Backlog offers bulk issue registration via Google Sheets function that helps users group issues or tasks in bulk and adds them all at once on Backlog. It also maximizes your team productivity, which saves the user valuable time and effort.
This is useful for organizations or users in the following scenarios:
- When similar or fixed issues are required to be raised across different projects.
- When there are recurring tasks to be registered.
Did you know?
- This function is available across all Backlog plans.
- Bulk issue registration only works with Google Sheets.
How to register bulk issue via Google Sheets
To register bulk issues via google sheets, you will need to get your API set up in the Personal Settings first. The API key needed to be input to acquire data from Backlog and to execute the bulk issue registration.
To access the bulk issue registration function:
- Go to Project Settings > Integrations > select Details for Bulk issue registration.
- It will open you to a Github page with a written up complete guide on how you can register your bulk issue via Google Sheets. Simply follow the guide or the steps below to start registering your issues in bulk.
Open spreadsheet
- Select Copy spreadsheet, and it will redirect you to the Copy document page.
*If you are not logged in to your Google Account, it will prompt you to the Sign-in page.
Useful tip!
You can log in with your personal Google Account. The login account does not require to be similar to your Backlog login account. - Select Make a copy and it will redirect to a Google spreadsheet with a prefilled data.
*In this step, please do not delete or input any details on the spreadsheet until acquired data from Backlog. - After opening the spreadsheet, a menu function called “Backlog” will be reflected on the spreadsheet menu. Select Backlog.
*It will take around 10 seconds for the “Backlog” function menu to reflect after opening the spreadsheet.
Authorization approval and acquire data
- Select STEP 1: Acquire data from Backlog to get authorization approval to use Google Sheets with Backlog.
- Authorization required: Continue
- Choose an account: select your Gmail account
- Authorization (permission) to access your Google Account: Allow - After authorization approval, go to the spreadsheet and select STEP 1: Acquire data from Backlog again to acquire data from the project in Backlog.
- A dialog will prompt acquiring the information below to allow the spreadsheet to fetch the data from Backlog.
- Your Backlog Space ID.
- Backlog API key. Create/copy an API key in your personal settings. For details, refer to the Register SSH public key or API key support article.
- Backlog Project key of the project that issues will be registered to. - Select Execute. Upon successful execution, a completion popup - “Acquired definitions from Backlog” will appear in the spreadsheet’s lower right.
Useful tip!
To confirm whether it has successfully acquired data from Backlog, you can select issue properties that have been created in the project such as issue type, category, assignee and etc.
Fill in the spreadsheet
After acquiring data from Backlog, you can fill in the issue you want to add to the project. Based on the template, you can rewrite the spreadsheet’s issue contents with the information you wish to register.
Did you know?
- You can rewrite issue contents but do not delete or change the header (first row) of the document that contains the Project fields (properties) or the registration will cause an error.
- “Subject” and “Issue Type” are necessary to be filled in to register an issue.
Important notes while inputting the details.
- Specifying parent issue
If you wish to specify a parent issue that has registered in Backlog, enter the parent issue key on the Parent Issue tab.
If you are registering a new parent and subtask within the spreadsheet, use * to indicate a subtask on the Parent Issue tab. This will set the previous issue as the parent issue. - Custom field
If the administrator or project administrator has created customed fields in the project, these custom fields will be added as light blue columns when acquiring data from the project.
Did you know?
- Custom fields feature available to Premium plan and above.
- Multiple selection custom fields are not able to be acquired to the spreadsheet.
- Radio button custom fields cannot be acquired to the spreadsheet.
Execute bulk issue registration
After inputting all the details, you can start to execute bulk issue registration.
- Go to the spreadsheet function menu and select Backlog > STEP 2: Execute bulk issue registration.
- A dialog will prompt acquiring similar information when performing “STEP 1: Acquire data from Backlog” and details will be prefilled accordingly. Select Execute.
- Successfully registered issues will be reflected in the newly created spreadsheet with the issue key and issue subject details.
Reusing the spreadsheet
If there are no changes in the project’s properties (eg: issue type, assignee, etc), you can reuse back the spreadsheet to input your new issue and start from “STEP 2: Execute bulk issue registration”.
If the administrator or project administrator added or updated the project’s properties, you will need to re-acquire data from Backlog, starting from “STEP 1: Acquire data from Backlog”.
Limitations
Below are the limitations of using bulk issue registration.
- If the administrator has set access control to the IP address in Backlog, this tool cannot be used.
- Version or milestone data will not be acquired from Backlog if the “Not shown on Project Home” settings have been set in the project settings.
- The maximum number of property data (eg: issue type, category, etc) that can be fetched is 500 per field.