Summary

This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to export all attachments from a single project in Jira Cloud by leveraging the Jira REST API. This method can be performed directly through API calls.

Diagnosis

You need to download all attachments from issues within a specific project in Jira Cloud. This task can be accomplished using the Jira REST API.

Cause

There is no direct functionality in Jira Cloud's UI to export all attachments from a project. However, the REST API provides a way to retrieve and download these attachments programmatically.

Solution

1. Generate an API Token

   • Visit Atlassian's API token management page to generate an API token. You will use this token for authentication purposes. 

2. Prepare the API Request to Retrieve Issues with Attachments

   • Permissions required: Issues are included in the response where the user has:

     • Browse projects project permission for the project containing the issue.
     • If issue-level security is configured, issue-level security permission to view the issue.

   • You will need to make a POST request to the Jira REST API to search for issues with attachments. Use the following endpoint and payload:

     POST https://<your-domain>.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/search
     
     
     {
     "jql": "project = <your-project-key> AND NOT attachments is EMPTY",
     "startAt": 0,
     "maxResults": 100,
     "fields": ["attachment"],
     "fieldsByKeys": false
     }

   • Replace <your-domain> with your Jira Cloud domain and <your-project-key> with the key of your project.  

3. Make the API Request

   • You can use tools like Postman to make this request, or use curl in the terminal. Here is an example using curl:

     curl -sL --request POST \
       --user "email@example.com:your-api-token" \
       --header 'Accept: application/json' \
       --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
       --url "https://<your-domain>.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/search" \   
       --data '{
          "jql": "project = <your-project-key> AND NOT attachments is EMPTY",
          "startAt": 0,
          "maxResults": 100,
          "fields": ["attachment"],
          "fieldsByKeys": false
        }'

   • This command will return a JSON response containing the issues with attachments.
4. Parse the JSON Response to Extract Attachment URLs - If using a command-line tool, you can parse the JSON response using `jq` to extract the attachment URLs and their corresponding issue keys. Here’s a sample command to achieve this:

   • curl -sL --request POST \
       --user "email@example.com:your-api-token" \
       --header 'Accept: application/json' \
       --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
       --url "https://<your-domain>.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/search" \   
       --data '{
          "jql": "project = <your-project-key> AND NOT attachments is EMPTY",
          "startAt": 0,
          "maxResults": 100,
          "fields": ["attachment"],
          "fieldsByKeys": false
        }' \
     | jq -r '.issues[] | {key,attachment:.fields.attachment[]} | [.key, .attachment.content, .attachment.filename] | join(" ")'
     
     

   • This command will output lines containing the issue key, attachment URL, and filename for each attachment.
5. Download the Attachments - Once you have the attachment URLs, you can download them using another `curl` command or a similar tool. Here’s an example `curl` command to download an attachment:

   • curl -L --create-dirs --user "email@example.com:your-api-token" --url "<attachment-url>" --output "<issue-key>/<filename>"

By following these steps, you can efficiently export all attachments from a specific project in Jira Cloud using the REST API.

References

1. Basic auth for REST APIs
2. Search for issues using JQL
3. https://stedolan.github.io/jq/