what's the difference in epic vs parent?

[Laurie Childers]

This question is in reference to Atlassian Documentation: Working with epics

When I create an issue, I have both an Epic Link field and a Parent Link field.  What's the difference and how do you know which one to use?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm not sure where the "parent link" might be coming from.  Could you explain that one a little more? 

However, it does sound like it's a simple link to another issue, one that defines some simple relationship between two issues (e.g AB-123 blocks CD-456).  Epics are a bit more functional than simple links, as the Epics gather data about everything held in them and appear on boards so things can be added to them easily, and so-on.

[Laurie Childers]

Thanks Nic,

The Parent Link shows up on the Create Issues screens for bugs and stories.  I've taken a few screenshots and attached.  From what I can see, it appears Parent Link was generated by JIRA as per the last screenshot. Does that help explain it more?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yep, that makes sense, I wanted to check which add-on was providing the parent-link field before I talked about it.

This parent link is from your installation of Portfolio, and it's for creating the hierarchies for Portfolio.

[Laurie Childers]

Thanks Nic, I'll go check into the Portfolio documentation.