Attachment Management; how to reduce redundancy and share attachments between issues?

[Christopher Souser]

One of the things we use JIRA for is managing many exhibit / evidence collections. Each of these has specific requirements that need to be met with exhibits attached to each. The reviewers can only review some of it in JIRA and most has to be done outside of JIRA by exporting it with the exhibit number in the file name. That export has a folder for each requirement with all associated attachments using the original filename. (i.e. \01.01.a\JellyDonutsForall.doc)

The reviewers have complained though that we are uploading the same exhibit multiple times (i.e. in 01.01.a and 12.03.02.a) for those exhibits that satisfy multiple requirements. They are now requesting we fill out a ridiculously complex spreadsheet as a work around that creates a lot of re-work and manual work for us to complete.

We also have the issue of sometimes an exhibit is kicked back as inadequate and needs to be updated or replaced and we would want that updated version to also apply to all of the associated exhibits or facilitate versions with time stamps.

We have no programmatic resources available to build something in-house at this time and so are seeking some suggestions to solve this problem or if there might already be some add-on or configuration we have not found.

Some work arounds we have thought about are:
1) Is there a way we can upload all exhibits to a single directory in JIRA or outside of JIRA and then simply force users to select the attachment they are uploading from that repository? (We are able to do this in another system)
2) Is there a way to upload it to one issue, then allow other issues to link back to that issues specific attachment (I know you can link the issues, but I don't want to link the issues, just the attachment)?
3) Is there perhaps an SQL query I could run that might do a Group By on the Attachments list on a particular project and list the attachment, and then all of the associated issues (if it helps we put the requirement number in the first 10 characters of every issue) so we can systematically generate this list the auditor is requesting?

We only have JIRA Local, Agile, and Structure; we have no other plug-ins or add-ons at this time.

Note I did find the following but it was not useful or provide a solution.
https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/189465/is-it-possible-to-let-two-issues-share-an-attachment-on-jira
https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/189376/how-do-i-programatically-set-the-attachment-of-an-issue-equal-to-the-attachment-of-another-issue#comment-189457

[Jason Plumhoff]

You mention doing this with another system... Do you mean that you have some kind of system (perhaps a DMS?) that can generate hyperlinks to stored attachments? If so, you can simply upload your exhibits to that system and link them to your JIRA issues. Do a search on remotelinks in the JIRA docs for details. I also believe you might be able create a hyperlink in one jira issue that references an attachment in another issue. Attach the file to issue A, copy the hyperlink for the attachment, then paste the link in issue B. Not positive it would work, but I don't see why it wouldn't...

[Christopher Souser]

We have another system that doesn't physically copy the document to the JIRA project path but just stores the UNC path (i.e. \\Server\Directory\Directory\File.extension) . I tried pasting that path into JIRA as an "Attach File" and it seems to still copy it and not just link it.

I tried Link Issue to a remote web page link to a word doc and got the following error.

Invalid 'URL'. Make sure you include the full URL (e.g. http://www.google.com).</span<>>

[Jason Plumhoff]

Christopher - OK, since your other system uses UNC paths you are a bit out of luck. Most browsers don't like to allow links from an HTTP domain to a FILE domain.

But the good news is that you still don't have to replicate file attachments in multiple issues! Let's say you've attached a file to issue A, and you'd like to reference that file in issue B:

1. Open Issue A
2. Right-click on the attachment and select "Copy Link Address"
3. Open Issue B
4. Select "More"->"Link" from the menu bar
5. In the link dialog, select "Web Link"
6. Paste the copied link address in the URL field
7. Enter the filename (or whatever you want to use) in the Link Text field

Your attachment in issue A will now be accessible from issue B using the newly created link. Alternatively, you can embed links in the description or comments by entering "[yourAttachmentURL]".

Hope that Helps!

Jason

[Remie Bolte]

@christopher: we might be interested in creating an add-on for Atlassian JIRA. I can see the business case where there is a better way of dealing with attachments, especially in large JIRA instances. Duplication is mostly a waste of resources, and with attachments, this can result in significant costs.

It will require some technical review on whether it is possible. Perhaps it is easiest if you contact me via e-mail to discuss your specific requirements.