Launching the import/load

Import project configurations from an XML file

Get to the upper right hand corner of any JIRA web page and open the "Administration" menu, Select the option "Add-ons", as shown in this image

Once at the add-on administration page, you will see that the leftmost column contains commands to work with specific add-ons. There, you can find the section related to Project Configurator plugin.

After clicking on the link named "Import project configuration" the following page will appear:

Clicking on the button to the right of the text field, allows you to select the XML file you want to load with the project configuration.

Once you have selected the file and chosen whether the load will be simulated or real, click on the "Import project configuration" button to launch the load.

Option to create projects needed for custom field configuration contexts

Custom field configuration schemes in JIRA have an associated context. This is a set of projects that configuration applies to, or it can be a global context, meaning a configuration that applies to any project not specified in other context. You can find more information here.

If you are trying to load a custom field with a context that refers to another project(s), those projects must exist before the plugin can build the configuration as it is described in the XML file.

If the option "Create extra projects" is ticked, during the real load if a project used in a custom field context does not exist, Project Configurator will create it automatically. The project will be created with the specified key, and a default name and description and it will be associated to default schemes.

If that option is ticked, and a project is created because it is needed in a custom field configuration context, a message like this will appear in the load trace:

Option to enable "Smart custom field contexts"

The "Smart custom field contexts" option permits that the imported configuration for custom fields will only affect the imported projects, and not other projects that may exist in the destination instance. This page explains in more detail how this feature works.

Option to automatically publish drafts for workflow and workflow schemes

If this option is checked, the plugin will publish workflow drafts and workflow scheme drafts created during the import.

More details about this option can be found in the specific documentation for workflow scheme drafts and workflow drafts.

Option to skip loading of some object types

The multiselect list labelled "Do not load:" lets you select object types that will be ignored during the load. This means that, for example if you select "Groups", the plugin will not create or modify any group, leaving them as they were before the load.

"Projects (changes)" refers to the project lead (only in versions for JIRA 7), category and schemes associated to imported projects. When it is selected, import of object types which are part of projects, like versions, components and project role members, is also ignored. Creation of new projects cannot be skipped. Projects included in the XML configuration file are always created with a default configuration, including default schemes.

You can select more than one object type to ignore, clicking on any of them while the keys "Ctrl" or "Shift" are pressed. To deselect an already selected object type, click on it while pressing the "Ctrl" key.

The list of object types that can be skipped is:

• Projects (changes)

Project scope objects:

• Versions
• Components
• Role members

Global objects:

• Users
• Groups
• Project roles
• Priorities
• Resolutions
• Statuses
• Event types
• Categories
• Issue types
• Issue type schemes
• Custom fields
• Field configurations
• Field configuration schemes
• Screens
• Screen schemes
• Issue type screen schemes
• Workflows
• Workflow layouts
• Workflow schemes
• Permission schemes
• Notification schemes
• Issue security schemes
• Filters
• System dashboard
• All dashboards
• Scrum and Kanban boards

When object types are selected to be ignored during the load, the load trace shows warning messages like these:

Keeping settings between loads

This web page is designed to keep your selections from one retry to the next, so you do not have to select everything every time you run the configuration load. The only exception is the name of the configuration file to load because, as a security measure, most browsers will not let code in a web page select a local file. So these settings will persist between successive loads:

• Real or simulated load
• Automatic creation of extra projects

• Smart custom field contexts

• Try to publish drafts
• Continue on errors found in dashboards and filters
• Object types to be ignored during the load

The only requirement for this persistence of settings is a browser that has Javascript enabled and staying in the same JIRA session.

Recovery on errors found when importing dashboards or filters (new since version 1.10)

Dashboards and filters are created by JIRA end users without the supervision of a JIRA administrator. It is easy that a large instance of JIRA contains hundreds or thousands of filters and dashboards. The combination of both circumstances can make life quite difficult for a JIRA admin that tries to transfer all those objects to another instance of JIRA (for example, as she would do when trying to merge two instances).

In order to minimize this problem, Project Configurator includes a feature that lets the import continue when an error is found during the import of a dashboard or filter. This feature is enabled when this option is selected in the import page:

See the page about viewing import results for a description of how recovery from a filter/dashboard error is handled and displayed in the load trace.