Pair existing issues to be synchronized

With Backbone you can pair issues so that they are linked. This is especially helpful, for example, if you want to migrate multiple issue synchronizations to Backbone after you have been using a different synchronization solution, or have been syncing manually.

There are three options:

• Pair existing issues synced with Backbone before: import a file with synchronized issues from another synchronization.
  
• Manually pair existing issues: manually create and upload a file to determine which issues should be synchronized. 
• Automatically pair existing issue: let Backbone automatically pair issues based on the issue key or summary of the issue.

Pair existing issues synced with Backbone before

If you used Backbone before, you can download the paired issues (JSON format) and later upload that to pair the same issues in a new sync. You can follow these steps:

1. Go to the synchronization detail view
2. Create the JSON by clicking on the three dot icon in the top-right of the screen > Download synchronized issues
   • Keep in mind that the setup of the synchronization are the same for both
3. Go to the synchronization where you want to pair the issues
4. Stop the synchronization by clicking the "stop synchronization" button at the top-right of the screen
5. Click the three dot icon > Pair existing issues
   • Select the option "pair existing issues synced with Backbone before"
   • Upload the file created in step 2
6. Start the synchronization again 

Manually pair existing issues 

If in both projects the issues exists you can provide Backbone with a file that provides the link between the two issues. This file must be in CSV format, and must contain two columns separated by commas:

• The first column contains the issue keys of the first project
• The second column contains the issue keys of the second project

When you are finished, the file should look something like this:

AG-1433,AN-527
AG-1434,AN-528
AG-1435,AN-529
AG-1436,AN-530
AG-1437,AN-531 

You can follow these steps to manually pair existing issues

1. Create the CSV file as described above
   • Keep in mind that a maximum of a 1000 issues can be paired at the same time
2. Stop the synchronization by clicking the "stop synchronization" button at the top-right of the screen
3. Click the three dot icon > Pair existing issues
   • Select the option "Manually pair existing issues"
   • Upload the file created in step 1
4. Start the synchronization again 

Automatically pair existing issues 

If in both projects the issues exists and they are similar either on issuekey or summary, you can let Backbone automatically pair them. You can follow these steps:

1. Stop the synchronization by clicking the "stop synchronization" button at the top-right of the screen
2. Click the three dot icon > Pair existing issues
3. Select the option "Automatically pair issues"
4. Choose how you want to pair issues:
   • Based on issue key: when issues have the same key they will be paired (e.g. PA-11)
   • Based on issue number: when issues have the same issue number they will be paired (e.g. 11) 
   • Based on summary: when issues have the same summary they will be paired
5. Download the report
6. Start the synchronization again 

Once you have automatically paired issues you can always download the report later when going back to the Pair existing issue > automatically pair issues dialog again.