Issue key incorrectly linked in the External issue ID field

[Dan Ny]

Hi guys,

We work on 2 Jira instances -- one is ours and another is our clients'. We import issues from our client's Jira to ours and their Issue keys are mapped with External issue IDs on our Jira instance. 

Since the project names on our Jira and our client's Jira instances are identical (e.g. PROJ), we encountered an issue where some Issue keys are incorrectly linked in the External issue IDs field. This issue only occurs when the Issue key (on our Jira) is already present and the External issue ID is added to some other Issue key.

We tried to remove this External issue ID and reenter manually but the same problem still persisted.

Our External issue ID field is a single line text field. 

Example: On our Jira, we already have the Issue key PROJ-1234. And we import issue PROJ-1234 from our client's Jira, this issue key becomes our External ID and the Issue key of this is PROJ-2545. But when imported to this issue PROJ-2524, this External issue ID (PROJ-1234) is incorrectly hyperlinked to the Issue key PROJ-1234. Yes, it is actually clickable. The value entered into this field is just a string, not a URL. 

Do you have any suggestion how to resolve this? TIA

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Hey @Dan Ny

to me this sounds like a problem with the way how you import the issues into your Jira. Can you share a bit more how you're importing them?

Another solution for your scenario would be to use an issue sync app. These apps enable you to synchronize data automatically between different Jira instances and you can define which fields to keep in sync and which ones not.

I'm part of the team behind Backbone Issue Sync and happy to also help further in this direction.

Cheers,
Matthias.

[Dan Ny]

Hi @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ 

We use import issues via REST API (in JSON). To clarify this, we export issues (all fields) from our client's Jira in CSV, then we run our script to convert the issues into JSON and only import some certain fields into our Jira. 

We have projects where project names are different on our client's Jira and ours (e.g. ACCA (on our client's Jira instance) is the same project as PINT (on our Jira instance)). That means, when importing ACCA-1234 to our PINT-1234, the ACCA becomes External issue ID on our Jira. And this is not a problem. This works fine.

But when we have the same project names on both of our instances (e.g. PROG). This becomes problematic when on our Jira instance an Issue key (for example: PROJ-1234) already exists and the External issue ID "PROJ-1234" that is added (via REST API) to another issue key (for example: Issue key PROJ-2524) later. 

To be honest, I am not in a decision-making position to buy an addon. What I can do is try to find a (workaround) solution for the issue.

Our Jira version is 7.x.x if that matters.

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Thank you for sharing the details.

Have you checked if the data in the resulting JSON is correct and contains the correct issue key in the External issue ID field?

Are you using the "Edit an issue from a JSON representation" method from the REST API for your import?

My suspicion would be that your script screws something up when the project key is the same - but that's only an assumption.

I understand that an app is not what you're looking for right now - that's your choice (or someone else's at your company).

[Dan Ny]

Hi @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ 

I don't think my script is buggy. 

Like I mention, we also tried to do it manually as soon as we discovered this problem. Steps taken after we encountered this problem.

• Create an issue (manually) on Jira UI
• Enter our client's issue key in our External issue ID field 

Expected: Just a normal text in this field

Result: Hyperlink to the existing Issue key (ours).

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Thank you for the further explanations. This is indeed weird.

I have some questions for you to guide you in your troubleshooting:

• Does the changelog of the issue record your change to the manually entered value?
• Is there another changelog which changes the value right after?
• If you set your value manually and it got the wrong value, how does the value look like when you call the REST API to get the JSON representation of the issue? <JIRA_URL>/rest/api/2/issue/<issueKey>

I'm curious to find out the reason for this.

[Dan Ny]

For some reason I just can't reply with my original message anymore

In the history: we see something like this

USER_YY made changes - Yesterday

External issue ID                         [PROJ-1234]                       PROJ-1234

USER_YY made changes - Yesterday

External issue ID                        [PROJ-1234]                         [PROJ-1234]

USER_YY made changes - Yesterday

External issue ID                      [PROJ-1234]                          [PROJ-1234]

USER_YY made changes - Yesterday

External issue ID                    [PROJ-1234]                          [PROJ-1234]

USER_YY made changes - Yesterday

Field                                 Original Value                                 New Value

External issue ID                PROJ-1234                                   [PROJ-1234]

USER_XX created issue - 10/Sep/24 4:31 PM

This bold Issue keys indicate Original Value and New Values where as the Issue keys with strikethrough indicate our existing issue that has been resolved (Done). These are our attempts to manually delete the linked issue in the field and enter the value directly in the field after the issue was imported via REST API. 

When we try to create an issue manually on Jira UI (with this External issue ID) and I call the REST API to get the JSON, I get this:

        "customfield_10104": null,

        "customfield_10105": null,

        "customfield_10501": null,

        "customfield_10304": "PROJ-1234"

Note that our "External issue ID" is "customfield_10304". I also searched in the json payload to find whether PROJ-1234 exists anywhere else in this payload, but there is none other. 

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Ah, @Dan Ny - I think I misunderstood you in the beginning.

You only want to get rid of the hyperlink of the issue key, right?

Unfortunately, I also don't know of a way how this is possible, here's the corresponding Atlassian feature request.

I'm sorry, I don't have better news.

[Dan Ny]

You are right, @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ 

I want to get rid of the hyperlink. Sorry, for the confusing explanation.