JIRA 4 Webinar Q&A

Can one become an authorized/certified JIRA consultant?

• We have a great partner network at that you can look into at http://www.atlassian.com/about/partner.

Is JIRA 4 available in other languages (French in my case)?

• Yes, JIRA ships with a number of languages built in; you can select the default for the system and each user can select their own as well. French, Spanish, German, etc.

Can we search worklogs?

• You can search for time spent on an issue, and estimated time left to complete it.

Can you automatic mail a dashboard towards multiple people, using it as a reporting tool?

• There is not a tool included with JIRA that will allow you to send your dashboard to other users, however you can share your dashboard (make sure to share any filters used in it as well) and tell your friends/colleagues to search for it in JIRA. We use this internally all the time!

Overall question: why did the focus go from addressing bugs and requested functionality into changing portlets to gadgets?

• Gadgets didn't change the focus of JIRA, they allow for a better way to consume info and make JIRA a hub for your development. We closed 3 of the 10 most requested issues with this release so we haven't lost focus on that.

Ctrl+C is a hotkey in Jira now, but what happens to the standard copy/paste shortcuts?

• The demo was done on a mac where apple-c copies and apple-v pastes, so ctrl-c is free. Check out http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Using+Keyboard+Shortcuts for the full list of keyboard shortcuts for different browsers and OS's.

The sandbox doesn't seem to be compatible with IE6. Is this a known issue?

• Yes - the interactive tours are not compatible with IE7 or earlier. However, anyone with a browser can view the content of the sandbox, just not the tours.

Where can we find a demo on JIRA 4 in case we need to show it to other people to be aware of new features, enhancements, etc...?

• Check out http://sandbox.onjira.com, or the overview video. You could also point people towards the JIRA product page on our website.

Is there any cost for the training courses?

• We have training available for JIRA (and Confluence) - to see pricing and options please go to http://www.atlassian.com/training/.

I hear the voice of Micky Mouse ... can't understand a word.

• Sorry! This is a known issue for some people with the software we used for the webinar. If you'd like to hear the content again, you can get the recorded version here.

What are the canned charts you get?

• There are about 8 - includes Resolved vs Created issues, Pie chart with assignable field value, and more - see them all here: http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Displaying+Search+Results+as+a+Chart.

Is there administrator documentation and training?

• We have an administrator guide available at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/JIRA+Administrator%27s+Guide. We also have training available for administrators at http://www.atlassian.com/training.

*We are using mysql for our JIRA 3.13, will custom fields created in this database will these be migrated to Jira 4.0 DB?

A: Yes that is supported.

Is there a direct migration path from X to 4.0, or do we have to go release by release?

• JIRA 3.7 and newer are supported for direct migration to JIRA 4. For any older version of JIRA, you will need to first get to 3.7 or later to upgrade to 4.

What are votes???

• Voting is a functionality that allows JIRA users to cast a vote on an issue they would like to see resolved. We watch the number of votes on issues in http://jira.atlassian.com to determine what our users would most like to see changed in the product.

Can the charts be filtered down to a particular fix version of a project?

• The charts that you place on your dashboard require you to input a project or filter. If you'd like, you can create a filter that only includes a certain fixversion value and display that filter as a chart. You're only limited by the filters you create!

Can you hide activity stream by user group (e.g. to reduce clutter for customers)?

• The activity stream that you can place on your dashboard can be configured to only show activity from a list of specified users, and you can also limit it to any number of projects or a filter you've created. If you're interested in having one activity stream show different updates to different groups of people, the only way to accomplish this would be to configure the issue level security in your instance of JIRA. If you wanted to pursue this, you could choose to set the issue security level of issues you don't want to show up on customer activity streams to a level which that group of JIRA users does not have access to.

Can you resize gadgets within the dashboard?

• You are able to choose from 5 different dashboard layouts, which will change the general shape of your gadget columns, effectively changing the sizes of your gadgets.

Can you set up different workflows and issue types for different projects?

• Yes and yes.

Is there any way to prevent certain group(s) to access to fields and comments posted by certain group of people?

• This is possible for comments, but you can not set field level security.

Is it possible to customise the contents of the Project > Summary tab?

• No that is not possible. You can, however, create a custom dashboard for a project and put any information you'd like there.

I have a question about security levels, can I have a security level for an issue and another one different for its subtask?

• No, this is not possible, the subtask inherits its security level from the parent issue and can not be changed. Changing the parent issue's security level will also change the subtask's level accordingly.

With the new pricing- if maintenance is not renewed (for a variety of reasons) will JIRA 4.0 stop working or is it just that update/support will stop?

• If you do not renew, your instance will still function, but you will not be able to access support or new versions of the product released after your maintenance has expired.

How do you define users? We have 14 people who work in JIRA but let 150 more people pass requests into Jira via a SharePoint form. Do we need a license for 164 people?

• A user is someone who can log in to the system. If all those SP users are submitting users anonymously, you'll be fine. If they each have their own account, then you'll need 164.

Is there a cost to upgrade to JIRA 4 if we already have a license for JIRA 3?

• If your JIRA license is under active maintenance, you can move to JIRA 4 at no additional cost.

How does an existing enterprise license convert to a user license?

• When you go through the process to upgrade your license, you will have to choose which user tier you wish to upgrade to. See the pricing FAQ for more information.

What is the pricing in JIRA 4 and GreenHopper 4 for non-profit companies?

• We offer free Community licenses for non-profits. Application is here.

If we have a previous license that we let expire...and our team is very small...can we purchase the starter license and migrate our old install into the new?

• Yes, you can do that.

Will my current license key work with JIRA 4?

• No, you'll need a JIRA 4 compatible license key. You need to login to your Atlassian account online @ http://www.atlassian.com/my. If you are under active maintenance, upgrading your license to a JIRA 4 license will not cost you anything. You'll be able to select a version of JIRA 4 based on the number of users that you have.

We use JIRA internally with about 20 users, but we allow the emails coming in from clients to automatically generate a ticket for them. This is configured to auto generate a user for that person, but they are never able to login to the system. This is used so that emails are returned to them. With the pricing model is there a setup that allows 'internal' users and 'external' or non users to be in the system without having to buy 100+?

• Given the pricing model, there is not currently support for an internal/external user as you describe.

Will upgrading (say from multiple versions back) require to upgrade first to the the next immediate version and so on until you finally get to 4.1 version?

• Any version of JIRA including 3.7 or newer can upgrade directly to 4.0. Anything prior to 3.7 will have to be done individually.

Can I use inverted queries? e.g select all tickets I did not write instead of selecting all users but me?

• Yes you can do this. You can use the operator '!=' to denote "does not equal". For example, 'reporter != me'.

Can I also use "not" queries in the simple search mode, or only with JQL?

• That's only available with JQL.

Can you search for number of hours worked on an issue by a particular developer?

• You can generate a report that displays individual user workload in the browse project space. You can not search for work logged by a particular user in JQL, you can only search for timespent (cumulative), timeestimate, and timeoriginalestimate.

Can you use JQL in the Quick Search box?

• No, this is not possible. You can only use the existing smart query shortcuts in this box.

Can I save/download the result set from a JQL search?

• You can save the JQL query as a filter which you can then use to produce updated results whenever it is run. You can also export the exact search results you see on your screen to Excel, Word or XML format.

Is JQL only available in English? Or does it support local language settings?

• You can search for issue fields regardless of language, but JQL operators are available in English only.

Are previous ways to build filters still available?

A: Yes - simple search is still available.

Did you improve the speed of GreenHopper?

• GreenHopper now pulls its data using JQL, rather than querying JIRA's database directly, which has significantly improved its speed.

Does GreenHopper ship with JIRA 4 or do you have to purchase it separately?

• You can purchase JIRA 4 and GreenHopper together, but you will have to pay an additional cost to include GreenHopper.

Will we see our CVS commit in the activity streams?

• Yes, for the project, issue, and user activity streams, you'll see commits associated with the issue key.

Is it possible to integrate JIRA 4 with an existing SVN repository?

• There is a plugin that can accomplish this, or alternatively you can use Atlassian FishEye to connect to the SVN repository and integrate your FishEye and JIRA instances.

Are those top right shortcuts for "most frequently used activity (e.g. bug/task)" per-user, or for total users?

• Those shortcuts are specific to each user, and they display issue types that the user most frequently creates within the current project.

Can GreenHopper handle multiple projects? That's the reason we can not use it since we have issues from different projects in the same sprint. We produce a product and we use one project per customer.

• No, GreenHopper can only display issues in one project at a time, and the sprints/iterations are tied to project versions, which can not be shared between projects.