add-ons or another workaround - least that is my understanding! Does this make more sense?

I'm leaning towards the 3rd party add-ons as others have suggested in this thread. Thank you!