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.
This article covers the following topics:
- Using the integration in Zendesk Support
- Using the integration in Jira
- Commenting and comment sharing
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
- In Zendesk Support, go to the ticket you want to use as a basis for a new Jira issue.
- 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.
- 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.
- Enter the details about the issue.
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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.
- Select the reporter for the issue. By default, the reporter is set to the last reporter that was selected when an issue was created in this browser. 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 to this form. For information, see Adding fields to the Jira app in Zendesk Support.
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- (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.
- 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
- In Zendesk, go to the ticket you'd like to link to a Jira issue.
The ticket must be an existing ticket. If you are creating a new ticket, you'll need to save it first.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- Click the Admin icon in the upper-right side of the Jira app next to the ticket.
- Select the information you want to display in the summary and details views.
You can add pre-existing or custom Jira fields to these views. See Jira custom field type compatibility for a list of custom Jira fields that are compatible with the Jira app.
- 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_escalated tag is added by default to the ticket, and an identical jira_escalated 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
- Add a tag with a jira_ prefix in the Tags field in the ticket's left sidebar:
- Update the ticket by clicking Submit.
The new label appears in the Details section of the issue in Jira when the issue is accessed through a browser. The label shows as being added by the Jira user who opened the issue in the browser.
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
- 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.
- 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
- Navigate to the issue in Jira. In the sidebar under Zendesk Support, the number of linked tickets is displayed.
- Double-click on Linked Tickets to open the linked tickets page.
- If more than one ticket is linked to the issue, click the accordion to expand the
ticket details.
- 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:
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Adding a comment to linked Zendesk Support tickets from a Jira issue
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Notifying Jira issue watchers when there are new comments on linked Zendesk tickets
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Adding the reporter as a watcher when creating a new Jira issue
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Adding the current agent as a watcher when linking Jira issues
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Displaying when the most recent comment was added to either account
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
- Click the Notify button in the Jira app next to the ticket.
- Enter the comment you want to add to the issue in Jira.
- To save typing, you can transfer the last comment made on the ticket by clicking Copy the last comment.
- Any attachments in ticket comments are shown under Attachments. Click on the attachment to add it to the note.
- Click Notify issues. The note is added to the Activity section in the Jira issue.
- 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
- Navigate to the Jira issue, and in the Activity drop-down list,
select Zendesk Support.
- In the Ticket drop-down list, select the Support ticket.
- Enter your comment. Select the Make public reply checkbox to make a public comment.
- Click Add comment.
To add a comment to all linked tickets in the Activity section
- Navigate to the linked issue in Jira, and in the Activity drop-down list, select Zendesk Support.
- Enter your comment, select the Add for all tickets checkbox, and click Save.
To add a comment to all linked tickets in the sidebar
- In the sidebar under Zendesk Support, double-click on Linked Tickets. The linked ticket page opens.
- Click Add comments to linked tickets, which opens a page.
- Enter your comment and click Send.
To make all comments private
- In the Jira top nav bar, select More >Apps > Manage your apps.
- Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
- In the Settings > Other options section, select the Disable all public comments to Zendesk checkbox.
- Click Save.
Notifying Jira issue watchers when there are new comments on linked Zendesk tickets
Users watching a Jira issue with linked Zendesk tickets can receive a notification email from Jira when public comments are added to linked tickets.
To enable comment notifications
- In the Jira top navigation bar, select More > Apps > Manage your apps.
- Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
- In the Settings > Other options section, select the Send email notification to issue watchers when comments are added to linked tickets checkbox.
- 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:
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The story has been updated (such as the description)
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The status changes (assigned, closed)
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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
- In the Jira top nav bar, select More > Apps > Manage your apps.
- Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
- In the Settings > Zendesk Support ticket fields section, select the Last Commented checkbox
- Click Save.
140 comments
Vitor Oliveira
Hi team,
I have a Project that is already on the Allowed Projects list. but is now showing up the "Zendesk Support" tab inside the issue on Jira.
0
Dror Sabbag
Any chance to escalate the ZD issue to a new Jira ticket by using Macro?
I wish to enable a quick Macro for the agent to escalate the ticket to Jira.
1
Ekaterina Sumolaynina
Vitor Oliveira it is expected for Zendesk Support tab to be visible inside JIRA issue. You are able to leave comments from JIRA to Zendesk by clicking on this tab.
0
Ekaterina Sumolaynina
Dror Sabbag unfortunately, at the moment it's not possible to link ZD ticket to already existing JIRA issue or create a completely new issue in JIRA via macro. Your agents would need to use JIRA app for this in the apps sidebar in Zendesk.
0
IT Bot
We´ve installed the Integration and limited access to only two Projects in Jira. From time to time the restrictions made by us reset and in Zendesk are all Jira Projects available to choose.
Anyone had this behavior before?
0
Sean Bourke
Hi IT Bot,
This is not an expected behaviour - I've raised a ticket on your behalf which we can use to investigate this further.
1
Yaroslav Tarlekov
Hello,
I have made the integration and I am able to raise a ticket in Jira Cloud from ZD, but the Zendesk Support tab is missing in Jira. Do you know what could be the problem?
0
Sean Bourke
Hi Yaroslav Tarlekov,
Are you currently using Team-Managed or Company-Managed projects? In some circumstances, a Team Managed project may not initially display the Zendesk Support Tab, however a Company-Managed Project will. Once you've set up the integration with a Company-Managed project, it will usually display in all subsequent projects.
0
Yaroslav Tarlekov
Hi @...,
The integration has been made with a Company-managed project.
0
Pippa
Hi
I wanted to know if there is any update to this article
(see comments below from Yaniv Dayan)
Because it states that for the integration to work the ticket must remain open, but I did some testing and it seems to work if I closed the ticket in Zendesk.
For example, if I have a ticket in Zendesk open and I created a card for this ticket in jira using the integration, and I then later closed that same Zendesk ticket but still have the jira card open, when the person updates the jira card the updates are still noticeable in Zendesk even if that ticket is closed, however I can see that the ticket assignee holder in Zendesk receives a prompt about the update, is there a way I can do that?
Also have you got a solution for duplicates? say a support member wants to send the issue to ira but doesn't know if that issue in jira already exists? how can the support agent find out so as to not create a duplicate jira card?
0
Yaniv Dayan
Hi Pippa
Till ZD will find a solution (probably never) we decided that Tickets with a Jira issue will be submitted as On-Hold and not as Solved. Only after the Jira issue is fixed and an announcement is sent to the ZD ticket, we submit the ticket as Solved.
We also created a trigger that if a Jira tag exists and status = Pending for 26 days, change the ticket status to On-Hold (before and to prevent auto Close and lock).
I hope this could help you.
2
Sean Bourke
Hi Pippa,
If a ticket is in a Solved state, then the Jira integration will still be able to perform an update on that ticket. Once it enters a Closed state, it is locked and can no longer be updated by an agent or the Jira integration.
As Yaniv Dayan has noted, you can utilise trigger/automations to prevent this from occurring. For example, you can update the existing Solved > Closed automation to exclude tickets with a jira_escalated tag and instead perform a different behaviour; or you can catch and update these tickets prior to them the conditions which will result in a closed state.
With regards to duplicates, there are a few ways this can be approached. If you are using problem and incident tickets, you can associate the Jira issue with the problem ticket and contain the hierarchy of associated incident tickets within Zendesk. Alternatively, the ticket search function in the Jira Sidebar App supports JQL, so you can further filter the issue you're looking for in Jira.
2
Yaniv Dayan
Hi @..., Still, it could have been nice if the Jira integration could create a follow-up ticket for closed & locked tickets. Sometimes it takes years till the Jira issue is solved, and this means many tickets stay "on-hold" for a very long time.
1
Pippa
thank you @... and Yaniv Dayan! I also wanted to know regarding the "duplicate" issue, if there is a limit to how many zendesk tickets you can link to an already existing Jira card?
For example, I have 10 zendesk tickets that have come in reporting a login bug, I have already opened a jira card called 505 login bug, can I use the "link issue" button an all 10 zendesk tickets? and is there a limit to how many I can link to one jira card?
thanks
0
Sean Bourke
Hey Pippa,
That's correct, you can link multiple Zendesk tickets to that Jira issue. A single Jira issue can be linked to up to 200 Zendesk Support tickets.
1
Mele G
Hello!
My team and I have been trying to configure a workflow wherein a new internal comment from JIRA will change their Zendesk ticket status from On-Hold to Open, or give them any other notification in Zendesk that there has been a new comment added. Is this possible?
Additionally, if our team in ZD could be notified of JIRA ticket status changes, that would be helpful too, but our main concern is internal comments. I wondered if adding Zendesk users as watchers might help this, but I cannot confirm.
2
Sean Bourke
Hi Mele G,
If you are using the dedicated integration user (Jira Integration), then all comments created from the Jira comments section will be posted as this user. Using this, you can establish a trigger when the Current User is Jira Integration and the ticket is On-Hold to change the ticket status, or to provide a notification from Zendesk.
Regarding Jira ticket status changes, these can be established in Jira workflows for the workflow change events where you want to notify Zendesk. When a ticket moves to a new workflow state, you can provide a comment and change the Zendesk ticket status to reflect the behaviour which has occurred (i.e. a Jira ticket is closed, so the Zendesk ticket is updated to solved). If using this functionality in conjunction with the above trigger suggestion, you may have to make your trigger conditions more explicit - such as including a specific phrase in the Jira workflow update comment and adding a trigger condition Comment Text does not contain (term defined in Jira workflow update).
1
Mike Toole
Is it possible to change the label "jira_escalated" to maybe something like "jira_linked"?
There are scenarios where a linked Zendesk ticket may be something other than an escalation, like a feature request or just feedback. Using the word escalated implies prioritization and can be confusing for our Jira users.
0
Alex sale
Hi All,
Does any of you had a case when you needed to create Jira ticket automatically. So when end-user/costumer raise a ticket in ZD, that ticket to be created and linked in Jira.
BR,
Alex
1
Heather Rommel
YES. And it seems the integration doesn't do that but I wish it did! I put some heads together on this and we think you'll need a middleware like Workato or Zapier to do it.
0
Pippa
Also for the attachments, it would be great that when we click on "create issue" and get the screen pop up to enter the information to be able to attach from their a video or screenshot.
Or in the description box again once clicked on "create issue", in that field to be able to paste pictures.
Currently if a support member in zendesk needs to create a ticket in Jira, then like to do a summary of the issue by writing up each reproduced step of a bug with supporting screenshots, so would be useful if they could write that up on the description field after clicking on "create issue"
1
Viktor Hristovski
Hello - we have this integration setup and it works pretty well . Just one thing, when creating a new issue from Zendesk, we can select a project but some of them are missing. WE have 150 projects in Jira, and in Zendesk it shows 106 (of which 6 are in the archived projects in jira). Could there be a limitation to show only 100 projects?
1
Sean Bourke
Hi Pippa,
Thank you for your feedback, I've recorded this for future consideration.
At the moment, the integration supports the ability to share/attach any existing attachments from within the Zendesk ticket, however this will create a link back to the Zendesk attachment. Any attachments within the Zendesk ticket will also be available to view from within the Zendesk Support tab in Jira; so any additional information (i.e. screenshots, HAR files, etc.) are available to view from here within Jira.
1
Sean Bourke
Hi Viktor Hristovski,
Thanks for sharing this, we'll look into it. If possible, it may also be worthwhile checking the below, as project permissions can prevent visibility via the API.
If you visit the Permissions setting for these projects which are not appearing and compare them to others which are visible, do they have any variance in Browse Projects permissions?
If the OAuth User or
Project Role (atlassian-addons-project-access)
did not have permission to Browse Project, they will not be able to see it listed within the Create Issue modal, or in the Issue Search.1
Viktor Hristovski
Hi @...,
they have the same permissions (the ones showing and not showing)
1
Viktor Hristovski
@... we are using a permission scheme and they all have it. I have manually checked absolutely all settings on the projects (from the image) and they all match .
0
Sean Bourke
Thanks Viktor Hristovski,
I've raised a bug and we'll investigate further from our end.
0
Ahmed Esmat
Adding a ticket tag that starts with "jira_" also adds a label to the linked Jira issues. But how can it be removed from Jiras when removing it from the ticket?
0
Jerry Ishmael
Maybe this was mentioned before but I cannot find any details on the following:
How can I go about removing the label "jira_escalated" if a Jira has been unlinked in the integration or, there is no Jira linked?
0
Pippa
Hi, can we limit the project drop down list? so instead of showing all of the existing projects in jira, only showing a few of them?
0