Migrating Checklists to Jira Cloud

With the end of support for Atlassian Server products, Migration is, obviously, a hot topic. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources to help you if you’re moving from Server/Data Center to Jira Cloud:

• https://support.atlassian.com/migration/docs/use-jira-site-import-to-migrate-from-server-to-cloud/
• https://www.atlassian.com/migration/plan/cloud-guide
• https://support.atlassian.com/migration/docs/use-the-jira-cloud-migration-assistant-to-migrate/

An important step in any successful migration is migrating apps and app data. This article will describe how to migrate from Checklist for Jira on-prem to Checklist for Jira Enterprise.

Checklists in On-Prem vs Checklists in Jira Cloud

Checklists in Jira Cloud offer similar functionality to checklists on-prem, but in some cases achieve that functionality in different ways.

Checklist for Jira on-prem creates new custom field types, allowing you to create a custom field for each checklist you use. This means that you can use your checklists anywhere you can use a Jira field, including on create and transition screens. The checklist fields are indexed and include many indexing functions for advanced JQL searches. Checklist data is stored directly in Jira and will be exported along with other Jira fields. Each checklist can have multiple contexts that can be assigned to specific projects and issue types. This allows you to create one custom field (for example, DoD) with different checklist items for different projects/issue types.

Checklists in cloud are stored in an external database which is then rendered in the checklist UI on the Jira issue. There is no checklist custom field type, and the checklists have different configuration options than those available on-prem.  This approach means that less support is required from the Jira Administrator (by default, checklist permissions follow issue permissions: anyone who can edit the issue can create/edit checklists on the issue) and you can create limitless checklists without adding to your custom field count.

Preparing for Migration

Checklist for Jira Server/Data Center

1. Verify the scope of each Checklist Custom Field Context. Ensure that the Context is only marked as “All Projects” for checklists that you truly want to have on all of your Jira issues. (When using checklists on-prem you may have set the Context to “All Projects,” but omitted the Checklist Custom field on screens in certain projects. When migrating to Cloud, this can result in useless data being stored in the database, or unwanted checklists appearing on Jira issues.)
2. Some items will need to be verified/reconfigured post-migration. Therefore, you may want to prepare an inventory of:
   1. Global items - Once migration is complete, you may want to create Checklist templates that include these items.
   2. Checklist permissions
   3. Checklist conditions
   4. Checklist validators
   5. Checklist post functions
   6. Assigned checklist items - depending on the migration path you used, user IDs may or may not have been mapped from on-prem to cloud. Therefore, once users are set up in Cloud you will need to re-assign checklist items.
3. Follow the instructions on this page to create the export file.

Checklist for Jira Enterprise

Note that we recommend that you prepare your data first and wait until you are ready to migrate before starting a trail of Checklist for Jira Enterprise, as the trial is for a limited time.

1. Install Checklist for Jira Enterprise.

Executing the Migration

This import process will load all checklist data files created by the Checklist for Jira Export feature and copy them to the Issue Checklist app.

1. Use the Checklist for Jira Export feature to generate the files that will be loaded into Issue Checklist.
2. Navigate to Jira Settings > Apps and select Import under the Issue Checklist heading.
3. Select the Checklist for Jira Server tab.
4. Locate the files generated during the Checklist for Jira Server export process and drag them to the upload area. Alternatively, you can also click the area and select the files from your computer.
5. When all the files generated during the Export process are in the list, click Upload files.
6. Use the Overwrite existing items in Checklist for Jira Enterprise toggle to indicate if you want to:
   • (Toggle enabled) Replace any Issue Checklist items on a given issue with the Checklist forJira items for that issue. It is recommended that you enable the toggle if you attempt to perform an import more than once.
   • (Toggle disabled) Append imported checklist items to any already existing Issue Checklist items on the issue. 
7. Once the files are uploaded, and you’ve confirmed that the Overwrite existing items in Issue Checklist for Jira Enterprise toggle is in the correct position, click Start import. The import will be scheduled and a gray panel will show the import status. Click on the Refresh icon to update the status.
8. The Import status will change when the background import process is launched. Note that canceling an import in progress will result in a partially imported data. If this happens, it is recommended that you run a new import with Overwrite existing items in Checklist for Jira Enterprise toggle enabled. ‍
9. When the import is complete, the status panel will turn green and will display the number of checklist items and issues impacted.

Note that in the Cloud App, global and local items are separated into two different checklists: an issue that had a checklist with both global and local items in the on-prem version will have two different checklists (global and local) in the Cloud version.

Post-migration Configurations

Once the migration is complete:

1. Navigate to Jira Settings > Apps > Manage Apps and review the following:
   1. Global Settings – Ensure your global settings are properly configured. (If checklists are not shown on the main issue panel, enable the Show Checklist Always setting.)
   2. Global Checklists – Review your global checklists and their contexts. If the context did not migrate, please contact support.
   3. Permissions – Review checklist permissions.
   4. Statuses – Verify that any custom statuses migrated correctly.
2. Checklist-type custom fields used in your on-prem instance are not supported in Jira cloud. If you were using these fields in places other than the issue panel (automation rules, board cards, create and transition screens, workflow behaviors, etc.), you will need to replace those custom fields with the custom fields created by Issue Checklist for Jira.
3. Default local checklist items are not supported in cloud. However, you can accomplish the same thing using a default template.
4. Checklist item assignees – After verifying that all of your users were successfully migrated to cloud, you may need to re-assign checklist items on local checklists. Mentions/assignees are not supported Global Checklists.

Need help? Contact our support team.

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