In this article, we will see how to export the results obtained from a search in Jira. If you prefer, you can watch our video on this subject and subscribe to our Youtube channel to receive our tips on the Jira tool.
Export search results by email
To export the results of a search, the first option we have is to email a link to the search to allow other users to run the active filter.
The "Share" button opens a box in which you can specify a list of users and a small note to personalize the message. The recipients of the email can simply click on the link and access the filter results.
Export results in different formats
The "Export" button, as its name indicates, allows you to export the search results in different formats. I will not detail the list of possibilities but concentrate on the csv export which is the most used.
In any case, this is the export I see most often performed. You can choose to export all the columns or only the columns present on the screen. In general, it is this option that is used. I run the export and the file is retrieved. You can then open it with Excel or another tool like Numbers if you are on a Mac.
How to export more than 1000 Jira requests?
So be careful, you can't export more than 1000 Jira requests at a time in the standard configuration. If you need to export more than 1000 requests, you will have to do it in several times. There's really no easy way to do it. What I would suggest is to add an additional criteria. For example, if the project search has 1200 requests and I want to export them. I can try to do an initial search by adding a criterion on priorities (e.g. critical, blocking and major) and perform my export. Then, I do a new search by changing the priorities (e.g. minor and trivial) which I export. The trick is then to merge the 2 files produced.
Granted, this is not very practical. If you have recurring needs to export a lot of Jira data, this may not be the best way to go. In that case, you might want to consider accessing the requests via the API.
Exporting search results to Excel?
In older versions of Jira, you have an option to export to Excel. You should know that this functionality still exists but that it is deactivated by default. If you want to use it, ask your administrator. However, beware, Atlassian has removed it for two good reasons. First, the format of the generated Excel file was not in an optimal format. This is not serious in itself but it can generate remarks from users. Secondly, the Excel export operation is very resource intensive. Therefore, I advise you to use the CSV export which allows you to reuse the results of the search and rework them in Excel.
Other Jira export types
There are other types of export that are less used. For example, the "Printable" button allows you to format the list so that you can print it directly from your browser. The graphic button for the request table allows you to create a gadget of the "Search result" type that will be inserted into an existing dashboard. The Word format is similar to the printable format and allows you to have a list of all the requests one after the other in a document in Microsoft Word format.
I recommend that you do not abuse this feature too much. Once requests have been exported to a particular Excel file, the temptation is great for users to modify this file directly. So stay as much as possible in Jira and look for alternatives to exporting to external files.
You now know how to export your Jira search results. In the next article, we will see how to periodically receive the results of a Jira search.
