Import from Redmine - Help | YouTrack Standalone

Import Details

If the Redmine database contains references to entities that do not already exist in YouTrack, they are created. The user account that you use to run the import should have permission to create projects, issues, users, and possibly more. We recommend that you use an account with a System Admin role to execute the import script.

New entities are created as follows:

Entity	Description
Projects	The Python script lets you import all issues from a source project at once. If the project does not already exist, a new project is created. The project name and ID are assigned based on the values from the Redmine database. The user who executes the import script is set as the project owner.
Users	Several issue attributes like `reporterName` and `Assignee` store references to user accounts. User accounts in Redmine can use an email address for login, so the import script checks accounts for login first, then an email address. For each account that does not match the login or email for an existing user in YouTrack, a new user account is created. All new user accounts are assigned randomly-generated passwords. To log in to YouTrack, imported users must click the Reset password link on the login page and create a new password. References to users in the imported data are mapped to existing accounts in YouTrack. If a match is not found, a new user account is created. Imported users are allocated a license according to your subscription plan. For users that exceed your per-user license limit, the imported users are flagged as banned. For more information, see Ban User Accounts.
Groups	Redmine user accounts can be assigned to groups. For imports from Redmine versions 2.1 and later, these groups are imported to YouTrack. Groups names and memberships are taken from the source database.
Roles	In Redmine, role assignments define the permissions that members have in a project. For imports from Redmine versions 2.2 and later, these roles can be imported to YouTrack. Role names and assignments are taken from the source database. The permissions are mapped to the permission scheme in YouTrack according to the definitions in your mapping file.
Custom Fields	If the import data contains a field that does not exist in YouTrack, the custom field is created and added to the target project. The field name and type are set according to the definitions in your mapping file. The properties for the custom field are set as follows: `autoAttached=true`, `isPrivate=false`, `defaultVisibility=false`.
Field Values	If the source file contains new values for an existing field, they are added to the current set of values.
Work Items	When you import data from the time tracking module in Redmine, the values that are stored as Spent time are converted to time spent in work items. The value that is used for the Spent Time field in YouTrack is derived from the time spent that is added to imported work items.

The Redmine REST API does not support watchers and tags. These entities are not imported to YouTrack.

Set Up Your Environment

Import to YouTrack is supported with Python import scripts. These scripts are built on top of the YouTrack REST API. You won't actually need to do any programming in Python, but you do need to install Python and the package that contains the import scripts.

To set up your environment:

Download and install Python. The Python Client Library is compatible with Python 2.7+. Python 3 releases are not supported. You can choose whichever installation directory you prefer.

The latest versions of macOS, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and Ubuntu come with Python 2.7 out of the box. If you're working with any of these operating systems, continue with the next step.
Open the command-line interface that is supported by your operating system.
Verify that your Python installation includes the virtualenv package by running the following command:

pip install virtualenv

This ensures that you are able to execute commands in YouTrack import scripts without encountering a Command not found message.
Install the package that contains the import scripts with the following command:

pip install youtrack-scripts
- The import scripts are installed in your local environment.
- The youtrack package that contains the Python client library for the YouTrack REST API is installed automatically as a dependency.
If you prefer not to install the packages globally, you can install them for your user account only with the command:

pip install --user youtrack-scripts

The import script requires REST API support in Redmine.

To enable REST API support:

In your Redmine instance, open the Administration > Settings > Authentication tab.

In Redmine versions version 4.1.0 and later, the option to enable REST API support is located on the Administration > Settings > API tab.
Select the Enable REST web service checkbox.

Customize the Mapping Definitions

The next step is to map the fields in your Redmine database to attributes in YouTrack. You can use the redmine2youtrack script to generate a sample mapping file.

You only need to customize the mapping file if you have customized the issue attributes in Redmine. To use the default mapping definitions, skip this procedure and import your data.

To generate a mapping file:

Open the command-line interface that is supported by your operating system.
If necessary, change the current directory to the installation directory for Python. For example (Windows):
cd C:\Python27
Enter the following command:

redmine2youtrack -g -m mapping.json
- The -g option tells the script to generate the mapping file.
- The -m option overrides the default path and filename for the mapping file. If you don't pass this option, the file is generated in the current directory as mapping.json. If you want to specify another location and/or filename, specify a value for the parameter with the full path of the target directory and/or desired name.
- If the command is executed successfully, a message with the location of the generated file is printed in the command-line interface.

To customize the mapping definitions:

Open the generated mapping file.
Update the mapping to ensure that all of the data that you want to import from the Redmine database is mapped to the desired values in YouTrack. If the file contains one or more fields that you don't want to import, you can remove the references from the mapping file. For a description of the default mappings, see Default Mapping.
Save your changes and close the mapping file.

Import Your Data

The last step is to run the command that imports your data from Redmine.

To import your data:

Open the command-line interface that is supported by your operating system.
If necessary, change the current directory to the installation directory for Python. For example (Windows):
cd C:\Python27

Enter the following command:

redmine2youtrack -m mapping.json -t token -u login - p password -a api_key r_user r_pass r_url y_url [project_id ...]

Replace the command-line parameters with values as described here:

Parameter	Description
`mapping.json`	Use with the `-m` option to specify the full path and filename of your custom mapping file. If you don't pass this option, the default mapping file is used instead.
`token`	When used with the `-t` option, a permanent token that is used to authenticate your administrator account in YouTrack. This is the preferred method of authentication. If you use this option, skip the `-u` and `-p` options. To learn how to generate a permanent token, see Create a Permanent Token. Alternatively, you can use the `-T` option and specify the full path and filename for a file that contains a permanent token.
`login`	When used with the `-u` option, the login for a YouTrack administrator account. You must also specify a value for the `-p` option.
`password`	When used with the `-p` option, the password for the YouTrack administrator account.
`api_key`	When used with the `-a` option, the API key that is used for authentication in Redmine. You can find the Redmine API key on your user account page. If you use the `-a` option to authenticate with an API key, skip the `r_user` and `r_pass` parameters.
`r_user`	The username to log in to Redmine. Specify only when you authenticate in Redmine with a login/password pair.
`r_pass`	The password for the account used to log in to Redmine. Specify only when you authenticate in Redmine with a login/password pair.
`r_url`	The URL of your Redmine instance.
`y_url`	The base URL of the target YouTrack server. For YouTrack InCloud instances, your base URL includes the trailing `/youtrack`. For example: `https://company.myjetbrains.com/youtrack`
`y_user`	The login for a YouTrack administrator account.
`y_password`	The password for the YouTrack administrator account.
`project_id`	The ID of the Redmine project that you want to import.

The script also supports the following options:

Option	Description
`-t`	Enables import from the time tracking module in Redmine.
`-h`	Displays a short help file for the import script.

The command executes the Python import script.
If successful, the following line is printed in the command-line interface for each issue:
Issue [ <issue ID> ] imported successfully

Check the project or projects that you imported issues into and verify that the data is presented properly. If you are not satisfied with the results and want to re-import the data:
- Delete all of the issues that were created during import. If you imported issues into a new project, simply delete the project.
- Edit your mapping file.
- Run the import script again.

Default Mapping

The Python Client Library includes a default mapping file for importing issues from Redmine to YouTrack. The file is saved as mapping.py in the youtrackutils/redmine subfolder of the repository.

The import script references the default mapping file. If you create a custom mapping file, use the -m option in your import script and specify the full path and filename of your file as described in the previous section.

Custom Fields

The field_names dictionary maps field names in Redmine to custom fields in YouTrack. You can update the mappings in this section to import data to specific custom fields. The default mapping file contains definitions for the following fields:

field_names = {
    'id'              : 'numberInProject',
    'subject'         : 'summary',
    'author'          : 'reporterName',
    'status'          : 'State',
    'priority'        : 'Priority',
    'created_on'      : 'created',
    'updated_on'      : 'updated',
    'tracker'         : 'Type',
    'assigned_to'     : 'Assignee',
    'due_date'        : 'Due Date',
    'estimated_hours' : 'Estimation',
    'category'        : 'Subsystem',
    'fixed_version'   : 'Fix versions',
    'redmine_id'      : 'Redmine ID'
}

Pay attention to the following guidelines when you edit the custom field mapping:

The left side of the mapping references the field name in Redmine. These values correspond to the field references in the Redmine database.
The right side of the mapping references an issue attribute in YouTrack. Base attributes use the attribute names that are specified in the Import REST API. For mappings to custom fields, use the custom field name.
If you do not specify a mapping for a field in Redmine that does not match a target field in YouTrack, a custom field is created with the same name as in Redmine.

Custom Field Types

The field_types dictionary maps data types in Redmine to custom field types in YouTrack. If you have added fields to the mapping for custom fields, add a corresponding entry to this dictionary to define how the data is stored in YouTrack. The default mapping file contains definitions for the following field types:

field_types = {
    'Type'         : 'enum[1]',
    'State'        : 'state[1]',
    'Priority'     : 'enum[1]',
    'Assignee'     : 'user[1]',
    'Due Date'     : 'date',
    'Estimation'   : 'period',
    'Subsystem'    : 'ownedField[1]',
    'Fix versions' : 'version[*]',
    'Redmine ID'   : 'integer'
}

Pay attention to the following guidelines when you edit the field type mapping:

The left side of the mapping references the name of the custom field in YouTrack. These values must exactly match the custom field name in the field_names dictionary.
The right side of the mapping references the field type in YouTrack. For a list of valid types, refer to the Administration REST API.
If the target field already exists in YouTrack, you do not need to include it here.
You cannot change the data type of an existing field. For example, if the existing Assignee field stores single values (user[1]), you cannot use user[*] in the mapping file and import multiple assignees. You must first update this property for the Assignee field in the YouTrack user interface, then import the data.

Values for Custom Fields

The conversion dictionary maps enumerated values for Redmine fields to value for custom fields YouTrack. The default mapping file contains mappings for issue State and Priority.

conversion = {
    'State': {
        'Resolved' : 'Fixed',
        'Closed'   : 'Fixed',
        'Rejected' : "Won't fix"
        },
    'Priority': {
        'High'      : 'Major',
        'Low'       : 'Minor',
        'Urgent'    : 'Critical',
        'Immediate' : 'Show-stopper'
    }
}

Permissions

The permissions dictionary maps permissions from Redmine to permissions in YouTrack. Redmine permissions that do not have a corresponding permission in YouTrack are commented out.

The default mapping includes definitions for the following permissions in YouTrack:

permissions = {
    'add_project'           : 'CREATE_PROJECT',
    'edit_project'          : 'UPDATE_PROJECT',
    'close_project'         : 'DELETE_PROJECT',
    'manage_members'        : [ 'CREATE_USER', 'READ_USER', 'UPDATE_USER',
                                'CREATE_USERGROUP', 'READ_USERGROUP',
                                'UPDATE_USERGROUP' ],
    'add_messages'          : 'CREATE_COMMENT',
    'edit_messages'         : 'UPDATE_NOT_OWN_COMMENT',
    'edit_own_messages'     : 'UPDATE_COMMENT',
    'delete_messages'       : 'DELETE_NOT_OWN_COMMENT',
    'delete_own_messages'   : 'DELETE_COMMENT',
    'view_issues'           : 'READ_ISSUE',
    'add_issues'            : 'CREATE_ISSUE',
    'edit_issues'           : 'UPDATE_ISSUE',
    'delete_issues'         : 'DELETE_ISSUE',
    'view_issue_watchers'   : 'VIEW_WATCHERS',
    'add_issue_watchers'    : 'UPDATE_WATCHERS',
    'delete_issue_watchers' : 'UPDATE_WATCHERS',
    'log_time'              : 'UPDATE_WORK_ITEM',
    'view_time_entries'     : 'READ_WORK_ITEM',
    'edit_time_entries'     : 'UPDATE_WORK_ITEM',
    'edit_own_time_entries' : 'UPDATE_NOT_OWN_WORK_ITEM',
}