Skip to content

UserDoc:ImportIteration

Jump to bottom
marc-hughes edited this page Jan 8, 2011 · 2 revisions

Iteration Import / Export

Each iteration and the backlog has an export and an import option. These can be used for a couple different workflows.

Common work flows

The import/export mechanism allows you to perform a couple common work flows.

Bulk creating new stories

If you want to import a bunch of stories from another project, or another system into this one, the import/export mechanism can help you.

  1. Export the iteration.
  2. Open the export file. Delete all the existing stories from it so they're not modified later when you import.
  3. Paste in new data for the stories you want to import. Make sure to leave the Story ID field blank!
  4. Import the file

Check Out / Check In

Sometimes, one wishes to check out an iteration, work on it in an external tool (Such as Microsoft Excel), and then check in those changes. To do that:

  1. Export the iteration. Make sure to select the "Lock Iteration" option.
  2. Now, nobody else can edit the stories in that iteration without unlocking it.
  3. Edit the export (Excel sheet, XML file, or CSV file)
  4. Go to the iteration and import your file, select the "Unlock Iteration" option
  5. Now, your updates should appear in the stories of that iteration.

Integrating with other systems

With some programming know-how you can use the import/export mechanism to create a one or two way synchronization with an external system.

Tips

  • Got more data to import than fits in the columns? Turn on custom fields in the project admin options.
  • When exporting, you can specify that the iteration should be locked, so that nobody else can edit it.
  • If you wish to add a new story, leave the Story ID column blank. One will be generated for you upon import.
  • If you wish to move a story from another iteration to this one, you can fill in the Story ID of that story along with all of the fields for that story. (Usually, by copy and pasting it from a different export file) Make sure to copy all the fields or they'll get imported as blank!
  • You can not delete stories using this mechanism. If you delete a line from the export file, that story will not be deleted.
  • Text formatting is not currently preserved from MS Excel, stick to plain text.
  • Line breaks don't current get preserved in the XML format.
  • The status column should be one of the following:
    • TODO
    • In Progress
    • Reviewing
    • Done
  • The rank column is in ascending order. So rank #1 will be at the top of your iteration after importing. You can skip numbers if you like.
  • The assignee column requires either the user name of a person or to be blank.
  • When importing, if there are any errors, only the rows with problems aren't imported.
Clone this wiki locally