Long URL Field for Jira: documentation

Long URL Field adds a Jira Cloud custom field type for links longer than the 255 characters Jira's own URL field allows, such as SharePoint, OneDrive and web-app deep links.

On this page: The limit · What the field shows · Search by host · The administration page · Bulk edit and CSV import · Known limitations · Questions

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The limit

A link of up to 32,671 characters is stored whole and read back unchanged. Jira stores a field of this kind whole while the stored value (link, label and host together) is at most 32,768 characters. A link must start with http:// or https://. The label is optional and up to 100 characters. The field refuses a value before saving it, with a message that gives the length:

• Long URL: a link must start with http:// or https://.
• Long URL: this link is 32672 characters; the limit is 32671 characters. Shorten it and save again.
• Long URL: the label is 101 characters; the limit is 100 characters.

A value so large that Jira's own size check trips first gets Jira's message instead, which names the figure 32,768.

What the field shows

• Issue view and the customer portal: one clickable link that opens in a new tab and goes to the whole URL. The text is the label, or else the host, then /.../ and the last part of the path (cut at 40 characters). A link over 255 characters also shows a lozenge with its length. Atlassian shows its own confirmation, "Opening external page on" the host, on every click; the app cannot remove it.
• Issue view (inline), create screen, transition screen and portal request: a Link box and an optional Label box.
• List view, issue navigator, notifications and CSV export: text only, the same short text as the issue view. The whole URL stays in the stored value. A CSV export carries the short text, not the URL, so it is not a way to take your links out.
• An empty field reads "None" on the issue view, which is Jira's own wording for an empty field.

Search by host

In JQL put the field name and .Host inside one pair of quotes: "Field name.Host" = "the-host-name". The operators in, != and is EMPTY work the same way. The forms "Field name".Host and cf[10708].Host are refused by Jira. A value saved before the app was installed becomes searchable after the work item is saved again.

The administration page

Site administrators open it under Jira settings > Apps > Long URL Field. Every action below that changes work items first counts or previews, and asks you to confirm.

• Copy links: choose a URL field, a multi-line text field or Description to copy from, a Long URL field to copy into, and a JQL query. Preview lists what would happen to every work item; Copy does it. A work item with no link, with several links, or with a value that is not an http:// or https:// link is skipped and named. A Long URL value that is already there is kept unless you tick the box that replaces it.
• Set one link on many work items: paste a link and a JQL query. Count work items reads and changes nothing. A confirmation, Set this link on N work items?, comes before anything is written, and the result reads Set the link on N of N work items; 0 failed. If the query finds a different number than the one you confirmed, nothing is written.
• Check values: lists stored values that are not valid links, are too long, hold JSON text, or are valid links with no host. It changes nothing.
• Repair values: previews, and after a confirmation removes spaces at either end of a link or label and sets an empty or wrong host from the link. It never changes the link itself, and a value it cannot repair, such as plain text, is named and left exactly as it is.

A run reads at most 1,000 work items; if the query finds more, the first 1,000 are taken and the page says so.

Bulk edit and CSV import

These two are Jira's own and the app cannot change them.

• Bulk edit: Jira fills the field's box with {"host":"", "label":"", "url":""}. A link pasted behind that text makes Jira show "Failed to update" and store nothing. Clear the box first (Ctrl-A, Delete) and paste only the link; it is then stored whole with its host. To put one link on many work items, use "Set one link on many work items" above.
• CSV import: Jira's importer does not run the field's validation, so text that is not a link, such as the short text from an export, is stored as it is. Import real links, then use Check values and Repair values to find and fix anything else.

Known limitations

• Not claimed: Jira mobile, Jira Product Discovery and Automation smart values.
• The app cannot remove Atlassian's confirmation page for external links.
• The app cannot change Jira's bulk edit panel or its CSV importer.
• Copying from a URL field never changes the source field.

Questions

Email support@accounts.datadelight.co with what you did and the message Jira or the app showed. Please do not send real customer data.