In this section:

Viewing Issue Details

After you have created a connection to a remote JIRA server, you can navigate to and view issues from default queries located in the Navigation Area and your own queries (when you run any).
To view an issue:

  1. Double-click a query (marked with Query icon ) or a sub-query (marked with Sub-query icon ) in the Navigation Area.
  2. Select an issue in the Issues Table and view its details in the Issue details area.

Creating Issues

To create a new issue:

  1. Click the New issue button on the toolbar.
    This will open the New Issue - JIRA Client dialog.

    The view of the dialog and the list of available options may vary depending on custom fields specified in JIRA's settings.

  2. Type the issue summary.
  3. Select desired options and fill in desired fields.
  4. Click Save & Upload button to upload an issue to remote JIRA server immediately or Save to defer the upload and keep your modifications in the Outbox folder.

    In latter case your changes are stored in the Outbox folder and will be synchronized when you do it explicitly.

Creating Sub-Tasks

Sub-tasks are intended to divide a "parent issue" into several tasks which you can assign or monitor separately. You may want to create sub-tasks when adding some complex issue which requires much effort and different activities. The responsible person can have a better overview of the issue and track its progress.

Before creating a sub-task, make sure such possibility is enabled in JIRA server settings of a particular project. Otherwise, the Create Sub-Task button is disabled.

To create a sub-task:

  1. Navigate to the issue for which you want to create a sub-task and click the New Sub-Task button on the toolbar.
    This will open the New Issue - JIRA Client dialog.

    The parent issue project and name appears on the top of the dialog, and the Issue Type field has the Sub-task option set.

  2. Type the issue summary.
  3. Select desired options and fill in desired fields.
  4. Click Save & Upload button to upload an issue to remote JIRA server immediately or Save to defer the upload and keep your modifications in the Outbox folder.

    In latter case your changes are stored in the Outbox folder and will be synchronized when you do it explicitly.

JIRA Client lets you view the relationship or hierarchy between issues, in particular, sub-tasks, in the Issues Table.
To view the hierarchy between your issues:

Adding Screenshots to Issues

To illustrate your issues and make them more interactive, you can capture and attach screenshots to them. To do so:

  1. Select an issue in the Issues Table and click Attach Screenshot button of the the Issue details area toolbar.
    JIRA Client main window is minimized, and Screenshot window opens.
  2. Click Capture Screen or Paste from Clipboard button.
    The screen is captured, and a Screenshot editor opens.

    Paste from Clipboard button appears only when the clipboard contains an image. You can also directly paste an image onto an issue, using Right Click | Paste, Ctrl V or Shift Insert.

    For example, on Windows you can use PrintScreen button to copy image of your desktop into the clipboard (or Alt PrintScreen to copy image of an active window), then select an issue in JIRA Client and use Shift Insert or Ctrl V.

  3. Type a name of your screenshot and use the toolbar to perform the desired actions to your screenshots:
  4. Once you are done with your modifications, click Save as File button on the Screenshot window toolbar.
  5. In the Save dialog which opens, do the following:

To remove an attachment, follow this procedure.

Attaching Files to Issues

To attach a file to an issue:

  1. Select an issue in the Issues Table and click Attach Files button of the Issue details area toolbar.
    The Select Files to Attach dialog opens.
  2. Navigate to the desired file, select it, and click Open button.
    The Attach Files to... dialog opens.
  3. Type the comments, select comment visibility and click Attach button. If the Upload changes to JIRA immediately option is selected, the file is uploaded and appears in the Issue details area, Attachments field (see picture below). Otherwise, it gets to the Outbox folder, and is uploaded when you do it explicitly.

To remove an attachment, follow this procedure.

Accessing and reading attached documents when working offline
In JIRA Client, you can open attachments when you are offline, but only if they have been previously downloaded. At the moment, JIRA Client does not download attachments automatically because many documents can be attached to all issues, and downloading a lot of information at a time can stress the server and consume a lot of bandwidth.
To have all attachments available, download attachments to your local database synchronizing JIRA Client with the server when you are online. To do so:

  1. Run a query to show all issues that have attachments you may need when you are offline.
  2. Navigate to the issues table, select some issue in it and press Ctrl+A to select all other issues in the Issues table.
  3. Right-click and select Download Attachments on the context menu to download all attachments for all selected issues.

    If this action is disabled, there are no attachments that were not downloaded.

Tracking Work Time

JIRA Client's Time Tracking tool lets you select an issue as your current work and be aware of how much time you spend on your issues. To do so:

  1. Select Time | Time Tracker command or press Ctrl+ M (⌘ + I).

    To start tracking time, you can also use the system tray (status bar for Macintosh). Click JIRA Client icon and select Open Time Tracker command.

    The Time Tracker window opens, and time tracking is started.
  2. You can just keep on working on an issue or adjust remaining time and total time if necessary.

    JIRA Client can automatically detect inactivity periods and pause time tracking if it's specified in Time Tracker options.

  3. To finish working on an issue, click the Stop Tracking button in the Time Tracker window.

You can publish the resulting timesheet as JIRA work log. To do so:

Using Clipboard with JIRA Client

Clipboard lets you copy and use some JIRA Client's entities, for example:

You can paste issues information from Clipboard into:

Copying Issues

To copy one or several issues to Clipboard:

Copying Issue ID and Summary

To copy issue ID and summary:

Exchanging Queries

To exchange a query:

  1. Select a query or a distribution in the Navigation Area, right-click and select Copy on the context menu.
  2. Navigate to your e-mail client or a text editor and paste a copied query to an e-mail editing form to get an XML-formatted text.

To use a received query:

  1. Copy the XML marked-up query, navigate to JIRA Client's Navigation Area, select a connection, right-click and select Paste on the context menu or click Ctrl + V (⌘ + V).
  2. Double-click a query name to run it.

Modifying Issues

You can modify issues already uploaded to JIRA server and those in Outbox folder intended for later upload.
To modify an issue:

  1. Navigate to an issue in the Issues Table and double-click it, or right-click and select Edit command on the context menu, or press F4 (⌘ + O).
    The Edit Issue - JIRA Client window opens; the dialog fields are much similar to those of New Issue - JIRA Client dialog.
  2. Modify desired fields and click Save & Upload to upload your changes immediately or Save to defer the upload and keep it in the Outbox folder.

Assigning Issues

When creating or editing issues and tasks, you can assign them to other JIRA users. To do so:

  1. Select one or several issues in the Issues table and press the Assign Issue button on the Issue details area toolbar.

    If you have selected several issues, the Assign Issue button appears on the Issues Table toolbar.

    The Assign Issue dialog opens.
  2. Select the name of the assignee from the drop-down box or click the Set to me button to assign the issue to yourself. Optionally, add a comment and specify issue visibility.
    The assignee's name appears in the Assignee column of the Issues Table.

Watching and Voting on an Issue

JIRA Client lets you cast a vote for the issue to be resolved or fixed, and you can also watch an issue and be notified on its updates (if appropriate settings are specified on remote JIRA server).

  1. Select an issue to monitor and click Watch button on the Issue details area toolbar.
  2. In the Change Issue dialog (informing your changes are saved into a local database and get synchronized with JIRA server later when you upload changes from the Outbox folder), click OK.
    The issue, you are watching, now has Watching issue icon in the Flags field of the Issues Table.

    The "Watch Issue" button on the toolbar is toggled to the pressed-down state. The same behavior is true for the Vote button.

To vote for an issue:

  1. Select an issue and click Vote button on the Issue details area toolbar.
  2. In the change issue dialog which opens, informing your changes are saved into a local database and get synchronized with JIRA server later when you upload changes in Outbox folder, click OK.
    The issue you are watching has Voted issue icon in the Flags field of the Issues Table.

You can vote only for other person's issues but not for the issues you have created yourself.

Linking Issues

By linking issue you can create a relationship between the two or more issues and show how they may affect each other.
To link issues:

  1. Do either of the following:
  2. From the Link Type drop-down list, select a type of link between issues and click OK.
    The issues are linked, and you can see new relationship between issues in the Issue details area.

Using Tags

Tags allow you to add specific properties or marks to your issues to make them stand out visually. Tags work much like like folders letting you gather issues from different queries for later access.

The Tags folder in the Navigation Area contains a default Favorites tag and you can create and apply custom tags.
To apply a tag to one or several issues:

If a tag does not exist, you can create it. To do so:

  1. Navigate to a desired issue, right-click and select Tags command, or press Ctrl + T (⌘ + T).
    The Tag Issue dialog opens.
  2. Click the New Tag button, type a tag name, select a desired tag icon, and click OK in the New Tag dialog.
    The tag is created and applied. The issue has a new tag in the Flags column of the Issues Table and appears in the newly created Tag folder in the Navigation Area.

Applying Workflow Actions to Issues

The number and types of workflow actions, available in JIRA Client, depends on the settings of remote JIRA server. This section describes how to:

Resolving and Closing Issues

Once you have finished working on an issue, you can mark it as resolved. To do so:

  1. Select an issue in the Issues Table and navigate to the Issue details toolbar.
  2. Click an arrow button, select the Resolve Issue item from the drop-down list and click Resolve Issue... link.
    The Resolve Issue dialog opens.
  3. Set desired resolution for an issue (the list of available actions depends on remote JIRA server settings), select an assignee or click Set to me button if you want to be the one who resolved an issue; optionally type the comments, and add a link to other issue(s).

JIRA Client recognizes the available workflow scheme on-the-fly. This is why the issue status on screenshot above is "Unknown".

Resolving Issues as Duplicates

JIRA Client lets you resolve issues as duplicates (only if there's a Resolve workflow action and Duplicate link type). To mark an issue as duplicate:

  1. Select an issue and do either of the following:
  2. In a dialog which opens:

Commenting on Issues

To express more details on an issue, you can add comments to them. To do so:

  1. Navigate to and select an issue you want to comment and click the Add Comment button on the Issue details toolbar or press Ctrl + Equals (⌘ + =).
    The Add New Comment for Issue... dialog opens.
  2. Type your comment, set its visibility, and select Upload changes to JIRA immediately if you want your changes become visible to other users at once.
    When the comment is added, it appears in the Comments section of the Issue details area.

    In the Comment visible to field, All users option means everybody who uses JIRA, while Users means everybody who is a member of the Users project role in this project.

To reply to a comment:

  1. Navigate to a desired comment in the Issue details area and click Reply to Comment... button on the Issue toolbar, or right-click a comment and select Reply to Comment command, or press Ctrl + J ( + + =).
  2. In the Reply to Comment dialog which opens, type your comment, set its visibility and select Upload changes to JIRA immediately if you want your changes become visible to other users at once.
    The reply to comment appears in the Issue details area.

To edit a comment:

  1. Navigate to a comment, select it and click the Edit Comment button on the Issue toolbar or right-click and select Edit Comment command.
  2. In the Edit Comment dialog which opens, make desired modifications, set the comment visibility and select Upload changes to JIRA immediately if you want your changes become visible to other users at once.
    The modified comment appears in the Issue details area.

To delete a comment:

  1. Navigate to a comment, select it and click the Delete Comment button on the Issue toolbar.
  2. In the Delete Comment dialog which opens, press Delete Comment button.
    The comment disappears from the Issue details area.

Please note that you can edit and delete comments that are not yet uploaded.

To hide or show the comments:

  1. Navigate to the comment you want to hide or show.
  2. To hide a comment, click the Collapse section button , located on the Comments toolbar. To show the collapsed comment, click the Expand section button .
    If the issue has several comments, you can expand the Comments section of the Issue details area and click the Expand all comments button and view all issue comments at once.

Changing comments order
If an issue has several comments, you can modify their display order. To do so:

Modifying Issues Order

JIRA Client lets you arrange issues in a specific order. It may be the order in which the issues are addressed, called Backlog in the Agile methodology, or any other order.

JIRA Client will use one of the available custom fields to store values used to maintain the user-specified issue order.

To change issues order:

  1. Click Reorder by Field... button on Issues table toolbar.
    The Select Order Field dialog opens.

    The names of the custom fields depend on the settings of remote JIRA server.

  2. Select a desired custom field you want to use to store order information and click OK button.
    The Reorder by Field dialog opens.
  3. To change issues order, select the desired issues and click up or down buttons, or drag the issues to a new place in the list.
    The issues order is changed; the color of numbers in the Backlog Order column for the modified issues becomes blue.

    Click Change ordering field button to change the field used for the ordering.

    We recommend avoiding using this feature by several users at the same time for the same set of issues, otherwise conflicts are likely to occur.

    Users will receive notifications on changes of issues order if it is specified in remote JIRA server settings.

Managing Conflicts between Issues

After you have modified an issue and want to upload it, JIRA Client makes sure there's no conflict between the local and server version of an issue. For example, they can be simultaneously modified on JIRA server while you modify them in JIRA Client. When you upload the modified issue to the server, JIRA Client verifies the updated attribute of this issue on the server. If it does not detect any changes, the local changes are uploaded, and the issue gets synchronized. If JIRA Client detects the differences between the server and the local copy, it warns you about potential conflict.

Some issue properties are merged automatically (see the list for details). If the automatic merge is OK, the issue is silently uploaded to the server. Otherwise, the issue is not uploaded until you resolve the conflict manually.

To merge conflicting changes:

  1. Navigate to and select a conflicting issue which has an In conflict state icon in the Issues Table.
  2. Do one of the following:
  3. In the dialog:

Moving Issues

You can move one or several issues from one project to a different one.

You must have appropriate permissions configured on remote JIRA server to move issues between projects, in particular, Move Issue permission in the project from which you want to move issues, and Create Issue in the project where you want to move issues to.

To move an issue:

  1. Navigate to the Issues table and select issue(s) you want to move and click Move Issue... button on the Issue details toolbar.

    If you have selected more than one issue, the Move Issues... button appears on the Issues Table toolbar.

    The Move Issues dialog opens.
  2. In the dialog:

You may have set up custom issue statuses as part of a workflow. If you have assigned a custom status to your issue but it does not exist in a target project, you must select a new status for it. You cannot optionally change the issue status, and the option to modify the issue status appears only if it is required by your workflow.



See Also