learn how to link Projector time cards to JIRA and Zendesk |
Projector offers the ability to link JIRA and Zendesk with Projector time cards. This guide teaches users how to do just that. This help document assumes that you have already configured JIRA or Zendesk to connect with Projector. To start, the first thing you should understand is how the integration works. Projector provides two modes of operation.
Your installation may have one or both of of these options available to you. We'll discuss each in turn for this help article. |
With this method, you link a Projector time card to a JIRA/Zendesk ticket. Follow these steps:
Please note that no metadata is linked between the two systems. If you edit a ticket in JIRA/Zendesk or edit a time card in Projector - neither system will automatically update.
A link is created in the time card which will take you to the ticket in JIRA/Zendesk. See screenshot.
With this method, Projector reaches out to JIRA/Zendesk and queries their database for metadata about tickets (hours, project, description, ticket number, etc). That metadata can then be turned into Projector time cards. This is a one-time import operation. The Projector and JIRA/Zendesk issues are not linked together. For instance, if you changed the amount of time in JIRA/Zendesk, the amount of time would not update in Projector. You will need to manually update the time card in Projector or you will need to delete the time card and re-import your JIRA/Zendesk data.
If you import the same time period multiple times, you will end up with duplicate time cards.
Time cards are imported one resource at a time from their time entry page.
Each JIRA worklog item is imported as an individual time card. |
For a full help guide on using our time import features, please see Time Card Import. This page has a simple overview of the fields available.
The following metadata can be imported from JIRA into Projector.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Issue ID | |
Issue Key | |
Issue Summary | |
Issue Description | |
Work Date | |
Issue Type Id | |
Issue Type Description | |
Issue Type Name | |
Project ID | |
Product Key | |
Project Name | |
Issue Resolution Id | |
Issue Resolution Name | |
Issue Resolution Description | |
Issue Resolution Date | |
Work Hours | |
Work Comment | |
Custom Fields | Any custom fields added in the External Connector configuration. |
When you import Zendesk time cards, you'll get one time card for each time the ticket was updated. Ten ticket updates will result in ten time cards. There is the potential for the sum of time cards to shift away from the sum of time spent in Zendesk. This happens because Zendesk tracks time at the seconds level. Projector only goes down to the 3 minute level. Because of that, rounding will take place. The net of that rounding can result in disparities between the two systems.
When you import from Zendesk, it does on a whole day basis. So you should only import from Zendesk when you are sure no more tickets updates will be made for the day. Otherwise you can end up with duplicate data. For example, if I import at lunch time and again at dinner time, the tickets from before lunch will be imported twice.
The following metadata can be imported from Zendesk into Projector:
Field | Description |
---|---|
Ticket Key | Ticket number |
Work Date | |
Work Hours | |
Ticket Subject | |
Ticket External Identifier | |
Custom Fields | Any custom fields added in the External Connector configuration. |