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Using the Zendesk Support for Jira integration

Yuri Mylis
  • Edited
Zendesk Product Manager

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The Jira integration encourages collaboration between product teams and the support team. For example, after a customer reports a bug in a ticket, the agent can file a bug in Jira directly from your Zendesk. After fixing the bug, a developer can add a comment to the ticket directly from Jira.

For information on configuring the Zendesk Support for Jira integration, see Setting up Zendesk Support for Jira integration.

This article covers the following topics:

Related articles:

Using the integration in Zendesk Support

As an agent, you can create a new Jira issue from a ticket, or link to an existing Jira issue from a ticket. You can then use the link to track the progress made by the product team on addressing the issue. For example, within Zendesk Support you can view details about a bug you filed in Jira to see if the engineering team fixed it.

A single Jira issue can be linked to up to 200 Zendesk Support tickets.

Topics covered in this section:

You can also automatically notify an agent or a customer when somebody changes the status of an issue in Jira. See Updating a ticket when the status of a Jira issue changes.

Creating a Jira issue from a ticket

You can create a Jira issue from a ticket in Support, for example, when the ticket is a feature request or a bug report from a customer.

To create a Jira issue from a ticket

  1. In Zendesk Support, go to the ticket you want to use as a basis for a new Jira issue.
  2. Click Create Issue in the Jira app next to the ticket.

    Note: If the Jira app is not displayed on the right side of the agent interface, click Apps.

  3. Click the Project drop-down options to display available Jira projects. If you start typing the name of the Jira project for the issue, the list of suggested projects is filtered to match.

  4. Enter the details about the issue.

    • If you’ve selected the option to transfer information from your ticket, this information is already entered.

    • You can click Copy fields from this ticket (see below) to populate the fields, then select the Always copy checkbox to make this the default behavior.

      Note that Copy fields from this ticket only copies the subject and most recent comment. It does not copy any additional custom fields.

    • If the assignee or reporter you're looking for doesn't appear in the suggested user list, enter the exact Jira username.

    The default fields are displayed in the image below. Administrators can add additional fields this form. For information, see Adding fields to the Jira app in Zendesk Support.

  5. (Optional) Click Add reporter as a watcher to include the reporter as a watcher to the newly-created issue. See Commenting and comment sharing for more information.
  6. Click Create issue.

A new issue is created in Jira and the ticket is linked to it. In Zendesk Support, the Jira app in the sidebar displays the Jira issue name, summary, and description.

For more information, see Customizing the summary and details views.

Creating a link to an existing Jira issue from a ticket

If you know that an issue is tracked in Jira and you receive a support request that's related to it, you can link the ticket to the issue. You can also link the same ticket to other issues in Jira.

You can keep track of the number of tickets linked to Jira issues, and use that metadata to prioritize your work. See Jira: Linked tickets reporting for more information.

To link to an existing Jira issue

  1. In Zendesk, go to the ticket you'd like to link to a Jira issue.
  2. Click Link Issue in the Jira panel.

    Note: If the Jira app is not displayed on the right side of the agent interface, click Apps.

  3. Enter your issue key (XXX-000) or paste a link to the issue.

    If you do not know your issue key, you can search Jira issues.

  4. Click Link issue.

The ticket is linked to the existing issue in Jira. In Zendesk Support, the Jira app in the sidebar displays the Jira issue name, summary, description, and comments.

Tracking a Jira issue from a ticket

The Jira app in the sidebar displays a summary of any issue linked to the ticket, as well as any comments associated with it:

Click the Show More Details (eye) icon next to the issue name to view more details about the issue:

The details view opens in a new window:

You can customize the information displayed in both the summary and details views. See Customizing the summary and details views below.

If you're a Jira user too, you can open the issue in Jira by clicking the issue name in the summary view. A new browser tab opens and displays the issue.

Customizing the summary and details views

You can customize the information that's displayed in both the summary and details views. For details about the views, see Tracking a Jira issue from a ticket above.

To customize the summary and details views

  1. Click the Admin icon in the upper-right side of the Jira app next to the ticket.

  2. Select the information you want to display in the summary and details views.

  3. Click Close to save your choices.

Adding a label to a Jira issue from a ticket

When creating or linking to a Jira issue from a ticket, a jira_escalate tag is added by default to the ticket and an identical jira_escalate label is added to the issue in Jira. You can add more labels to a linked issue in Jira at any time. Any ticket tag with a jira_ prefix is added as a matching label to any Jira issue linked to the ticket.

If the escalating agent has a custom agent role in the Enterprise plan, the role must allow the agent to edit tags. See Creating custom roles and assigning agents.

To add a label to a Jira issue

  1. Add a tag with a jira_ prefix in the Tags field in the ticket's left sidebar:

  2. Update the ticket by clicking Submit.

The new label appears in the Details section of the issue in Jira:

Unlinking a Jira issue from a ticket

  • Click the Unlink (x) icon in the Jira app next to the ticket.

Searching Jira issues

When linking a ticket to a Jira issue, you can search for Jira issues by keyword, or using the Jira Query Language (JQL). Starting your search with the project name in capital letters will limit the results to that project.

To search Jira issues by keyword

  1. In the Link Issue search field, enter your search terms . You can limit results to a specific project by starting the search with the project name in capital letters, or you can use JQL.

  2. As you're typing, ticket suggestions are made. You can select a suggested ticket, or continue typing to narrow down the results.

Using the integration in Jira

As a Jira user, you can view details about tickets linked to your issues, and add comments to linked tickets. You can also automatically notify an agent or a customer when you change the status of an issue in Jira. See Updating a ticket when the status of a Jira issue changes.

This section describes how to view the details of a linked Support ticket in your Jira issue. For information on adding comments to linked tickets, see Commenting and comment sharing below.

To view the details of a linked Zendesk Support ticket

  1. Navigate to the issue in Jira. In the sidebar under Zendesk Support, the number of linked tickets is displayed.

  2. Double-click on Linked Tickets to open the linked tickets page.
  3. If more than one ticket is linked to the issue, click the accordion to expand the ticket details.

  4. To view the ticket in Support, click the linked ticket heading.

Commenting and comment sharing

When you link Zendesk Support tickets and Jira issues, you can also share some commenting functionality between the two platforms.

While the commenting functionality doesn't fully integrate the commenting systems in Zendesk Support and Jira, it does allow you to perform the following tasks, which are described in this section:

However, you cannot perform some expected comment-related tasks, such as:

  • Automatically notify Zendesk collaborators when there are new comments on linked Jira issue, unless they are also watching the Jira issue.
  • Mark a comment as having been read by another user.

Adding a comment to a Jira issue from a ticket

If a Support ticket is linked to a Jira issue, you can add comments to the Jira issue from the ticket. This is useful for providing additional information from customers to the product team.

Both public and private comments added to a Support ticket are shared with any connected Jira issues.

To add a comment to a Jira issue

  1. Click the Notify button in the Jira app next to the ticket.
  2. Enter the comment you want to add to the issue in Jira.

  3. To save typing, you can transfer the last comment made on the ticket by clicking Copy the last comment.
  4. Any attachments in ticket comments are shown under Attachments. Click on the attachment to add it to the note.
  5. Click Notify issues. The note is added to the Activity section in the Jira issue.
  6. In the Show drop-down list, select Comments to view the comment.

 

Adding a comment to linked Zendesk Support tickets from a Jira issue

You can notify a Zendesk agent or a customer when you add a comment to the linked Jira issue.

When you add a comment to a Jira issue, it adds that comment to the linked Support ticket. When the comment is added to the Zendesk ticket, an email containing your comment is sent to the agent and any other agent who is copied on the Support ticket. If the comment is public, an email is also sent to the customer who submitted the ticket and any other end user who is copied on the ticket. Be mindful that a customer will read your message when you add a public comment. If in doubt, leave the comment private.

You can comment on a single linked ticket, or all linked tickets if you have multiple tickets linked to an issue. Commenting on all linked tickets can be performed in the sidebar or the Activity section of a Jira issue.

To add a comment to a linked ticket

  1. Navigate to the Jira issue, and in the Activity drop-down list, select Zendesk Support.

  2. In the Ticket drop-down list, select the Support ticket.

  3. Enter your comment . Select the Make public reply checkbox to make a public comment.
  4. Click Add comment.

     

To add a comment to all linked tickets in the Activity section

  1. Navigate to the linked issue in Jira, and in the Activity drop-down list, select Zendesk Support.
  2. Enter your comment, select the Add for all tickets checkbox, and click Save.

To add a comment to all linked tickets in the sidebar

  1. In the sidebar under Zendesk Support, double-click on Linked Tickets. The linked ticket page opens.
  2. Click Add comments to linked tickets, which opens a page.
  3. Enter your comment and click Send.

To make all comments private

  1. In the Jira top nav bar, select More > Apps > Manage your apps
  2. Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
  3. In the Settings > Other options section, select the Disable all public comments to Zendesk checkbox.
  4. Click Save.

Notifying Jira issue watchers when there are new comments on linked Zendesk tickets

Jira users who are watching a Jira issue linked to a Zendesk ticket, will receive a notification email from Jira for any comments added to the linked ticket(s).

To enable comment notifications

  1. In the Jira top nav bar, select More > Apps > Manage your Apps.
  2. Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
  3. In the Settings > Other options section, select the Send email notification to Jira issue watchers on new linked Zendesk Support ticket comments checkbox.
  4. Click Save.

Adding the reporter as a watcher when creating a new Jira issue

When creating a new Jira issue from a Support ticket, or when linking a ticket to an existing issue, you can add the reporter as a watcher to the newly-created issue.

Jira also allows you to watch an issue. When you watch an issue, you receive email notifications when certain updates are made. Depending on how your issue notifications are configured, you may receive an email when:

  • The story has been updated (such as the description)

  • The status changes (assigned, closed)

  • A comment is submitted

To add a reporter as a watcher

  • When creating a Jira issue from a Zendesk Support ticket, select the Add reporter as a watcher checkbox.

Adding the current agent as a watcher when linking Jira issues

When linking an existing issue to a ticket in Support, the current user is added as a watcher to that issue in Jira. Note that for this to be successful, the Jira user profile must contain the Zendesk agent's email or full name.

Displaying when the most recent comment was added

In the Zendesk Support panel in Jira, you can display how much time has elapsed since the last comment was added to the ticket in Zendesk.

To enable the last comment added display

  1. In the Jira top nav bar, select More > Apps > Manage Apps.
  2. Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
  3. In the Settings > Zendesk Support ticket fields section, select the Last Commented checkbox
  4. Click Save.
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371 Comments

  • Dan Ross
    Community Moderator

    Hi Yuri,

     

    Can that be done to a custom field? We could add a field for JIRA issues sync the issue key to that field and then report on the contents of it in GoodData!

     

    Is it possible to add a hit count of linked issues in Jira? Kind of like this? Being able to see the number of linked issues at a glance (especially if more than a handful) would be a huge benefit for determining issue severity and priority!

    Thanks!

    1
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Dan,

     

    That's a great feature! I can absolutely see how that would be used to prioritize JIRA issues as well as enable reporting on linked issues/tickets in JIRA.

    This feature is actually already on the roadmap and I hope to get to it in the not to distant future. 

    I suggest you follow this page for updates.

    2
  • Andrew Schreiner

    How is the Jira ID stored in Zendesk and is there any way to trigger to find the ID of the linked issue through the Zendesk API or a trigger? 

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Andrew,

     

    Currently the only way to get the JIRA issue key into Zendesk is to put that in a comment on the ticket. I think you are best to wait until we finish working on the field syncing feature.

    It would allow you to bring data from JIRA into a custom field on the Zendesk ticket. 

     

    0
  • Justin Vieth

    is this available for the on premise version of jira 7.x ?

    or only for on demand customers of jira?

    https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/zendesk-integration-only-available-for-jira-cloud-but-not-for-jira-on-premise-696519055.html

    0
  • Anna Everson

    Hi Justin,

    As of 6/2/2016 this is available for On Premise v7.x:

    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/220316887-Introducing-our-newest-JIRA-Server-integration-v3-

    If you are having issues installing or using the integration, please reach out to our support team at support@zendesk.com

    Thanks!

    0
  • Oksana Birioukova

    Hi Yuri,

    In your earlier comment from July 22nd you mentioned that the hit counter feature is already on the roadmap. How soon can we see it available in Zendesk/JIRA integration?

    We are actively working on finding a way to prioritize the issues more effectively and this feature would help us immensely. 

     

    Many thanks in advance!

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Oksana,

    Glad to hear you see value in the feature. We're actually working on it currently and I'm planning to release it in the very near future.

     

     

     

    0
  • Andrew Schreiner

    How does the linking of the issue actually happen? I don't see any tags on the ticket other than jira_escalated to let it know there is an associated issue?

    0
  • Dan Ross
    • Edited
    Community Moderator

    Is it possible to change the order in which the Jira fields are displayed in Zendesk? We would like to have the summary displayed under the bug ID. At the moment, it's stuck near the bottom.

     

    Thanks!

    0
  • Mark Vermaat
    • Edited

    I have a quick question, is it possible to limit who can see this app in Zendesk by say currentUser has "jira" tag?  We have about 50ish users but only 4 need to be able to see and work with the JIRA linking and I am unable to find if there is a way to limit visibility. Anyone know if you can. I cant seem to find it in the documentation if there is a way to do this.

     

    Role restriction is not currently an option. :(

     

     

    Thanks.

    0
  • Matt Hoffman
    Zendesk team member

    @Andrew - Linking of the issue takes place within the app on the ticket sidebar area. At the moment the only distinguishing characteristic on the ticket itself is the tag you mentioned, otherwise all linkage data is maintained by the JIRA app outside of the ticket object or ticket data.

    @Dan - There is no ability to sort the order of the JIRA information displayed in the Zendesk app sidebar, sorry about that :\ Hopefully this helps to clear things up.

    @Mark - Unfortunately, role restrictions are the only way to limit app access in the way you described. The only possible suggestion I can offer is to reorder your apps so that JIRA is closer to the bottom, thereby keeping it "out of sight, out of mind" for the majority of your agents.

    0
  • Mark Vermaat

    Hey Matt,

    I was afraid you were going to say that. :(

    I will see if that option will work.  Thanks for the quick response. :)

     

    Cheers.

    0
  • Rose (Somma) Cruz

    When creating issues in JIRA, field descriptions (help text) appears below custom fields. These field descriptions do not show up in Zendesk on the "Create a new JIRA issue" screen. 

    Also, setting the default value to None on a required JIRA field forces a user to select an option. When creating a JIRA issue in Zendesk, the field defaults to the first option. 

    Are either of these items on the roadmap?

    1
  • Andrey
    • Edited

    Will synchronization of the fields works as in the old version?

    1
  • Alden Tiu

    Hi Rose Somma,

    Please take a look at [this section of the article] (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203659916-Setting-up-and-using-Zendesk-for-JIRA-Server-OnPremise#topic_mky_d5p_l3) in our documentation. Custom mappings are technically possible, but this is a use-at-your-own-risk sort of scenario and we cannot support them at the moment.

    The only source I find that mentions possibility of configuring mappings for JIRA and Zendesk use is in the following [article found here] (
    https://docs.servicerocket.com/display/CFZJ/Configure+Mappings).

    I'm sorry that I don't have a better answer for you here. Thank you for understanding.

     

    0
  • Alden Tiu

    Hi Andrey,

    With regards to the synchronization of the fields from the old version, this will only work with Status and Comments.

    But it will not work with the other fields.

    0
  • Rose (Somma) Cruz

    Hi Alden,

    The your responses pertain to the Legacy Zendesk connector built by ServiceRocket. We're trying to move off the legacy app and implement the new integration for JIRA Server. The lack of synchronized comments will make it extremely challenging to get everyone on board. 

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Rose,

     

    This was a decision we made based on customer feedback. There is a separate post regarding this feature: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/205060357-Jira-Comment-Synchronization 

    0
  • Andrew Schreiner

    How do you control who the comments are added by in Jira? It looks like they are all getting added by the same person which isn't necessarily what we want since it won't notify the correct user. 

    As for the Kanban board, is there a way to display the app on the board as well so we have the notify option without having to click into the escalation? 

    0
  • Matt Hoffman
    Zendesk team member

    @Andrew the user who posts comments between systems is determined by the admin who sets up the integration (both the Zendesk admin and the JIRA admin). You can read a little bit more about that under "Best practices for performing the setup" in this article.

    T    here are no negative consequences of reintegrating with new admins so feel free to make any changes there that will make things easier to follow. Just make sure you're logged in as the desired admin in each account when you perform the OAuth link in JIRA and you should be good to go.

    0
  • Megan Howell

    @Andrew, regarding your second question, the app is only available on the JIRA issues directly, I am sorry!

    0
  • Brill Wang
    • Edited

    To expose more JIRA fields in the Create Issue screen in Zendesk, I saw Matt address this question with the following comment:

    February 19, 2015 09:43

    @Mor you can add additional fields to the Create Issue screen by making additional fields required and adding them to the default screen. Please make sure you add the fields to your default screen first, otherwise you'll receive error messages if a field is required but not available on the default screen.

    Would this still work if you make the field required in the default screen for just one project, or does it have to be for all projects?
    0
  • Andrew Feller

    @Yuri: Any update on when Zendesk-JIRA attachment syncing will be supported?

    You stated back in July you were planning to address this oversight, however I can't find an update anywhere.  Also I really hope you intend to leverage the attachment capabilities of both Zendesk and JIRA as the integration between them is due to minimizing unnecessary user licenses, so it does nothing to merely link to an attachment in either system that people don't have access to.

    0
  • Matt Hoffman
    Zendesk team member

    @Brill - If you make the field required at the Field Configuration level, you can control when it appears by adding or removing it from screens on a project-by-project basis.

    0
  • Leonid

    Hi folks!
    Is there a way to setup Zendesk <-> JIRA only on one way?

    Zendesk user should be able to create/update/see JIRA ticket associated with Zendesk ticket, but not vise-versa?

    Thank yoU!

    Leonid

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @Andrew,

     

    We have started working on attachment sharing feature, so hopefully we have have something for you early next year.

    I'm curious to know which is the more relevant use case for you. Is it sharing attachments from Zendesk to JIRA or the other way around?

     

     

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    • Edited
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @Leonid,

     

    The most common scenario we're addressing with the integration is where a customer raises a support ticket, which it turn gets promoted into JIRA as an issue for developers to work on.

    A scenario where a developer in JIRA creates a ticket in Zendesk is not with in the scope of the integration.

    We do support viewing and commenting on the Zendesk ticket from JIRA though. We also leverage JIRA workflows to automate commenting and status transitions in Zendesk. 

    0
  • Leonid

    @Yuri,

    Yes, I see and try this functionality, it works as described, but we have slightly different from the current functionality requirements:

    we need to have full visibility and creation JIRA tickets functionality from inside the Zendesk, but want to have Zendesk tickets fully invisible from JIRA.

    As of now, it is bi-derectional and JIRA user can see all the Zendesk tickets associated with JIRA ticket.

    We want to be able to have one way visibility only: from Zendesk to JIRA.

    Is there a plans for making this?

     

     

    As of attachment sharing, it will be very nice to be able to attache files from Zendesk to JIRA, not back.

     

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @Leonid,

     

    Thanks for clarifying. So you're saying that you want JIRA users to see linked tickets but don't want for Zendesk users to see linked issues.

    We don't have this on our plans at the moment, sorry. 

    May I suggest the you post your suggestion on our feedback forum so others can vote on it too?

     

     

    0

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