BigTemplate widget

Introduction

BigTemplate allows you to create unlimited templates, modify the pre-defined ones, and upload them again.

To learn more about uploading templates, refer to the Configuration page.

Activate/deactivate the BigTemplate widget

Customize widget templates

If you prepare or edit your template in Google Docs, MS Word, or OpenOffice file, use the following style name: #BT.task.<fieldname>

Identifiers in your template will be replaced with values from Jira issues during the export operation. The formatting used in the file will remain unchanged.

To export attachments, you need to upload a mock image and insert a proper identifier into a mock image.

Find out more about the supported fields below. 

Screenshot of a customized widget template.

Prepare templates using styles 

When you open an exported Jira issue document using a document editor such as MS Word or Open Office Writer, you will notice that new styles are available and can modify them.

A style is a set of formatting characteristics, such as font name, size, color, paragraph alignment, and spacing. Some styles include borders and shading.

Using styles to format your document, you can quickly and easily apply a set of formatting choices consistently.

For example, instead of taking three separate steps to format your heading as 16-point, bold, Cambria, you can achieve the same result in one step by applying the built-in Heading 1 style. You do not need to remember the characteristics of the Heading 1 style. For each heading in your document, just click on the heading.

For more information about styles, refer to the Customize or create new styles article.

The list of styles can be presented in a separate pane. The Styles task pane can be opened with the keyboard shortcut Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S.

Screenshot of preparing a template using styles.

The styles listed in the panel start with the #BT.task prefix. The first word always starts in lowercase, and the following ones depend on how they were named in Jira. There are no spaces between words.

You can add a space after the name of a style to add a description to help you identify the desired style:

  • #BT.task.summary header

  • #BT.task.summary footer

Supported field types

Jira standard fields

A list of Jira system fields is available in Jira Administration > Issues > System fields.

The table presents examples of style names and the corresponding Jira system fields.

Jira system field

Style name

Jira system field

Style name

Assignee

#BT.task.assignee

Status

#BT.task.status

fixVersion

#BT.task.fixVersion

Key

#BT.task.key

Labels

#BT.task.labels

Priority

#BT.task.priority

Summary

#BT.task.summary

Project

#BT.task.project

You can find a list of styles with examples on the Template directory page.

Contact Support if you do not see a field you would like to export.

E-mails

Assignee and reporter e-mail support are supported. To make them appear in a document, use the identifiers:

  • #BT.task.assignee$email

  • #BT.task.reporter$email

QR codes

The image identifier #BT.task.key$qr generates a QR code with a link to the issue. To open the Jira issue page of a task, click on the QR ID in the PDF file.

Date and format

It is possible to add an identifier to the template, which will be converted into the date and time when the export is generated.

Examples:

  • For the current date: #BT.task.currentD (-> 31-12-2021)

  • For the current date and time: #BT.task.currentDT (-> 31-12-2021 1:47 PM)

The dates exported from the Jira task are saved in the format set in the Jira system (except for the cloud version).
Dates can be formatted using the following modifiers:

  • #BT.task.createdDate$yyyy-MM-dd (-> 2021-12-31)

  • #BT.task.createdDate$dd-MM-yyyy (-> 31-12-2021)

  • #BT.task.createdDate$MMM/dd/yyyy (-> Dec/31/2021)

Attachments

To export a full list of attachments, you need to add the following identifier to your template: #BT.task.attachments

Custom field types

The following custom field types are available:

  • Number

  • Select List (multiple choice)

  • Select List (single choice)

  • User Picker (single line)

  • User Picker (multiple choice)

  • Date Picker

  • Labels

  • Text Field (multi-line)

  • Text Field (single line)

For custom fields, you need to find out how a given field is named in your Jira instance - the field ID is used for this:

You can check custom fields on Jira Administration > Issues > Custom Fields page.

To obtain the custom field ID:

  1. Go to a Jira issue.

  2. Right-click a custom field and select Inspect.

  3. The ID is visible as a numerical value (10400 as an example below for field 123):

The pattern is #BT.task.custom.<ID-here>, e.g., #BT.task.custom.customfield_10001

Image operations

To export an image from a Jira issue attachment, you must prepare a template and upload mock images that will be replaced with attached pictures.

To learn more about preparing templates, refer to the Configuration page.

Alignment, boundary, text wrapping, and other settings are preserved even after you replace the image with a different file (the file on a given task).

Inserting a link with the mock image identifier is necessary to connect a mock image to a file from an attachment.

The identifier convention is: #BT.task.attachments$N, where N is a consecutive position of attachment that is an image in the attachment list.

The attachment numbers start from 1 rather than 0 when using #BT.task.attachments$N.

You can modify a template in Google Docs, as presented below. To do so, click on the image attachment and insert the correct identifier.

Avatars

Use the following identifies to tell the plugin where the avatar should be displayed in the documents:

  • #BT.task.assignee$avatar

  • #BT.task.reporter$avatar