jira-bulk-loader 0.1.9

An automation tool for creating tasks in Jira via RESTful API

Introduction

The key idea of jira-bulk-loader is an activity template.

The template is written in human language with a few markup rules. jira-bulk-loader.py uses the prepared template to create the corresponding set of tasks easy and effortless.

Requirements

1. Python 2.6 or 2.7
2. JIRA REST API version 2 (i.e. JIRA v5.0 and above)

Linux installation

To install jira-bulk-loader, simply:

$ pip install jira-bulk-loader

Or, if you absolutely must:

$ easy_install jira-bulk-loader

By default jira-bulk-loader.py will be installed in the /usr/bin/ folder.

Windows installation

To install jira-bulk-loader on Windows:

1. install Python 2.7 - http://www.python.org/download/windows/
2. install setuptools - http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools
3. C:/Python27/Scripts/easy_install.exe jira-bulk-loader

By default jira-bulk-loader.py will be installed in the C:/Python27/Scripts/ folder.

Very simple case

Template:

h5. First task summary *assignee*

=description line 1

=description line 2

h5. Second task summary *assignee*

=description line 3

=description line 4

command:

jira-bulk-loader.py -U <your_username> -P <your_password> -H jira.your_domain.org -W PRKEY template_file

two tasks will be created and assigned to assignee in the project with a project key PRKEY.

One more simple case

Template:

h5. Task summary *assignee*

=description line 1

=description line 2

# First sub-task summary *assignee1*

=description line 3

# Second sub-task summary *assignee2* %2012-09-18%

=description line 3

and the command:

jira-bulk-loader.py -U <your_username> -P <your_password> -H jira.your_domain.org -D 2012-09-20 -W PRKEY template_file

It will create a task with two subtasks. Moreover it also sets due date 2012-09-18 (YYYY-mm-DD) to 2nd sub-task, and 2012-09-20 to the task and its first sub-task.

Dry run option

jira-bulk-loader.py has an option --dry. If it is specified in command line, jira-bulk-loader checks template syntax, verifies project name and assignees but doesn't create tasks.

I would strongly recommend using it every time.

User story and 'included in' tasks

Sometime an activity is too complex and it is much easier and appropriate to create several tasks with sub-tasks and link them to a user story.

h4. User story summary *assignee*

=description

h5. First task summary *assignee1*

=description

# Sub-task summary *assignee1*

=description

h5. Second task summary *assignee2*

=description

# Sub-task summary *assignee2*

=description

In this case h5 tasks will be linked to h4 user story.

A short summary

Let me summarize what are the possible markups to begin a line with:

• a user story: h4. summary *assignee*
• a task: h5. summary *assignee*
• a sub-task: # summary *assignee*
• one more sub-task: #* summary *assignee*
• description: =

Task parameters

It is possible to define task attributes in template:

{"project":{"key":"PRKEY"}

{"priority": {"name": "High"}}

{"duedate": "2012-09-20"}

{"components": [{"name": "Production"}]}

h5. First task summary *assignee1*

=description

h5. Second task summary *assignee2* {"components": [{"name": "Localizations"}]}

=description

h5. Third task summary *assignee3*

=description

It the example project, priority and duedate will be applied to both tasks by default. The component 'Production' will be applied to task 1 and 3. However, the second task will use the component 'Localizations'.

This part of Jira documentation could give a clue how to find out relevant parameters in your project and their format.

Template variables

[REVISION=194567]

[QA=John]

h5. First task summary *$QA*

=description $REVISION

h5. Second task summary *$QA*

=description $REVISION

is equivalent to

h5. First task summary *John*

=description 194567

h5. Second task summary *John*

=description 194567

the important difference is that you don't need to change assignee or description of each task in your template. You change variable value instead and it is applied to every line in the template.

Run-time variables

Sometime it is necessary to create a reference to another task in the template. Such requirement can be fulfilled with a help of template run-time variables.

h5. h5 task1 assignee [TASK_KEY1]

h5. h5 task2 assignee [TASK_KEY2]

h5. h5 task3 assignee

=description $TASK_KEY1

# Sub-task assignee

=description $TASK_KEY2

When jira-bulk-loader creates 'h5 task1' and 'h5 task2' in Jira, $TASK_KEY1 and $TASK_KEY2 will be have their issue_id.

The only restriction is: you can't reference a task that has not been created yet, i.e. template variables cannot be used before assignment.

Issues and new ideas

If you found an issue or if you have an idea of improvement please visit http://bitbucket.org/oktopuz/jira-bulk-loader/issues