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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.

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.

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 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 Custom agent roles (Enterprise).

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 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 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 angle bracket to expand the ticket details.

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

     

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 and added attachments are shown in the Jira issue under the Comments tab.

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

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. Open the add-on configuration page in Jira by selecting the Settings cog icon Apps > Manage apps > Manage Add-ons, then selecting Zendesk Support for Jira > Configure.
  2. In the Settings > Other options section, select the Disable all public comments to Zendesk checkbox.
  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 the Settings cog icon > Apps > Manage Apps > Zendesk Support for Jira > Configure to open the configuration page.
  2. In the Settings > Other options section, select the Send email notification to Jira issue watchers on new linked Zendesk Support ticket comments checkbox.
  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 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 Jira, go to the Settings cog icon > Apps > Manage Apps > Zendesk Support for Jira > Configure to open the configuration page.
  2. In the Settings > Zendesk Support ticket fields section, select the Last Commented checkbox:

  3. Click Save.
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364 Comments

  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi everyone, quick update and some good news. Based on customer requests, today we've added support for 3 additional fields: JIRA Fix Version/s, JIRA Sprint and Zendesk Status.

    This means these fields can now be synced using the integration.

    We've also started work on the JIRA Issue Key field, so hopefully you won't have to wait much longer. 

    Thanks for providing feedback!

     

    1
  • Guus Creuwels

    Nice work! Any instuctions on how to set things up? Especially the JIRA Fix Version/s field?

    It would be great if also the Jira Issue Priority and the Jira Affects Version/s field can be populated automatically or using the "create issue dialog" from Zendesk.

    One small thing that is kind of irritating is that when using the "create issue dialog" from Zendesk the "reporter" needs to be entered every time, over and over again. It would be great if this would use the last used value or a default user (like "zendesk for jira").

    Keep up the good work!

    0
  • Andrew Feller

    @yuri:

     

    Any comment and/or update about the following:

    1) Allowing administrators to customize the Jira app experience including restricting the Jira projects available, setting default values for fields and restricting Reporter and Issue Type fields on the Create Jira popup?

    The article about completely changing Jira project permissions to simply hide projects from the integration is absolutely preposterous.  The app should allow an administrator to select which projects you want to limit the app to instead like what was done in the v1 app integration.

    I want to minimize as much manual data entry when a Zendesk agent is escalating a ticket to Jira, however there is no way to put default values for anything.  I don't know off hand if Jira field context default values would come into play here or not; worst case scenario the app would allow to do something.

    I don't want anyone reporting the CEO escalated a Zendesk ticket to Jira as much as Zendesk doesn't want an end-user to specify the agent who reported a Zendesk ticket.  Also, I would like to restrict our operations side of the house to a specific issue type or set of issue types as my Technology stakeholders don't want product requests to flow into Jira this way; people should work with product managers for that.

    2) Copy all comments to the JIRA issue description when creating a Jira issue?

    Zendesk tickets don't have an explicit description like Jira issues do, so it'd be nice to have more than the last comment for the Jira issue description.

    3) Ability to search within Zendesk for tickets linked to Jira issues?

    Often times we want to see where something may have slipped through the cracks, however it doesn't appear trivial to search for tickets like these.

    4) Ability to sync attachments from Jira to Zendesk?

    Worst case scenario, I was thinking maybe something like the notify button within Jira where someone can selectively push attachments to Zendesk.  Since Jira doesn't provide a secure mechanism for making attachments available, this would need to be an actual push to Zendesk rather than a linked reference.

    1
  • Phil Preston
    • Edited

    Hey I wanted to follow up on something that's popped up in the thread a few times.  Linking to Zendesk ticket from JIRA.  

    This doesn't seem to be possible either through any means (Zendesk API, Macros JIRA API), and I think I understand the rational - in the that the flow is from Customer Support (Zendesk) -> Internal Dev (JIRA).  This makes sense where you are only talking about development projects, but given that JIRA also a business process / workflow tool as well - this can be a limitation.

    So we have a network service that we provide to clients, and the change requests are made through Zendesk.  This same network service is used by an internal team for their product (we eat our own dog food).  We use JIRA for managing the internal teams on boarding process, one of the steps is to request a change on the network service, via Zendesk 

    We need a way that the JIRA users can link their Zendesk support ticket into JIRA.  Webhooks, API, big button, absolutely anything would be fine.  Even a horrible hack you don't support :-) 

    Any view on whether this is something on the roadmap?  Any issue open somewhere I can vote on?

    Many thanks

    0
  • Melissa L.

    Hi @Yuri,

    Could you please also add field "Resolution" and "Affect Version/s" to the field mapping feature?

    Thank you very much.

    2
  • Fabio Ferragi
    • Edited

    Hello,

    I'm having trouble to open tickets when the project type in JIRA is "Service Desk".

    After I select the project it hangs on the processing animation and when I inspect on the browser I see I get a "401 Unauthorized" response for the call on "https://{myZendeskURL}/proxy/apps/secure/https%3A%2F%2F{myJiraURL}%2Frest%2Fapi%2F2%2Fuser%2Fassignable%2Fsearch%3Fproject%3DHELP%26username%3D{myZendeskUser}%26startAt%3D0%26maxResults%3D100".

    If I set the project type to anything else this doesn't happen.

    I've added the "addon_zendesk_for_jira" in the Service Desk and still no good.

    Can anyone help me?

    0
  • Anna Everson

    Hi Fabio,

    The integration does not support JIRA Service Desk projects. Apologies for the inconvenience.

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Quick update on Field Syncing.

    We've added support for several additional fields the people here have asked for:

    Zendesk Assignee, JIRA Affected Version/s, JIRA Resolution, JIRA Resolutiondate, JIRA Assignee, JIRA Reporter

    2
  • Melissa

    Hi @Yuri,

    I think JIRA Issue Key is very important. Could you please add JIRA Issue Key to the field sync feature?

    BTW: The field sync feature of Zendesk Support for JIRA is the BEST!!! It makes everybody's life easier...Great feature & improvement!!!

    2
  • Nicole S.
    Zendesk Community Team

    Thanks for the feedback, Melissa, and welcome to the Zendesk Community!

    0
  • Matthew Benn

    I've searched and cannot find the answer to this in any of the documentation I've found. 

    When creating a JIRA issue from within ZD, you can set the JIRA assignee, or leave as 'Automatic'. What logic is being used to determine the assignee? 

     

    Basically all of our linked JIRAs are being created/assigned to one JIRA user, and we need to change the user on that. 

    0
  • Jessie Schutz
    Zendesk team member

    Hey Matthew! I'm going to check with some of my colleagues about your question - sit tight!

    0
  • Anna Roussanova

    Hi Matthew! The "automatic" assignee option falls back on the JIRA "default assignee" which is specified in the JIRA project (under Project Settings > Users and roles).

    0
  • Chris Cox

    The plugin works well, however are there timescales on when the JIRA Issue Key syncing back to a zendesk custom field will be available?

    1
  • Jennifer Zou

    I have the same questions as Chris and Melissa: Will JIRA Issue Key be implemented in the near future?

    1
  • Jessie Schutz
    Zendesk team member

    Hey everyone!

    I'm checking with one of our Product Managers on JIRA Issue Key question. I'll let you know what I find out!

    1
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    For everyone asking about syncing the JIRA issue key to Zendesk.

    We've started work on this feature but it is not as straight forward as some of the other fields. I can't give you an ETA unfortunately but it shouldn't be too much longer.

    I do want to mention that the main projects we will be focusing on for the next few months are:

    • New and improved JIRA app 
    • Field Sync enhancements 
    • Customization options

     

    0
  • Jennifer Zou

    Thank you very much for your updates, Yuri. I really appreciate it.

    Jennifer.

    0
  • Justin

    Hi everyone. Is it possible to create a story card and assign it to a specific Kanban board directly from a Zendesk ticket?

    0
  • Daniel Groves

    Yuri - Do you have any rough idea as to when this will be released? We are desperate to do an integrated custom view using the Zendesk API for our clients and NEED this information.

    Thanks

    Daniel

    0
  • Anna Roussanova

    Hi Justin, unfortunately that's not possible. You can only create JIRA issues from Zendesk.

    0
  • Yuri Mylis
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @Daniel, sorry but I can't comment on delivery timelines as we're dealing with ever changing priorities. All I can say is that at the moment we're working on a way to store the JIRA issue key on the linked Zendesk ticket.

    0
  • Daniel Groves

    @Yuri, thanks for the heads up.

     

    I'm surprised it's that hard.... going to:

     

    https://jiraplugin.zendesk.com/integrations/jira/account/ACCOUTNAME/links

     

    gives a list of Zendesk ticket numbers and associated JIRA keys.

    0
  • Larry Katz

    This might have already been mentioned but we have the integration setup using JIRA cloud, in workflows on jira issue status change we can update the zendesk ticket's status, that part works great, Is it possible for that to work in reverse? when a zendesk ticket is closed, it closes a linked jira issue?

    0
  • Jennifer Zou

    Hi Larry,

    As far as I know, the workflow can not be reversed. Closing a Zendesk ticket can not close a linked jira, because Zendesk JIRA Support Add-on does not support this feature.

    Thanks,

    Jennifer. 

    0
  • Phil Preston

    Hey 

    I asked before - but didnt see an answer,  Is there a way to set the relationship between a JIRA and a Zendesk ticket - from the JIRA side?

    Thanks

    Phil

    0
  • Jennifer Zou

    Hi Phil,

    No. For now, there is no way to link a zendesk ticket in JIRA. If this can be done, then this feature has to be added to the "Zendesk for JIRA Support add-on". I guess this will take a long time to be implemented. 

    And...Zendesk tickets and JIRA should be linked in Zendesk, this is the way it works...and this is the way that was designed to be...so that's why you can't link tickets from JIRA.

    Thanks.

    0
  • Phil Preston

    To say "Zendesk tickets and JIRA should be linked in Zendesk" - that really depends on your workflows.  We use JIRA for project management and client on-boarding, and use Zendesk for support / change requests for our services.  Zendesk faces off to our customers and to internal groups (i.e. we eat our own dog food, and we use the same interface for customers and internal).  The client on-boarding workflow includes requesting certain services via Zendesk.

    Given the JIRA side of the plugin can show Zendesk data, based on a association it has to look up from Zendesk, then it can retrieve the data. It surely isn't that complex to give it a value (i.e. Zendesk ticket id)  to use to retrieve data, rather than a lookup from Zendesk?

    If not - If there was an API call to set the JIRA ticket in Zendesk programatically - I could also use that.

    Thanks

    Phil

    0
  • Daniel Groves

    Any news on implementing JIRA ticket IDs through to custom fields in Zendesk?

    We are desperate for this and so are are having to manually enter them in :/

     

    2
  • Yuri Mylis
    • Edited
    Zendesk Product Manager

    I have several exciting feature announcements to make.

    1. We've added support for syncing of the JIRA issue key! This means that keys of linked issues can be synced to the Support ticket. This is done by creating a custom "single line text" field and using the Field Sync feature to populate it. https://cl.ly/1A1K1s3Z2v2h

    You can use this feature to create a view with the issue keys. https://cl.ly/2q1G1b3n1l1h

    There are several edge case where the issue key won't be synced: JIRA project renaming, project deletion and issue deletion. These will be handled later on. 

    2. There is a slick new JIRA app in early access program that you can sign up for. Read more.

    3. We can now automatically add the last JIRA issue comment to linked Support tickets by using the JIRA workflow integration

    4. In Support, when copying the last comment to the issue creation form; it will now be appended to the existing text instead of overwriting it.

     

    0

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