Export filtered data excluding internal comments

[Aldona Akkermans]

I have created a filter, which I want to export and to use for external purposes. When I do so Jira returns with comments, which are both external and internal. Is there a way to exclude the internal ones? 

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira]

Hi @Aldona Akkermans

if you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, you may want to have a look at 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 long list of so-called smart columns that aren’t natively available, including all external comments.

This column shows the latest external comment in the JXL table, and includes all external comments in the Excel or CSV export: 

(I'm showing the All comments column here, but it would work the same for All external comments.)

I should also add that JXL can so 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,

Best,

Hannes

[Aldona Akkermans]

Hi Hannes 

Thank you for the information. Yes I do have another question. If a ticket has multiple comments, how would that look like? Would these be gather into 1 or several columns? Also, what is the monthly/yearly fee for the usages of this app? 

Kind regards
Aldona 

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira]

Hi @Aldona Akkermans

big apologies for the late reply, this somehow slipped through.

If you have multiple comments, the All external comments column will show the latest external comment in the JXL UI (as shown above), but include all external comments in the XLSX export. Here, all external comments will be put into one cell, with line breaks in between, like so:

There's also a long list of other comment-related smart columns available in JXL, like the first/last (internal/external) comment, the first/last response from a customer, the time since the first/last comment, etc. etc. Depending on your exact use case, these might be useful, too. 

Best,

Hannes

[Hans Polder _Devoteam_]

Hi Aldona,

I have checked a few things but so far I could only find this:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-Service-Management-articles/A-helpful-guide-to-export-issues-only-with-public-comments/ba-p/2848289

This seems to explain what you're looking for, but it requires some coding.

If you are willing to look into paid apps, it seems that this post suggests some steps to do it as well (without coding):

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/App-Central-discussions/Export-Jira-Service-Management-tickets-with-only-external/td-p/1961201

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@Aldona Akkermans  The second article suggested by Hans explains how to solve it with our Better Excel Exporter app! Just follow that guide.

@Hans Polder _Devoteam_ Thanks for mentioning our app!

[Aldona Akkermans]

Thank you both for your feedback. We'll further review it internally. 

[Aldona Akkermans]

@Hans Polder _Devoteam_ and @Aron Gombas does the app also offer to provide the attachments? 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@Aldona Akkermans  What does that mean exactly?

Do you want to export the attachment metadata (filename, filesize, etc.) to Excel or even the files themselves (as Excel "floating objects")?

[Aldona Akkermans]

@Aron Gombas _Midori_ If a ticket includes attachment to extract that data. So it is an open question on the possibilities to get them in for example a PDF format. 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@Aldona Akkermans  You can absolutely do that with the Better PDF Exporter app.

It can embed attachments in the resulted PDF file, from which the viewer can open it or even extract it. This is how an embedded attachment looks when the PDF is opened with Acrobat Reader:

See the file itself here.

[Aldona Akkermans]

@Aron Gombas _Midori_ thank you for the information. So if I want to proceed with the information for my customer, I need the: 

- Better Excel Exporter (paid) app and, 

- Better PDF Exporter app? 
Is this one paid and will the PDF contain the key/ticket nrs? 

I do not seem to find the charges for these apps. 

Thank you 

Aldona 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

I do not seem to find the charges for these apps.

Both apps are free for 10 users (and supported!). Above 10 users, both are paid and supported!

The pricing is available on the "Pricing" tab of the apps' Atlassian Marketplace listings. I linked those here for your convenience:

• Better PDF Exporter pricing
• Better Excel Exporter pricing

... will the PDF contain the key/ticket nrs?

What do you mean by this? If the export contains the issue key? If so, then the answer is "yes". In fact, the exports are created from so-called export templates that can be customized to show/not-show pretty much any issue field or detail. You can have a good grasp of what is possible if you browser through the export samples:

• PDF export samples
• Excel export samples

There is a lot to see there!

I hope this helps.

[Aldona Akkermans]

Hi @Aron Gombas _Midori_ thank you for your feedback. What I meant exactly is whether the name of the PDF will refer to the ticket key or to any other linked reference that will like the file to the key/ticket? What if there are more attachments per key/ticket? 

Thank you for the samples. I however haven't found an example where there are multiple comments for one key/ticket. Is such a sample available as well? I checked all of them and I haven't found one. Will they appear as a new row and copy the other information + show the 2nd comment? 

Also, I have checked the pricing and the amounts are clear, however, what are the buying (not paying) conditions? Can it be done monthly or yearly only? 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@Aldona Akkermans  

1) When you export a single ticket, the default PDF filename will be the issue key! For example, the ticket FOO-123 will be exported to "FOO-123.pdf", so the reference is crystal-clear. (Note that although this naming rule is the default, the filename is  easily customizable through the PDF template!)

2) If you download jira-single-issue-export.pdf (from the export samples page), you can see that it contains two comments. It is still relatively simple, but it illustrates that the comments will be exported to separate boxes, with the comment text, comment date and comment author:

3) As with any other "paid via Atlassian" app on Atlassian Marketplace, you can purchase Better PDF Exporter monthly or yearly. If you chose "yearly", then you pay the price of 10 months only (instead of 12)!

I hope this helps.

[Aldona Akkermans]

It does thank you @Aron Gombas _Midori_

[Aldona Akkermans]

Hi @Aron Gombas _Midori_

When I open the PDF I get references to the attachments, even with a link but:

- the link doesn't work and

- the attachments are not shown fully in the PDF. 

Can you pls advise? 

Thank you 
Aldona