Using the Issue Navigator

The Issue Navigator provides convenient ways to perform many of JIRA's most useful functions. You can:

• Use the 'Actions' icon menu for a particular issue to quickly perform the following actions:
  • Start Progress — Set the issue's Status to In Progress.
  • Resolve issue — Set the issue's Status to Resolved and select the appropriate Resolution.
  • Close issue — Set the issue's Status to Closed and if the issue has not already been Resolved, select the appropriate Resolution.
  • Reopen issue — Set a Resolved or Closed issue's Status to Reopened.
  • Edit — Edit the issue's details (Summary, Description, etc).
  • Assign — Select an asignee for the issue.
  • Assign To Me — Assign the issue to yourself.
  • Comment — Add a comment to the issue.
  • Log Work — Record the work done and time spent on the issue. This option is only available if Time Tracking has been activated on your JIRA site.
  • Attach Files — Select a file, upload it and attach it to the issue.
  • Attach Screenshot — Select a file, upload it and attach it to the issue.
  • Voters — Opens the Voters list of the issue, where you can manage your vote and see others who have voted on the issue too.
  • Add Vote — Adds your vote to the issue. (This option is only available if you did not create the issue.)
  • Watch Issue — Become a watcher of the issue.
  • Stop Watching — Stop watching the issue. (This option is only available on issues you are currently watching.)
  • Watchers — Opens the Watchers List, where you can manage watchers of the issue.
  • Create Sub-Task — Create a new issue which is a sub-task of the issue.
  • Convert to Issue — If the issue is a sub-task, convert it to a standalone issue.
  • Convert to Sub-Task — If the issue is a standalone issue, convert it to a sub-task.
  • Move — Move the issue to a different project.
  • Link — Create a link between the issue and another issue. This option is only available if Issue Linking has been enabled on your JIRA site.
  • Clone — Create a new issue which is an identical copy of the issue.
  • Labels — Edit the issue's labels.
  • Delete — Permanently remove the issue.

  Note that some options in the Actions menu will only be available if you have the necessary permissions, or if certain features have been enabled by your JIRA administrator. Options which change an issue's Status (Resolve issue, Close issue, Reopen issue) may differ from this list, depending on your organisation's workflow.

• Use the 'Views' menu to view/export your search results in various formats:
  • Printable — All search results on one page, with one row of data per issue. Includes the issue fields that are currently configured in your Issue Navigator.
  • Full Content — All search results on one page. Includes Description, Comments and all other issue data, not just the issue fields that are currently configured in your Issue Navigator.
  • XML — An XML view of issue data, suitable for use with the Confluence JIRA Issues Macro. (Also suitable for use as an RSS 0.9.2 feed). For details, see 'Displaying Search Results in XML'.
  • RSS (Issues) — An RSS 2.0 feed of issue data, suitable for displaying in an RSS reader. For details, see 'Receiving Search Results via RSS'.
  • RSS (Comments) — An RSS 2.0 feed of comments on the issues, suitable for displaying in an RSS reader. For details, see 'Receiving Search Results via RSS'.
  • Word — An MS Word document. Includes Description, Comments and all other issue data, not just the issue fields that are currently configured in your Issue Navigator. Can be saved and/or edited. For details, see 'Exporting Search Results to Microsoft Word'.
  • Excel (All fields) — An MS Excel spreadsheet. Includes Description and all other issue data (excluding comments). Can be saved, or edited to produce graphs and charts; also useful for basic reporting and statistics. For details, see 'Exporting Search Results to Microsoft Excel'.
  • Excel (Current fields) — An MS Excel spreadsheet containing the issue fields that are currently configured in your Issue Navigator. Can be saved, or edited to produce graphs and charts; also useful for basic reporting and statistics. For details, see 'Exporting Search Results to Microsoft Excel'.
  • Charts — A graphical summary of the search results, which can be saved as a dashboard gadget. For details, see 'Displaying Search Results as a Chart'.
  • On Dashboard — A gadget on your dashboard. You will be prompted to:
    • select which gadget to use: Filter Results; Average Age Chart; Created vs Resolved Chart; Heat Map; Pie Chart; Recently Created Chart; Resolution Time; or Time Since Chart.
    • name the filter which the search results will be saved as.
    • choose which dashboard the gadget will be saved to, if you have created your own dashboards (if you have not, the gadget will be saved to a new dashboard which will be a copy of the default dashboard).
• Use the 'j' and 'k' keys on your keyboard to move between issues on the Issue Navigator. They currently selected issue is depicted by an arrow pointer on the left of the list and any 'Issue Navigator' keyboard shortcuts will be performed on this issue.
• Use the 'Tools' menu to:
  • Bulk Change — You can move, edit or delete multiple issues at once as described in 'Modifying Multiple ('Bulk') Issues'. (Note that this option will only be available if you have been given the necessary permission.)
  • Configure Columns — You can add, remove and re-order columns as described in 'Customising your Issue Navigator'.
• Click the 'permalink' icon to create a permanent URL link to your search results.

Re-ordering the search results

When viewing search results in the Issue Navigator, you can re-order the issues by clicking on the column header*. For example, if you click the 'Reporter' column header, the Issue Navigator will re-display the issues in ascending order of reporter's name. If you click the 'Reporter' column header a second time, the Issue Navigator will re-display the issues in descending order of reporter's name.

* With some exceptions, e.g. the 'Images' column and the sub-task aggregate columns (i.e. all columns beginning with '∑') are non-orderable.

To choose different fields to display in your Issue Navigator, see Customising your Issue Navigator.

If you are performing an advanced search, re-ordering issues in the Issue Navigator adds an 'ORDER BY' keyword and associated content to your JQL query (or modifies any existing 'ORDER BY' content), to reflect the order of issues in your search results. This comes in useful if you need to save searches for other purposes.

Viewing individual issues

When an issue from a search result set is selected and displayed, a mini-navigator is shown at the right of the issue's title bar:

This mini-navigator indicates the current issue's position within the result set. It also provides linked arrow icons to the previous and next issues in the result set (as shown in the image above), along with a 'Return to search' link that leads you back to the search results. You can also navigate through the search results by using the shortcut keys: 'p' (previous) and 'n' (next).

Accessing protected data

1. To enable access to data without logging in, your JIRA administrator may specify the 'Browse' permission for Anyone.
2. You can provide the parameters os_username and os_password in the request URL (e.g. http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/TST-1?os_username=tester&os_password=tstpassword). The problem with this method is that it transmits your username and password across the wire in clear text, which may not be an option for some users.
3. You can provide the request parameter os_authType=basic (e.g. http://mycompany.com/anypage?os_authType=basic). This will force the server to issue a challenge for user credentials (i.e. a login prompt) via the basic http authentication protocol. If you are running over SSL, you still need to specify the os_authType=basic parameter if you require the user to authenticate.