Using JIRA for Bug Tracking

Killer Features for Bug Tracking

We designed JIRA to be the best Bug Tracker available. These features make JIRA stand out from the crowd:

  1. Save and Share a Search
  2. System Filters
  3. Quick Search
  4. Searching with JIRA Query Language
  5. Keyboard Shortcuts 

JIRA allows you to save search queries as filters, so you can quickly run the search again or share the search with your team. This becomes especially useful when building dashboards.

Watch the full demo:

 

There are two ways to share the filter: you can email it to people using the mail icon in the upper right corner or make it available to other JIRA users in the instance. By default, only you can see the filters you create. If you want to allow other people in your instance to use the filter, you need to share it with everyone.

Documentation: Saving Searches

System Filters

There are a number of ways to search in JIRA. You can create your own search or choose from a number of system filters (a filter is a saved search). Any search can be saved as filter, re-used on dashboards, or emailed to users regularly.

To find a system filter:

  1. Click the 'Issues' dropdown in the top navigation bar and select 'Search for issues'.
  2. The system filters are on the left above the Favorite Filters. 

 

The Quick Search box at the top right corner of every page in JIRA provides a fast and easy way to find issues. Use the Quick Search box in a number of ways:

  1. Jump directly to any issue: Type any issue's key (eg 'ABC-107') into the box.
  2. Free-text search: type any word to find all issues with that word in the Summary, Description, or Comments.
  3. Smart searching: execute advanced searches using few words. The query 'my open bugs' returns all of the open bugs assigned to you. More examples in the video below.

Helpful Hint: Pressing '/' on any JIRA screen will place the cursor in the Quick Search box, so you can immediately start typing your query.

Documentation: Quick Search

Here's a quick video of how Quick Search works (your JIRA instance may look different, but Quick Search syntax hasn't changed):

Searching with JIRA Query Language

JIRA Query Language (JQL) is a special syntax that allows you to search for very specific issues. Once you populate your JIRA instance with some issues, try some JQL searching:

  1. Click on the 'Issues' link in the top navigation bar and select 'Search for issues'.
  2. Click 'Switch to Advanced' on the right side of the screen.
  3. Start typing in the text field, and JIRA will automatically suggest words and values. Type 'a' and you will see 'assignee' or 'affectedVersion' are both suggested. Hit the down arrow then 'enter' to select one of the suggestions.

Here are some sample queries to get you started:

assignee = currentUser() AND status = Open
Returns all issues assigned to you that are Open.

priority >= Major
Returns all issues that are Major or higher priority.

Documenation: Advanced Search (JQL)

Watch a video to see JQL and auto-complete in action (you JIRA instance may look different, but the JQL syntax hasn't changed):

Keyboard Shortcuts

As most developers know, switching between the keyboard and mouse often can be a pain. To limit the number of times you need to do this, we've setup keyboard shortcuts for many of the commonly performed actions in JIRA.

  1. Type '?' to bring up a list of all the shortcuts you can use.
  2. Look in the lower left corner of the pop-up and see that keyboard shortcuts are enabled. Make a mental note of one or two to try, then click 'Close.'
  3. Go to any issue and hit 'm' to comment, 'e' to edit, or '.' to pull up all available actions!

Documentation: Keyboard Shortcuts