How to use the Jira Snapshots Macro

Owned by Rina Nir _RadBee
Jul 26, 2022
2 min read

Adding the Jira Snapshots Macro to a Confluence Page

  1. Navigate to the page and click the Edit icon, or just type E to open the editor. (Alternatively, you can create a new page.)

  2. In the Confluence editor, click the '+' icon and choose View more from the drop down menu.

  3. Find the item to be inserted and select it.

  4. Click Insert.

  5. Configure the macro and Save. Further down on this page you’ll find more information about configuration. At this stage the macro will display “No Data” which is expected. You need to publish the page and take a new snapshot before data appears.

You can also type '/' (forward slash symbol) while editing the page, to bring up the same list you'd see by in the View more menu.

Publishing and Generating the First Snapshot

  1. Once the macro is configured, continue editing the rest of of the page, and click Publish when finished.

  2. After the page is published, click Update to generate the first snapshot.

To create multi-level snapshots, follow Configure Multi-Level Jira Snapshots

Parameters

Parameters are options that you can set to control the content or format of the macro output.

JQL is Jira Query Language. This is the native query language for Jira, and these macros use it directly when retrieving data from Jira.

New to JQL? We have put here Jira JQL Cheat Sheet some information to help you get started.

 

Parameter name

Required

Default

Parameter description and accepted values

Parameter name

Required

Default

Parameter description and accepted values

Level title

No

Empty

A title for this level will be displayed above the column titles.

Search JQL

Yes

-

In Level 1:

Any valid JQL, applicable for the Jira from which the snapshot data is retrieved.

This may include any JQL extensions by apps, as long as they are valid inside that Jira instance.

It's a good practice to test the JQL first in Jira. Refer to the Jira manual for more information: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/what-is-advanced-searching-in-jira-cloud/

In Level 2 (or higher):

Refer to Configure Multi-Level Jira Snapshots

Add fields to display

Yes

Key, Summary

The list of Jira fields to display.

Use the widget just below the field to drag and reorganize the order of the columns in the level.

The list of available fields is specific to the Jira instance the snapshot is connected to. The list includes custom fields configured for this instance.


If integration with 3rd party apps is configured, such as Xray Test Management, then the list of fields here will also include fields available via the integration.

 

Key Features

  1. Any legitimate JQL clause can be used to retrieve data from Jira.

  2. The list of columns is configurable.

  3. Retrieving fresh data from Jira into Confluence is done from Page View mode, by clicking Update.

  4. Each time fresh data is imported, a new Confluence page version is generated. This can be seen in the Page History view. 

  5. The DIFF tool enables you to compare the current Jira data with any previous snapshot. 

  6. A single Confluence page may include multiple instance of snapshot macros, each retrieving a different set of data.