How to include Epic Link and Affected Versions while creating JIRA issues using the Python API

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1

I am currently using the JIRA Python API to generate JIRA issues automatically from an Excel sheet. My existing code is functioning well with basic fields, but I’m encountering issues when I try to include both the Epic Link and Affected Versions in the issues.

Here’s the code I have:

from jira import JIRA
import pandas as pd

user_email = '[email protected]'
api_token = 'your_api_token_here'
api_url = 'https://yourcompany.atlassian.net'

jira_options = {'server': api_url}
jira_instance = JIRA(jira_options, basic_auth=(user_email, api_token))

issues_data = []

data_from_excel = pd.read_excel(r'tickets_data.xlsx')
for row_index in data_from_excel.index:
    issue_fields = {}
    issue_fields['project'] = {'key': 'PROJECT_KEY'}
    issue_fields['summary'] = data_from_excel['Ticket Summary'][row_index]
    issue_fields['description'] = data_from_excel['Ticket Description'][row_index]
    issue_fields['issuetype'] = {'name': 'Task'}
    issue_fields['priority'] = {'name': data_from_excel['Priority'][row_index]}
    issue_fields['labels'] = [data_from_excel['Labels'][row_index]]
    issue_fields['reporter'] = {'name': data_from_excel['Reporter'][row_index]}
    issue_fields['assignee'] = {'name': data_from_excel['Assignee'][row_index]}
    
    new_issue = jira_instance.create_issue(fields=issue_fields)
    print(new_issue.key)

I’m struggling to correctly set the Epic Link and Affected Versions in the issue_fields, and they don’t appear in the created tickets. Has anyone had success with this while programmatically creating JIRA issues?

2

Been wrestling with this exact problem for months in my automation scripts. The breakthrough was realizing epic links aren’t regular fields - they’re custom fields that reference the epic’s issue key directly. I had to dig through our JIRA config to find the right custom field identifier. What finally worked was this helper function that grabs the epic link field ID dynamically: epic_field = next(f['id'] for f in jira_instance.fields() if 'epic' in f['name'].lower()). Then just use that field ID when creating issues. For affected versions, make sure the version objects actually exist in your project first - otherwise you’ll get cryptic API errors that don’t tell you the version wasn’t found.

3

epic links are tricky - you’ve got to use the actual epic key, not the name. try issue_fields['customfield_10014'] = 'EPIC-123' (though that custom field number changes depending on your instance). for affected versions, use issue_fields['versions'] = [{'name': 'v1.0'}]. just check with your jira admin for the exact epic link field id.

4

Epic link field IDs change between JIRA instances, so you’ll need to find yours first. Run jira_instance.fields() to see all available fields and look for one with ‘epic’ in the name - usually something like customfield_10008 or customfield_10014. Got the field ID? Add it like issue_fields['customfield_XXXXX'] = 'EPIC-KEY' where EPIC-KEY is your actual epic issue key. For affected versions, just use ‘versions’ and pass a list of dictionaries: issue_fields['versions'] = [{'name': 'Version 1.0'}, {'name': 'Version 2.0'}]. The version names need to match exactly what’s in your JIRA project settings or the API will error out when creating the issue.