Maintaining sequence of project issues imported from CSV file with Agile Board ranking enabled

[Prem Mariappan]

A while ago I asked a similar question with Greenhopper. But if I understand correctly there have been some changes in this area with Agile Board Ranking.

We maintain CSV files of in sequence lists of standard issues that we import for each project. We also use an Agile Board with Ranking enabled, which handles multiple Projects.

The question is when we import issues into a project, how can we maintain the sequence of issues, keeping in mind that if we have multiple projects having a per project SortOrder field won't be sufficient. In any case, any ORDER BY clauses we include in the filter the Agile board is based on seems to be ignored. Eg ordering by 'key' doesn't take place:

category = "webapps" ORDER BY Rank ASC, Key ASC

I'm sure there is a way. At the moment, after importing, I'm having to manually reorder issues.

Thanks very much.
Prem.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Actually, you've kind of answered your own question here.

The answer you got to the import into Greenhopper still stands. But ranking is another matter.

The key to understanding this is understanding the ranking field. Effectively, the rank field is a number which is maintained relative to all the others around it. Every issue's rank field is different and hence unique, across your entire Jira database. When you import your issues, they are given a rank as though they were new. I don't know if you can import a rank with them, but I'd simply try a number mapped on to the rank field if you can.

The reason your search doesn't appear to sort is precisely because the rank is unique. There's no further sorting to be done because every result has a different rank. In other words, the sorting IS working, and every result you are getting IS being sorted by key after rank, but the sort by key is only ever working with a single result.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No, it's not random, it's the same as when you use "create issue". Goes to the bottom of the list I think.

There is a global rank, but I don't actually know if it's in any specific table, I've never looked!

[Prem Mariappan]

That's interesting Nic - so what then determines the 'Rank' of a freshly imported issue? Is the value randomly generated when issues are imported?

So in effect there must a global Rank table somewhere which maintains the relative order of issues?

[Prem Mariappan]

You'd assume that if each issue that's imported in order gets a Rank value that puts it at the bottom of the list, then the sequence/order would be maintained. However, with either filter listed below the issues are imported out of sequence

category = "webapps" ORDER BY Rank ASC

    or

category = "webapps" ORDER BY Rank ASC, Key ASC

I'll try seeding the Rank field in the CSV file with sequential values and post results shortly.

[Prem Mariappan]

UPDATE:

I added a "Ranking" field to the CSV file however when importing, I can't find the equivalent JIRA rank field to import this "Ranking" value into. Any ideas?

[Rahul Savaikar]

Hello Prem,

Same here - when I try to import the CSV with the "Rank" field, I do not see the equivalent "Rank" (Field Type: Global Rank) field in Jira. However, I can select the "Rank (Obsolete)" field which is not used anymore in the Agile templates.

Regards,

Rahul Savaikar

[Michelle Melancon]

Was there ever a solution for the CSV field mapping question?