How do export rank field readable for a human ?

[lredlich]

The PO of my project does not has access to jira. So we need to priorize stories at our jira and send to him, so he can  see and fill the priority and sent back to us.
I would like to use rank field to do this, but the content of the field can not be easily undertanded by human. I did not find any place to change de format of this field  and i don't have any other idea

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @lredlich -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Short answer: I don't think you can convert Rank to a number, but you can use a work-around to support your Product Owner (PO).

Rank uses a method from Atlassian called LexoRank, which allows ordering the items in the backlog and dealing with a dynamically changing order, given backlog evolution over time.  It is string which grows longer and longer, as changes are made, until it hits a threshold...and then the values are re-assigned.  So, converting the value to a single value isn't necessarily possible.  You see, as soon as the value leaves the physical backlog (in the cloud) the Rank string could change.

A possible work-around to support your product owner:

• Export your backlog items to prioritize, including the Rank, Key, and any relevant information
• Open the export in a spreadsheet app.
• Sort your export by Rank as a string
• Add a new column for your numeric sort order, and copy down values, 1, 2, 3...
• Work with the PO to prioritize the list
• Use the Key values to update Jira for the new order

Best regards,

Bill

[Franklin Haynie]

Hello @lredlich ,

Another possible option, if you have the Structure plugin, is to create a structure including the desired issues, include "ORDER BY Rank ASC" in an automation, and then create a "Sequential Index" column. This will create a numerical column that will "stick" to each row in case you sort on another column later. Your structure can then easily be exported to excel. You might even be able to get away with a small python chron job to periodically export the structure for your PO via Jira's REST API. Good luck!

[Eileen McEneaney]

We used Structure to do this and write back the human readable rank to Jira Server but unfortunately Structure effectors aren't supported in the cloud at this point I believe