Jira: Using the Zendesk Support for Jira integration

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:

• Using the integration in Zendesk Support
• Using the integration in Jira
• Commenting and comment sharing

Related articles:

• Setting up Zendesk Support for Jira integration
• Updating a ticket when the status of a Jira issue changes
• Jira: Linked tickets reporting
• Using the Jira field syncing feature
• Zendesk Support for Jira related terminology

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.

Topics covered in this section:

• Integration limitations
• Creating a Jira issue from a ticket
• Creating a link to an existing Jira issue from a ticket
• Tracking a Jira issue from a ticket
• Customizing the summary and details views
• Adding a comment to a Jira issue from a ticket
• Adding a label to a Jira issue from a ticket
• Unlinking a Jira issue from a ticket
• Searching Jira issues

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.

Integration limitation

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

Creating 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.

   For example, the ticket could be a feature request or a bug report from a customer.

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 in the Project text box 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 click Always copy to make this the default behavior.
     
     Note that Copy fields from this ticket only copies the most-recent comment.

   • 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 Custom agent roles (Enterprise).

To add a label to a Jira issue

1. Add a tag with a jira_ prefix in the Tags box 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 pane, enter your search terms in the search box. 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 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 and click the Zendesk Support tab in the Activity section.

   

2. If more than one ticket is linked to the issue, use the Ticket menu to select the ticket you want to view.
3. If you want to filter by comment type, use the Comment Type menu to select All comments, Public comments, or Private comments.

   Private comments have a yellow background. Zendesk comments can be public or private. 

4. To view more details about the ticket, click the Zendesk Support ticket link in the sidebar:

   

   Note: If more than one ticket is linked to the issue, click the angle bracket to expand the ticket details.

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:

• Adding a comment to a Jira issue from a ticket

• Adding a comment to a linked Zendesk Support ticket from a Jira issue

• Viewing Jira issue comments in Zendesk

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

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

• Adding the current agent as a watcher when linking Jira issues

• Displaying the time the most recent comment was added to either account

You cannot, however, perform some other, perhaps 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. Click Notify issues.

The comment is added to the Activity section in Jira, under the Comments tab:

Adding a comment to a linked Zendesk Support ticket 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 Zendesk Support ticket. Then, 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 Zendesk 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.

To add a comment to a ticket

1. Navigate to the linked issue in Jira and click the Notify button in the sidebar on the right side, under Zendesk Support.
2. Enter your message and click Send.

   

To make all comments private

1. Open the add-on configuration page in Jira by selecting Administration > Add-ons > Manage Add-ons, then selecting Zendesk Support for Jira > Configure.
2. Scroll down to the Other Options section and check the Disable all public comments to Zendesk option.
3. 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 Jira, go to Add-ons > Manage Add-ons > Zendesk Support for Jira > Configure to open the Zendesk Support addon configure page.
2. In the Other options section, click to enable Send email notification to Jira issue watchers on new linked Zendesk Support ticket comments.
3. 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 state change (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, we’ll also add the current user as a watcher to that issue in Jira. Note that for this to be successful, we need to be able to locate a related Jira user by your Zendesk agent email or full name.

Displaying the time the most recent comment was added to either account

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 Jira, go to Add-ons > Manage Add-ons > Zendesk Support for Jira > Configure to open the Zendesk Support addon configure page.
2. In the Zendesk Support ticket fields page, click to select Last Commented:

   

3. Click Save.