Synchronize a private with a public project

This use case describes how you can share information from your restricted (private) Jira project with viewers who don't have permissions to access it. This is done by creating another Jira project which the desired people can access and set up a synchronization between them. This can be helpful when you:

• Work in a Jira instance which is not accessible to your viewers.
  • You can use a Jira Cloud instance and use Backbone to synchronize the information to it.
  • You can set up a separate Jira instance in a DMZ and use Backbone to synchronize the information to it.
• Work in a Jira instance which is accessible to your viewers.
  • You can use Backbone to create a view of your project with the information you want to expose.

Backbone enables you to create a "public view" on your project. You can configure exactly which fields or issues you want to expose; no need to mess around with issue security schemes. You can use another workflow for the public project and hide some statuses of your complex workflow. So in the end, your viewers get the information they need, and no more.

Configuration guide

With this approach, you will end up with two Jira projects connected via Backbone. For every project, you have Jira's full flexibility of administration, e.g. for the fields or workflows. This guide assumes that you already have a project with all your details (let's call it private project).

1. Create another Jira project (let's call it public project) which you will share with the people outside your private project. Administer the fields, workflows and permissions to suit your needs.
   • If you have a complex workflow in the private project, think about using a simplified workflow for the public project.
2. Create a new synchronization between your private and public project.
3. Configure the issue types and fields you want to exchange between the projects.
   • If the public project exists only for viewing information, you can create unidirectional mappings so information only synchronizes from the private to the public project, and not back.
4. Configure your workflow mappings. If you used a simplified workflow in the public project, you can now define how your internal states match your simplified workflow.

Congratulations! The basic configuration is now complete.

Good to know

• If your Jira instance is accessible to the people outside your project, you can have both projects in the same Jira instance. Then you also only need one Backbone license.
• If you don't want to synchronize all comments from your private project to the public project, you could either synchronize comments only from the public to the private project or use comment restrictions.
• We are using this approach for our own product development, you can browse Backbone's public project to see how a public view could look.