User Guide

This guide is for people who use a Connected Table on a Jira issue or a Jira Service Management (JSM) customer portal request. No admin rights needed.

What a Connected Table looks like

A Connected Table is a grid of typed columns and rows attached to an issue. Your administrator decides which columns exist (their names and types) and any default rows; you fill in and maintain the data.

Where you’ll find it

Surface	How to open it	Editable?
Issue view — field cell	Click the field to open its inline editor.	Yes
Issue view — Apps panel	Open it from the issue’s Apps / gear menu; it appears in the main content area.	Read-only → click Edit
Activity → Connected Table History tab	Next to History / Comments in the issue activity feed.	Read-only (audit)
JSM customer portal — request detail	Below the Activity section on your portal request.	Read-only → click Edit

Note

The issue-view field cell itself shows nothing until you click it — the always-visible grid lives in the Apps panel (agents) and the portal detail panel (customers). This keeps the issue view uncluttered.

Editing the table

1. Open the panel and click the pencil / Edit button (panels open read-only).
2. Edit cells directly. Depending on the column type you’ll get a text box, number field, checkbox, date picker, dropdown, or a user picker (type a name to search).
3. Use + (left of the toolbar) to add a row and × to delete the selected rows. New rows can start pre-filled — see Default values in new rows.
4. Click the green ✓ Save to persist, or the red ✗ Cancel to discard your changes.

Cancelling with unsaved changes

If you press ✗ Cancel after changing anything, you’re asked “Discard changes?” before your edits are thrown away:

• Keep editing (or Esc) returns you to the table with your changes intact.
• Discard restores the saved table and leaves edit mode.

If nothing changed, Cancel simply closes edit mode.

Default values in new rows

Your admin can give columns a default value. When you add a row with +, those columns are filled in for you — for example Status = Open, a ticked checkbox, or Quantity = 1. Date and time columns can default to a fixed date, to today / now, or to a date relative to today (such as today + 7 days), calculated at the moment you add the row. Defaults only apply to new rows; existing rows are never changed, and you can overwrite any default before saving.

Column types you may see

• Text / Number — free entry.
• Checkbox — a true/false toggle.
• Date / time — pick a date, a time, or both with your browser’s date and time picker. The value is saved and displayed in the column’s format (for example DD.MM.YYYY); while you edit, the picker itself follows your browser’s language settings.
• Selection — a single- or multi-value dropdown of admin-defined options. Options can be colour-coded, so values show as coloured tags (for example a green Done and a red Blocked).
• User — search and pick a Jira user.
• Formula — computed automatically from other columns; you can’t edit it directly.
• Sequence — an auto-incrementing row number.

Connected Table⋯

Requirements

ABCRequirement	Components	Environments	Owner
Single sign-on	AuthAPI	ProdStaging	ANAna N.
CSV export	ReportingUI	Prod	DPDana P.
Audit log	BackendSecurityAPI	ProdStagingDev	CHChen H.
Webhook retries	Backend	Dev	ELEllis L.

Multi-select columns store several values per cell, shown as chips.

Required columns

If your admin marked a column required, every row must have a value in it before you can save. If you try to save with a blank required cell you’ll see: “Please fill in all required table columns before saving.”

Finding rows: search and sort

Both are view-only and personal: they change what you see, never the saved table, and they reset when you reload the issue. Your admin can turn either off per field.

Search (filter rows)

On the Apps panel and the customer portal, click the magnifier icon in the table’s toolbar (or press / when you’re not typing in a cell) and start typing.

• Only rows containing your text are shown. Matching is case-insensitive and finds text anywhere in a cell, and matching text is highlighted.
• Text, number, date/time, formula and selection columns are searched (each value of a multi-select counts); user and checkbox columns aren’t.
• The box shows how many rows match — hover it for “N of M rows match”. If nothing matches, you’ll get a Clear filter button.
• Esc clears the search; press it again to close the box.
• The totals row adds up only the rows you can see, so you can filter to a subset and read its total.
• While a search is active in edit mode, merge and drag-to-fill are paused, and any rows you add stay visible even if they don’t match.

Sort by a column

Click a column name to sort by it: first ascending, then descending, then back to the original order. An arrow next to the name shows the current direction. In the transposed layout, click the column names in the first column instead.

Sorting understands each column type:

• Numbers and formulas sort numerically (9 before 10).
• Dates and times sort chronologically.
• Text and selection columns sort alphabetically, ignoring case.
• Checkboxes sort unticked first (ascending).
• User columns sort by the person’s display name.
• Empty cells always go last, in both directions.

Search and sort work together: rows are filtered first, then sorted, then split into pages.

Merged cells while sorted

Merged cells stay merged whenever their rows are still next to each other after sorting. If sorting moves those rows apart, the merged value is shown in each of them until you clear the sort. Clearing the sort restores the original merged layout — nothing is changed in the saved table.

Sorting while editing

The order is fixed at the moment you click, so rows don’t jump around while you type. Click the column name again to re-sort. Rows you add stay at the bottom, and merge and drag-to-fill are paused while a sort is active.

Merging cells and filling down (spreadsheet actions)

While editing, two spreadsheet-style shortcuts help you enter and group data faster. Both work in the grid and transposed layouts, and your admin can turn either one off per field.

Connected Table⋯

Release tasks

ABCTask	Owner	Labels
Draft release notes	ANAna N.	Docs
Update changelog	ANAna N. FillMerge✕	Docs
Notify customers	BKBen K.	Comms
Verify portal copy	CHChen H.	JSM

Drag the handle down a column to select a run, then choose Fill or Merge from the pop-up. Hold Ctrl/Shift while filling to increment a series.

Fill a value down a column

1. Click a cell to select it — a small square handle appears at its edge.
2. Drag the handle along the column to cover the cells you want, then release.
3. Choose Fill to copy the value into every covered cell. To increment instead, hold Ctrl or Shift while dragging (or pick Fill series): numbers count up (1, 2, 3…) and text ending in a number steps up (Item 1 → Item 2…).

Note

Fill respects the column type: numbers and trailing-number text can increment; checkboxes, dates, and dropdown/user columns are copied as-is. Formula and sequence columns are computed automatically and aren’t filled.

Merge cells within a column

1. Select a run of adjacent cells in one column the same way — click a cell, then drag the handle to cover them.
2. Choose Merge. The cells become a single cell spanning those rows (a spanning column in the transposed layout), showing one value.

Merging is non-destructive: the hidden cells keep their values underneath, and the merge is saved with the table so everyone viewing the issue or portal sees it the same way. Drag the handle on a merged cell to extend the span further down the column.

Connected Table⋯

Delivery plan

ABCPhase	ABCTask	Owner	Labels	Done
Discovery	User interviews	ANAna N.	ResearchUX
	Competitive audit	BKBen K.	Research
Build	Data model	CHChen H.	Backend
	Grid rendering	DPDana P.	FrontendUI
	Portal panel	ELEllis L.	FrontendJSM

The Phase column is merged across each group; user, multi-select label, and checkbox columns alongside.

Tip

If a formula column depends only on merged columns, it collapses to match — showing the shared result once across the span instead of repeating it on every row.

Note

Merging works within one column at a time (vertical in grid, horizontal in transposed). Adding or removing rows that break a span releases the merge.

Exporting and importing

On the Apps panel and the customer portal you can download the table and load rows from a file. Full details are on the Export & Import page.

• Export — click the download icon in the toolbar and pick Excel (.xlsx), PDF, Word (.docx), CSV or CSV for Excel (semicolon). The file contains every row matching your current search, in your current sort order, across all pages — with user names, option labels, calculated formulas and the totals row.
• Import — click Edit, then the upload icon next to + / ×. Choose a .csv or .xlsx file, check the column matches, choose Add or Replace, and review the preview. Imported rows are unsaved until you click Save.

Connected Table⋯

Quote line items Excel (.xlsx)Numbers, dates and merged cells kept PDFReady to print or share Word (.docx)Editable document CSVComma-separated CSV for Excel (semicolon)For Excel set to a European locale

ABCItem	123Qty	123Unit price	{ }Total
Laptop 14"	3	1,250.00	3,750.00
Docking station	3	189.00	567.00
Monitor 27"	6	310.00	1,860.00
Total	12		6,177.00

The Export menu on the Apps panel toolbar. The file contains every row in your current search and sort, across all pages, plus the totals row.

Layout toggle

When your admin enables it, a small grid icon lets you switch between the standard grid layout and a transposed layout (columns become rows) — handy for narrow spaces. This is per-viewer and only affects your own view.

Connected Table⋯

Server inventory

ABCHost	web-01	db-primary	cache-02
Role	Web	Database	Cache
Environments	Prod	ProdDR	ProdStaging
123vCPU	4	16	2
Owner	CHChen H.	BKBen K.	ELEllis L.
Monitored

Transposed layout — column names run down the left and each record becomes its own column.

Using it on the customer portal (JSM)

On a portal request you’ll see the table below the Activity section. It opens read-only; click Edit to change values and Save. You don’t need a Jira license to view or edit it — portal and unlicensed users are supported. Export and import work on the portal too, when your admin allows them.

Change history

The Connected Table History tab in the issue Activity feed shows a row- and cell-level diff of every table edit over time — what changed, from what, to what — together with who made the change, including customers editing on the portal. It’s built from Jira’s own change log, so nothing is lost.

Note

Jira’s built-in History tab records saves made from the Apps panel or the portal under the app rather than the person — a Jira platform limitation. Use the Connected Table History tab to see who changed the table. Changes saved before this was introduced still show the app.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to do
Panel looks cut off / only one row visible	The panel resizes to fit the table’s contents. If it still looks constrained, refresh the issue.
Can’t save — “required columns” message	Fill every cell in the columns marked required, then save again.
A transition screen shows raw text instead of the grid	Don’t edit it. Tell your admin — the field should be removed from that transition screen (see the Admin Guide).
No Export or Import icon	Your admin may have turned it off for this field. Import only appears in Edit mode, and only if rows can be added.
“Connected Table was updated. Reload the page and try again.”	The app was updated while the page was open. Reload the page.