How to search free text value in a custom field

[Eric Guichaoua]

Hi,
I have a projet with a custom field named "Nom du fichier master" (Name of the master video file in english) which accept free texte entries.

I want my colleagues to be able to search a value (for example in my screencpature "pixedu_ep54_utiliser_supports_ludiques") and get the related issue. But this field doesn't seem to be indexed, and searching this value in the various search box of the webUI doesn't get any result.

Maybe I should turn on some parameters ? But the field is already set on "Search free text" (sorry, my webUI is in french, so I try to guess the translation in english ;-) see capture below).

So I try a workaround : I've created a filter, and pre-configured the settings to display the custom field, so my colleagues could input the exact name of the master files, and get the related issue. But same problem here, no result at all even with an exact match (see the 2 captures below ; the first one show the filter results by default, just before I click the "Update" button to search the exact value circled in red).

Any idea on a way to make some sort of simple search page where people could input this exact value and get the related issue ?

Thanks for your help.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Eric Guichaoua 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Many people have the misconception that the text search in Jira will match the search text to any string where the text is any part of the string; i.e.

"pill" will match to:

- spill

- catepillar

- pillow

That is not how text search works in Jira.

The text search uses a function called "word stemming" to try to extrapolate various of the word you enter to find matches. For more information on this refer to this:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/search-for-issues-using-the-text-field/#Word-stemming

When you include number, dashes, and underscores, word stemming cannot be applied. In that case Jira will look for an exact match to what you entered, with that exact text having either nothing or a blank space before it, and with that exact text having either nothing or a blank space after it. The searching does not provide matches if what you entered is only a portion of such an text string.

Looking at what you entered as your search text in your picture, it appears that you did not include the "s" that appears at the end of the same text in the actual issue.

If you want to find matches that might have other non-blank characters before or after your search text you need to include the wildcard character - the asterisk - * - where you want to indicate that additional non-blank characters may exist.

Example:

pixedu_*

this will match any string where "pixedu_" is the first part of the string and any or no characters come after that.

[Eric Guichaoua]

Hi Trudy, thanks for your answer.

Looking at what you entered as your search text in your picture, it appears that you did not include the "s" that appears at the end of the same text in the actual issue.

I've made a copy/paste, so the "s" is here, but just not displayed (the end is hidden).

Here is a link to a screencapture : https://ericg.d.pr/v/QJ4kdE
You will see that I try in first an exact match and it works.
Then I try "pixedu*" and it works.
Finally I try another exact match ("pixedu_ep54_utiliser_supports_ludiques" where I pay very strong attention to not forget the final "s") and it doesn't work.

I don't understand why. Any idea ?
How to make something (with a filter like in my screencapture, or with the default search box) to allow my colleagues to search and find issue based on exact filename (for this custom field) or on some words in other custom field ?

Thanks for your advice :-)

[Trudy Claspill]

Interesting.

I used the same text (pixedu_ep54_utiliser_supports_ludiques) in the Summary field of an issue and searched for the full string and it did not return the issue.

I tried a shorter but similar format (a_b_c_d_e) and the search was successful.

I did some experimenting with strings of different lengths. I thought I discovered that there was a maximum length to the string that it would exactly match, but additional experimentation proved that was a false conclusion.

What did work was using the syntax that indicates an exact full word match is desired:

"\"pixedu_ep54_utiliser_supports_ludiques\""

Putting the "\" at the beginning and \"" at the end indicates you want an exact match to the text in between to an entire "word" in the field you are searching. 

[Eric Guichaoua]

Hi Trudy,
I'm happy to see that you've successfully reproduced the strange behavior I was facing.

Thanks for pushing your tests.

Your tip with "\"pixedu_ep54_utiliser_supports_ludiques\"" works indeed, but i'ts not a satisfying solution (my colleagues won't remeber those specific caracters).

Is there a way to modify for example my filter, so the input field of the custom field automaticaly add those "\" and \"" around my entry ?

Thanks, Eric.

[Trudy Claspill]

I'm not aware of any way to modify that field in the basic search screen.

You could create a saved filter that includes placeholder text, and recommend to the users that they use that saved filter and replace the placeholder text.

Given that you are on a paid subscription you could also ask your Jira Administrators to raise a support case concerning this. Atlassian support may have a more specific answer about limitations on the text search to explain why some variations work and others do not.