JQL Activity Stream – Documentation
JQL Activity Stream adds a live activity feed to Jira dashboards for any saved filter or JQL query: who changed what, the comments they left and the time they logged, newest first and grouped by day. Above the feed, a summary turns that activity into numbers and trends. Any view can be exported to Excel or CSV in one click.
Setup
- Install. A Jira administrator installs JQL Activity Stream from the Atlassian Marketplace (Apps › Explore more apps in Jira, or marketplace.atlassian.com). Every new installation starts with the Marketplace's free trial.
- Add it to a dashboard. Open a dashboard you can edit, then add the app the same way you add any gadget: - Classic dashboards: Edit › Add gadget, search for JQL Activity Stream, then Add. - New Jira dashboards: add a widget and choose JQL Activity Stream.
- Configure it. Pick a saved filter or enter JQL, then save (see below). The feed loads right away.
You can add the gadget as many times as you like, for example one per team, project or release, each with its own filter.
Configuration
Open the gadget's configuration screen (it opens automatically the first time, or from the gadget's Configure / edit menu). The settings are saved by Jira with the dashboard, so everyone who views the dashboard sees the same configuration.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Title (optional) | A heading shown at the top of the gadget. |
| Issues to follow | A saved filter or A JQL query. |
| Saved filter | Type a filter's name, ID or link. Only filters you can see are listed. If the filter's query changes later, the gadget follows it. |
| JQL | Any JQL query, checked by Jira when you save. An ORDER BY clause is ignored: the feed is always newest first. |
| Activity to show | Any combination of Created, status changes & field changes, Comments and Work logged. |
| Only show activity by (optional) | Limit the feed to the people you pick. |
| Date range | Last 24 hours, Last 7 / 14 / 30 / 90 days, Any time, or a Custom range. Custom dates are whole days in each viewer's own time zone; leave To empty for "until now". |
| Items per page | How many updates the feed shows before Show more (1–100, default 20). |
| Auto-refresh | Off, or every 5, 15 or 30 minutes. |
Jira's own dashboard Refresh buttons and the gadget's Refresh button reload the feed in place, and keep any filters a viewer has selected.
Reading the feed
Each card shows one save, comment, work log or newly created issue:
- the person, what they did, and when (hover over the time to see the exact date and time);
- the issue type, the issue key (links to the issue) on its own line, and the summary;
- for field changes, each field as from → to; for status changes, coloured status lozenges;
- for comments, work-log notes and description edits, the text with its paragraphs kept. Short text is shown in full. Longer text shows a preview that ends at a natural break, and Show more reveals up to 4,000 characters. If the original is longer still, Read the full text in Jira takes you there.
Cards are grouped under day headings, each with that day's number of updates. Show more loads the next page, and the label says exactly how many updates it will add.
Filters
Viewers can narrow what they see without changing the gadget's saved settings. These filters apply instantly, in their browser only:
- Type chips: All, Comments, Status changes, Field changes, Work logged and Created, each with its count. Select one or several.
- Person: shown when more than one person is active. Pick someone to see only their updates.
- Search (in the expanded view): matches issue keys, summaries, people, comment and work-log text, and field values.
The summary, charts, feed and exports all follow the same filters, so the numbers always agree.
Insights
Summary (on the dashboard)
- Total updates for the period, with a trend against the previous period of the same length (for example, the last 7 days against the 7 days before). Hover over the trend to see the earlier figure.
- A daily activity sparkline (weekly for long ranges), coloured by type.
- An activity mix bar showing the share of each type.
- Tiles for Comments, Status changes, Hours logged, Resolved (issues moved into a Done status), People active and Issues touched, each with its own trend. A tile that the type filter excludes (for example Hours logged while only Comments is selected) shows Filtered out instead of a misleading 0.
Trends are hidden when there is no comparable earlier period, for example with Any time, while searching, or when the earlier period couldn't be read completely.
Expanded view
Select Expand for a full-size view with:
- Activity over time: a stacked bar chart by day or week;
- Activity mix: a breakdown by type (when only one type matches, a single line such as "All 21 updates are comments" replaces it);
- People: each person's updates, split by type. Select a person to filter;
- Busiest issues: the issues with the most updates;
- a searchable timeline, plus Excel and CSV export buttons.
The expanded view uses the activity already loaded, so it opens instantly and adds no load on Jira.
How updates are counted
Every number counts updates, and one update is one row in an export. A single save that edits three fields counts as three updates (status edits count as status changes, everything else as field changes). Each comment, work log and created issue counts as one. The feed still shows a multi-field save as a single card.
Export
Excel (.xlsx) and CSV files can be downloaded from:
- the gadget's Export menu: Excel and CSV export what you are looking at, including any type chips and person you selected. Export everything (ignores filters) exports the full feed for the gadget's saved settings;
- the expanded view's Excel and CSV buttons. These follow its filters and search. When filters are on, the Export all activity toggle switches to everything instead.
Filtered files have names ending in filtered. Both formats have the same columns:
Date (your local time) · Issue Key · Issue Summary · Activity · Person · Field · From · To · Time Logged · Hours · Details · Issue Link · Timestamp (UTC)
- There is one row per changed field, so you can filter a spreadsheet by field.
- The Excel workbook has a bold, frozen header row, filters, real date cells, numeric hours, wrapped text and clickable issue links.
- CSV files are UTF-8, and Excel opens them correctly.
- Comment and description text keeps its paragraphs, up to 4,000 characters per cell.
- Files are protected against spreadsheet formula injection: text from Jira is never treated as a formula.
- Files are built in your browser from data you can already see, and saved straight to your device. Nothing is uploaded anywhere. If your browser blocks the download, the gadget shows the CSV text so you can copy it.
Permissions and data
- Viewer permissions. The app reads Jira as the person viewing the dashboard. Each viewer sees only issues, comments and work logs that Jira lets them see, including issue-level security and restricted comments. Two people looking at the same gadget can therefore see different activity.
- Read-only. The app requests only
read:jira-workandread:jira-user. It cannot create, edit or delete anything in Jira. - Runs on Atlassian. The app runs entirely on Atlassian's Forge platform and sends nothing outside Atlassian.
- No stored data. The app keeps no copy of your Jira data. Its only cache is in memory: a saved filter's definition and the site's status list, each kept for 60 seconds. Gadget settings are saved by Jira with the dashboard.
For full details, see the Privacy Policy.
Limits
To stay fast and gentle on your Jira site, the app:
- reads the 200 most recently updated matching issues per view (50 at a time). If there are more, totals show with a "+" and a message suggests narrowing the filter or date range;
- shows at most 1,000 updates per page of issues, and reads the newest 300 comments or work logs per issue;
- places work logs by when they were logged, not by their "started" date;
- shows rich text (comments, descriptions) as plain text with paragraphs and lists kept.
Whenever something is skipped or shortened, a message above the feed says so.
FAQ
Why does a colleague see different numbers on the same dashboard? Each person sees only what their Jira permissions allow, so activity on issues or comments they can't view is not shown or counted for them.
Why is the total higher than the number of cards? Totals count updates. A save that changes several fields is one card but several updates, which matches the rows in an export.
Why are trends missing? Trends need a complete, comparable earlier period. They are hidden for Any time, while searching, when the earlier period had no activity, or when it couldn't be read in time.
What does "86+" mean? The 200-issue limit was reached, so the real total may be higher. Narrow the filter or date range for an exact figure.
Does the gadget work on the new Jira dashboards? Yes. The same app works as a gadget on classic dashboards and as a widget on the new dashboards.
Does it support dark mode? Yes. It follows Jira's light and dark themes automatically.
Can it show Confluence or other products' activity? No. It shows Jira issue activity only.
Will my exports include data other people can't see? An export contains only what the person exporting can see in Jira. Once downloaded, the file follows your organisation's own data-handling rules.
The gadget says the subscription isn't active. The trial or subscription has ended. A Jira administrator can start or renew it in Apps › Manage your apps. Gadget settings are kept.
The gadget says Jira is busy. Jira asked the app to slow down. Wait a moment and select Refresh.
My filter shows an error after a project or field was deleted. The filter's JQL now refers to something that no longer exists. Edit the filter in Jira or update the gadget's JQL.
Where can I get help? Email support@camden-trades.com. See the Support Policy.