Update Issues based on JQL with REST API in Jira Data Center

Summary

This article proposes a solution to update Issues that match a JQL using Jira Data Center's REST API.

Solution

The solution is to first search for the issues and then, for each of them, call the update. This would result in "1 + N" REST API calls, N being the number of issues returned by the JQL.

1. Perform the JQL search through POST or GET to /rest/api/2/search (Server/DC API reference)

2. Parse the result to you get only the issue keys returned

3. For each issue key, call the update endpoint through PUT to /rest/api/2/issue/{issueIdOrKey} (Server/DC API reference)

Examples in shell script

1. Search issues with the JQL

   $ curl -u admin:admin -X POST localhost:50813/rest/api/2/search -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"jql":"updated > -1d","fields":[""]}' -s | jq > jql-output.txt
   { "expand": "schema,names", "startAt": 0, "maxResults": 50, "total": 10, "issues": [ { "expand": "operations,versionedRepresentations,editmeta,changelog,renderedFields", "id": "10108", "self": "http://localhost:50813/rest/api/2/issue/10108", "key": "SC1-10" }, { "expand": "operations,versionedRepresentations,editmeta,changelog,renderedFields", "id": "10107", "self": "http://localhost:50813/rest/api/2/issue/10107", "key": "SC1-9" }, { "expand": "operations,versionedRepresentations,editmeta,changelog,renderedFields", "id": "10106", "self": "http://localhost:50813/rest/api/2/issue/10106", "key": "SC1-8" } ] }

2. Parse the json output

   $ cat jql-output.txt | grep '"key"' | egrep -o ': ".*?"' | cut -c3- | sed 's/"//g' > keys.txt
   SC1-10 SC1-9 SC1-8

3. For each issue key, update the issue

   $ for issue in $(cat keys.txt); do curl -u admin:admin -X PUT localhost:50813/rest/api/2/issue/$issue -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"fields":{"customfield_10400":"Sample text for a Text Field!"}}'; done;

4. Alternative one-line example

   $ for issue in \ $(curl -u admin:admin -X POST localhost:50813/rest/api/2/search -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"jql":"updated > -1d","fields":[""]}' -s | jq | grep '"key"' | egrep -o ': ".*?"' | cut -c3- | sed 's/"//g');\ do curl -u admin:admin -X PUT localhost:50813/rest/api/2/issue/$issue -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"fields":{"customfield_10400":"Sample text for a Text Field!"}}';\ done;

For all command examples above: