Admin Guide

This guide is for Jira administrators installing and configuring Connected Table.

Installing the app

1. Install Connected Table from the Atlassian Marketplace.
2. Approve the requested permissions at install: read Jira work, read Jira users (for the user-picker column), read the field and its context configuration, and write the app’s own field data. All are read-only except the last, which only lets the app save values into its own Connected Table field. See How it works for details.

Adding the field to issues

1. Go to Jira settings → Issues → Custom fields.
2. Create a custom field and choose Connected Table from the field-type list (it appears like any built-in type). You can create multiple independent instances of it.
3. Associate the field with the relevant screens (see placement guidance below).

Configuring columns & defaults

Column configuration is done through Jira’s native field-context system (not a separate admin page). When you edit a field context, Connected Table shows its column editor:

• Add columns and set each one’s type (text, number, checkbox, date/time, selection, user, formula, sequence).
• Mark columns required — enforced on save/create (see below).
• For selection columns, define the option list and, optionally, a colour per option (see below).
• For formula columns, write an expression that computes from other columns.
• Give columns a default value for new rows (see below).
• Set default rows that new issues start with.
• Optionally enable “Allow viewers to switch layout” so users can toggle grid/transposed view.
• Optionally toggle “Allow viewers to merge cells within a column” and “Allow viewers to drag-fill cells down a column” — the spreadsheet-style merge and drag-to-fill actions. Both are on by default; turn either off to lock it down for a given field.
• Optionally toggle “Let viewers search rows” and “Let viewers sort rows by clicking a column name”. Both are on by default. Search and sort only change what each viewer sees — they never reorder or change the stored table.
• Optionally toggle “Let viewers export the table (CSV, Excel, PDF, Word)” and “Let users import rows from a file while editing (needs add/remove rows)”. Both are on by default — see Export and import.

Colour-coded options

In a single- or multi-select column’s Options field, click the small dot on an option to choose one of nine colours (gray, blue, teal, green, yellow, orange, red, purple, magenta), or none. Coloured options appear as coloured tags in the table and in the dropdown. Colours are display-only — the stored value is still the option text, and options without a colour look exactly as before.

Default values for new rows

Each column (except formula, sequence and user columns) can have a default value, set in the column editor’s Default value section. It pre-fills that column whenever someone adds a row with + — on the issue panel, the portal and the field editor. Existing rows are never changed.

Column type	Default you can set
Text, text area, number, integer	A fixed value (respects the column’s max length / decimal places)
Checkbox	Checked in new rows by default
Single select / multi-select	One / several of the column’s options
Date, time, date & time	None, a specific date/time (picked from a calendar), the current date/time, or current + a period (for example +7 days, +1 month, −2 hours)

“Current” is calculated when the row is added, using the viewer’s clock and time zone. Months and years clamp to the end of the month (31 January + 1 month = 28 February). If you delete an option that was used as a default, the default is dropped; if you change a date column’s format, a fixed default is converted to the new format when you save.

Because contexts are per-project/issue-type, the same field can carry different columns in different projects.

Export and import

Users can download a table as Excel, PDF, Word or CSV, and load rows from a CSV or Excel file, on the Apps panel and the JSM portal. Everything happens in the user’s browser — no files are uploaded and no extra permissions are needed. The user-facing details are on the Export & Import page.

Setting	Default	When to turn it off
Let viewers export the table	On	The table holds data that shouldn’t leave Jira as a file. Applies to everyone who can see the table, including portal customers.
Let users import rows from a file while editing	On	You want rows entered by hand only. The setting is unavailable (and import is hidden) when adding/removing rows is locked.

Note

Imported rows land in the user’s unsaved edit, not straight in Jira. The normal save rules still apply: required columns must be filled, and the table must fit within the size limit — the import dialog blocks files that would make it too large.

Required-column enforcement

Marking a column required makes Jira block save/create when any row leaves that column empty, returning: “Please fill in all required table columns before saving.” This is enforced automatically on the standard edit/create path — no separate Jira “Required” field-configuration setting is needed.

Note

On the panels and the JSM portal, required columns are enforced by the app’s own checks before saving.

Where the table appears

Surface	Notes
Issue-view field cell	Blank until clicked (click-to-edit). The grid does not render in the cell itself — use inline edit or the Apps panel.
Apps issue panel	Always-on grid in the main content area, opened from the issue’s Apps/gear menu. Export and import are available here.
Connected Table History activity tab	Read-only per-issue change log, showing who made each change.
JSM portal request detail	Read/edit panel below Activity; visible to customers and unlicensed users. Export and import are available here.

Hiding the field label / cell

The app can’t remove itself from the issue view. If you want to hide the field’s label row, hide the field via the project’s issue layout configuration. The panels still read and write the value regardless of layout.

Screen-placement guidance

Keep Connected Table off classic/legacy transition screens

On the modern transition dialog the grid renders and is editable. On classic transition screens the field falls back to a raw text field that is editable and therefore corruptible — a bad hand-edit writes invalid data straight to the field. Don’t add the field to classic transition screens (JSM/agent, bulk, and board-triggered transitions commonly use them).

Data size limits

Note

The entire table is stored in a single field value, so keep tables to roughly 100–150 rows (depending on column count and content). Much larger tables can’t be saved. Merged cells add a small amount of data, so they count toward this too.

Admin page

The app ships a Connected Table Admin page (under Apps in Jira settings) for app-level configuration.