JQL to find issues that don't have links of a specific type

[Kelly Arrey]

We've defined a Link Type called "contains <-> belongs to" so that we could build an issue hierarchy where Initiatives "contain" Features, and Features "belong to" Initiatives. I want to query for all Features that don't belong to an Initiative.  What I would like to write is something like:

type = Feature AND (issueLinkType != "belongs to" OR issueLink is EMPTY)

 but that's not valid JQL.

Any thoughts? What am I missing? Is there a Marketplace app that will support these semantics (not necessarily this syntax)? Thanks for any ideas you can offer.

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Kelly,

Try this: type = Feature AND (issueLinkType != "belongs to" OR issueLinkType is empty)

[Kelly Arrey]

Doh! Thanks John.

Interestingly, the documentation says the IS operator is not supported for issueLinkType. That'll teach me to believe the docs :-(

[Dave Bosman _Inetum_]

@Kelly Arrey 

For server and datacenter it really is not supported. That is why i used '=' in my reply. 

[Kelly Arrey]

Good one!  Thanks again.

[Dave Bosman _Inetum_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kelly Arrey 

First of all you should always get an error that says what you are doing wrong. 

Out of the top of my head i would think the query you are looking for is  

type = Feature AND (issueLinkType != "belongs to" OR issueLinkType = EMPTY)

Regards

Dave

[Kelly Arrey]

Thanks Dave.

[Kelly Arrey · Accepted solution]

Update: The reason I couldn't get this work is because of JRACLOUD-73640.

Fortunately, there is a workaround:

• define the following filter: `issueLinkType = "belongs to"`
• I saved it under the name `has belongs to link`

Then, the filter I was originally trying to write can be expressed as:

type = Feature AND (filter != "has belongs to link" OR issueLink is EMPTY)