Recover deleted reqs

[Billy Christie]

If I delete a requirement, I see this a message saying "The issue will not be deleted and can be added again later."

Where does it go? How do I find it?

Please don't say I need to look for the object number. I have several reqs deleted and I just want to browse all the deleted items.

And please don't tell me I need yet another special add in.

I just want to see the deleted objects.

[Jehan Bhathena · Accepted solution]

Hi @Billy Christie ,

Since you mentioned R4J in the previous responses, can you elaborate a bit on that please.

I found this plugin with that term https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1213064/r4j-requirements-management-for-jira?tab=overview&hosting=cloud,  and would like to know if you're using this to track/manage your requirements.

[Billy Christie]

Yep. Looks like it.

[Bernhard Doleschel (Ease Solutions)]

Hello @Billy Christie ,

R4J does of good reason not delete issues when you use the "Remove" option. As all objects visible in R4J tree are Jira issues, they stay in Jira at their project (where they´ve been created before). 

An issue can be in the tree or not. There is no tracking if an issue was moved in/out from a tree.

To add all issues (of a project) which are not in already, please follow these steps:

• At root level create a folder, e.g. "Unassigned issues": right mouse click > Create folder
• On the new created folder add all existing issues of the project not in the tree yet: right mouse > Add existing issues
• Select first option Add all issues from this project not added to the tree

All the issues moved as children under the new created folder. You can then drag & drop them to the right target location (or remove them again).

The Add existing issues feature has more options, please see https://easesolutions.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/R4JC/pages/2114388288/Project+Tree#Context-Menu-Operations

Best Regards, Bernhard

[Billy Christie]

Of course they're not permanently deleted... I would expect nothing less.

The question I asked is where did they go?

So, I try the solution above and get this:

Selected issues: 2764
Issues already in tree: 1600
New issues: 1164 (only the first 100 issues will be imported)

Furthermore, it just lists the objects in descending object number order and doesn't respect any original structure. So, if I want to restore a folder, I need to re-create the folder manually, find which issues were in that folder, then re-build the folder one object at a time. Is that correct?

[Bernhard Doleschel (Ease Solutions)]

Hello @Billy Christie ,

Removed issued go/stay in Jira as the backbone of R4J. 
May you expect an recycle bin where the can be recovered ins original order/structure? Currently this is not implemented. If you need to have, please request via our support.

With removing issues from the tree, the loose their hierarchy information.
In Jira Cloud also folders (are issues) and stay inside Jira, in Jira Data Center (on premise) folder are deleted. (Hint: You are using Jira Cloud if your browser URL/hyperlink has a "atlassian.net" inside)

Yes, adding existing issues with above steps add them in descending order. Folders (in R4J Cloud) also added and can be used to recreate the structure. Then you have to add the issues to the folder manually, multi-select is possible for drag&drop.

Best Regards, Bernhard

[Billy Christie]

What I really need is a "restore" or "go back" function, to undo an action.

For example, in DOORS, you can "show deleted objects", then select what to "undelete", including folder structure, and you can select down to any granularity you like.

That brings back everything, including structure and links, as it was before the deletion.

[Laurie Sciutti · Accepted solution]

Hi @Billy Christie ~ Native Jira functionality for deleting issues permanently deletes them.  Is it possible you have an existing add-on that is providing this message?  Aside from that, most likely you would need an add-on for this (sorry) but you could take advantage of the free 30-day trial to address your issue.  Another option might be to restore from backup to a non-prod instance and export the deleted issue to re-import into your production instance.

[Billy Christie]

Hi,

I'm not aware of an add-on. If there is an add-on, where does JIRA R4J hide the deleted items?

If there isn't, why does it give me a message telling me that deleted items can be recovered?

By the time I get my IT department to approve another add-on, try to install it, then find it doesn't work (as per the last add-on we tried which required some other installation, which could not run on my PC), or by the time I get them to create a non-prod instance, then restore from the back up, then I find what I was looking for, it will be too late.

So, thanks for you help, but I don't have time for that. It will be quicker to re-write the content and learn a lesson about using R4J.

[Billy Christie]

PS. If I back up to a non-prod instance from a backup, the only way I can tell which items there are deleted are to compare the whole requirement set between the back-up and the production instance... that's less than user-friendly. I'm guessing I'd need to export both to Excel, then write a script to make the comparison. The script is easy... exporting to Excel from R4J is a mess. If I export to CSV, the content is misaligned, content for a requirement appears in rows above the req identifier, additional spurious rows are introduced, cells are merged.

So... to do that, it turns out, even though there is a function in R4J to export to CSV (this creates the mess), I need yet another add-on to make it controllable... which requires installation of VSTO runtime 4, which for some reason, can't be installed on my PC... so... back to square one, no progress.