Get Started

Thanks for choosing Backbone Work Sync for Jira. Backbone helps you simplify collaboration on projects, internally or across organizations, by synchronizing Jira work items in real-time.

This guide will illustrate the steps required to get started with Backbone on Jira Cloud.

Watch the video

To learn more about what Backbone can do for you, watch the Get Started video that introduces Backbone’s features. 

1: Finding Backbone in Jira

After installing Backbone Work Sync for Jira from the Atlassian Marketplace, you can find Backbone in the project settings under apps.

To create your first project synchronization, follow these steps:

1. Go to Project settings > Apps > Backbone Work Sync.

2. Click New Synchronization.

As illustrated below, Backbone allows you to create a synchronization:

• With another project in the same instance.

• With another Cloud instance.

• With another Data Center instance.

2: Synchronizing Projects Using Backbone

There are two separate sections in this guide:

1. Synchronizing projects on the same Jira instance.

2. Synchronizing projects on a separate Jira Cloud instance.

Information on syncing to a Data Center instance can be found in this article.

3: Configure Synchronization Settings

After establishing a connection between two Jira projects, you can now select the exact type of Jira data you want to synchronize. The following steps will guide you on how to successfully set up a sync.

Work Type Mapping:

1. To start editing the synchronization, click Edit Configuration.

2. Open the Work Types tab and click Start with simple mappings.

3. Select the work types you want to map across Project A and Project B.
   a. In this example, we will select the work type Task.

4. You can use the drop down box and choose to synchronize the work types either in both directions between Project A and Project B or in one direction.

5. Click Create to save the work type mapping.

Field Mapping:

1. Navigate to the Fields - Mappings tab > + Field Mapping.
2. Select the fields you want to synchronize. In this example, we will select Summary and Description.
3. You can use the drop down box to synchronize fields either in one or both directions.
4. Click Create to save the fields configuration.

Comments Mapping:

1. Navigate to the Comments tab.

2. Use the drop down box to choose between uni-directional or bi-directional comment mapping.

3. Click Enriched mapping to get the complete information about the reporter and comment date and time.

4. Click Publish Draft > Start Synchronization.

Well done! You've configured your first Backbone synchronization. Now, all work items with type Task will be synchronized between Projects A and B.

The fields Summary and Description fields will be synchronized between those work items along with any comments.

4: Using the Synchronization

Now for the fun part: let's use Backbone to test the synchronization by creating a task in Project B and testing whether the work item is automatically synchronized to Project A.

1. Create a new work item with type Task in Project B, and enter some text in the Summary and Description fields.

2. Open Project A. You can see that the work item has now been synchronized.

3. Open the synchronized work item in Project A and add a comment.

4. Go back to the work item in Project B and open the synced Task. The comment can now be seen as well.

Easy-peasy! You have successfully created and tested your first synchronization.

Next steps:

Now, you can try out more configuration options, such as different work item/field types, or comments and attachments.