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JQL to show all issues and subtasks in an epic

Jacqui Pretty

Hi there,

I'd like to create a JQL filter to show all the issues and subtasks in an epic. There was already a discussion on it that's been marked as solved (https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/JQL-to-show-all-issues-AND-subtasks-in-the-Epic/qaq-p/346433), but none of the answers provided solve the problem - they can show the issues in an epic, but none of them show subtasks as well (note that I only tried the JQL and didn't try any of the third part tools recommended).

Basically, I have an annual epic with weekly issues and daily subtasks. Each week gets cloned, with the details of the daily tasks being updated, but the cloning works because the structure of each week is the same.

I'd like to create a filter that shows all the subtasks. Note that because we're not creating all of these tasks up front, I can't create a filter with 52 tasks and then be done for the year, so it needs to be something that can update as new tasks are added. I was hoping to do something based on the epic, but since the subtasks are only linked to the epic through the issues (so, no direct link), this doesn't seem to be possible.

Has anyone found a way to make this work?

Accepted answers

Jack Nolddor [Sweet Bananas]

Hi ya, this is Nolddor from SweetBananas vendor.

Sadly you cannot achieve the desired search using standard features on Jira, you must go for a third-party app instead. Using i.e. JQL Booster Pack (if you are on Server / DataCenter) you can type the following:

1) Find all task under a given Epic (i.e. EMEA-2459)

"Epic Link" = EMEA-2459

2) Find all subtasks under returned issues above

issue IN subtasksOf(' "Epic Link" = EMEA-2459 ')

3) All together (Epic, Task & Subtask)

key = EMEA-2459 OR "Epic Link" = EMEA-2459 OR issue IN subtasksOf(' "Epic Link" = EMEA-2459 ')

(*) Note that this is just an example, you must tune above query to fit your needs.

Using this app you can also query other issues relations, check:

Regards

Paul Matteucci

You can get that with the command "parentEpic"

parentEpic in (EPIC-1, EPIC-2)

Enjoy!

Midhun C_N

issuekey in ( childIssuesOf("SDT-438"), childIssuesOf("SDT-439") )

This solution worked for me. The above query will list all the issues under the EPIC's SDT-438 and "SDT-439"

All comments

Jack Nolddor [Sweet Bananas]

Hi ya, this is Nolddor from SweetBananas vendor.

1) Find all task under a given Epic (i.e. EMEA-2459)

"Epic Link" = EMEA-2459

2) Find all subtasks under returned issues above

issue IN subtasksOf(' "Epic Link" = EMEA-2459 ')

3) All together (Epic, Task & Subtask)

key = EMEA-2459 OR "Epic Link" = EMEA-2459 OR issue IN subtasksOf(' "Epic Link" = EMEA-2459 ')

(*) Note that this is just an example, you must tune above query to fit your needs.

Using this app you can also query other issues relations, check:

Regards

Paul Matteucci

You can get that with the command "parentEpic"

parentEpic in (EPIC-1, EPIC-2)

Enjoy!

Daniel Turczanski - JQL Search Extensions

Hi @Jacqui Pretty ,

As you're on Jira Cloud the correct answer is to get an app that provides JQL extensions you're looking for.

With standard JQL you can only get a list of issues and export them to Excel for further processing. This works if you want to do a one-off analysis. Your use case is more dynamic than that.

Standard JQL doesn't easily allow it but the results can be quickly found using our professional indexing service:

JQL Search Extensions

After you install the app you can simply search:


issue in childrenOfIssuesInQueryRecursive("project='ACME' and type=Epic") and type=Subtask

The query finds all children of your epics and even children of their children - these are your subtasks. You may want to check out the docs as well.

I hope this helps!
Daniel

Paul Matteucci

Daniel,

you can use the command parentEpic

parentEpic = EPIC-1

without the need for external packages.

Cheers

Paul

Daniel Turczanski - JQL Search Extensions

That's right. Standard JQL has support for basic searches like that. If you have a static list of issue keys then you're fine with vanilla JQL. If you need the queries to be more dynamic then it's a good idea to search for JQL extensions.

mochadwi

Jira since then changed a lot. Now the JQL named as linkedissue e.g:

linkedissue = SAPP-10885 OR linkedissue = SAPP-10787

It'll filter the issue linked in the SAPP-10885 (in this case epic key) or SAPP-10787

The SAPP-XYZ was just an example

rudy.duke@nih.gov

QED!

Michiel V_

Give this man more upvotes, no addons or extensions needed!

Tony Woodall

Spot on! The only answer I needed to create plans based on specific Epics and not by projects but still shows all tasks and subtasks.

David Hiatt

Doesn't appear to work for Data Center 8.13.13...anyone know what version supports this JQL? Unless I botched the syntax, but it seems pretty simple. Thanks for anyone that considers this, screenshot of what I am getting in subsequent reply.

Steve Gonzales

None of these suggestions work and it is absolutely mind boggling that there is no easy way to do this.

Paul Matteucci

Sorry it doesn't work for you.

Can you share what you're trying to do and what platform you're on?

Meghan Duffy

This also does not work for me, and I can't tell if I'm missing something because this also seems very intuitive and like it should be simple to me.

-Like OP, I want to see all the issues and subtasks in an epic.

-I don't know how to answer the question of what platform I am on (using enterprise software from my company).

For example, let's say I am in my project of "Running a Household", and working on an Epic of "Cooking Dinner", and this Epic of cooking dinner might be grouped in with other Epics under the initiative "Eating Healthy". I am in the backlog of Running a Household, and I want to take a look and review how things are going for our "Cooking Dinner" Epic - what user stories have been made, what problems and issues and subtasks need to be worked on all in one view. Intuitively I want to just search for my Epic or initiative in the backlog or use advanced search.

Right now, I can see *all* the issues for a project. But, I can't seem to just search for the epic name or number (TD-236) and have the same view but filtered for anything in that Epic. I also would like to use this same strategy for initiatives to view all epics with their issues in an initiative, and using the search/advanced search option.

If you have the epic panel turned on, then in the backlog view you can select your Epic to filter (which is basically what I am going for here!). However, if you have a lot of epics going that is still not ideal because you have to do a lot of scanning and scrolling to find your epic. And it does not help you in the advanced search field, or if you don't have epic panel, or if you want to search by initiative.

Steve Gonzales

@Paul Matteucci What do you mean by "platform"? We are using Atlassian cloud Jira. This happens in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, everywhere. It is limitation of Jira, one of the dozens if not thousands of them. Mind blowing that no one thought to write this...although I seem to remember Green Hopper (or whatever the original Agile tool was called) doing this. Likely got deleted by some over zealous object oriented developer.

Jermaine Fulton

To return linked issues in Jira:

Use: Issuekey in (linksHierarchyIssue("KEY-123"))

Where:

if "Key-123" is a Sub-task, the query returns the Parent (e.g. Story) and the Parent's Parent (e.g. Epic)

if "KEY-123" is a task level (e.g. Story), the query returns the Parent (e.g. Epic), any other stories within that Epic, and the original issue's sub-tasks.

if "KEY-123" is an Epic, the query returns everything below that Epic (Stories and their sub-tasks), and if that Epic happens to be a child of anything higher (e.g. New Feature, Initiative), it also returns that Parent ticket.

Bonus: Include another parameter to expand your results:

Issuekey in (linksHierarchyIssue("KEY-123",2))

if "KEY-123" is an Epic, the query returns the Parent (e.g. Feature) and the Parent's Parent (e.g. Initiative), as well as all issues beneath that highest level in the hierarchy (Initiative), and any adjacently linked issues, dependencies, related issues. It also extends to any issue at the same level as its parent issue (e.g. Feature) that is under the top hierarchy issue (Initiative). - This assumes your project has levels above Epic.

This methodology works for any issue type that has parent and/or epic links. Youcan increment the additional parameter to "Widen" the search results and return parallel issues of the highest level issue returned and any other issues that share a parent with that ticket. In this case, it would be the project itself. Thus it would return all initiatives in the project and all of their Features, Epics, Stories, and Sub-tasks.

Gil Groman

This is the only thing that worked for me. thank you!

Midhun C_N

issuekey in ( childIssuesOf("SDT-438"), childIssuesOf("SDT-439") )

This solution worked for me. The above query will list all the issues under the EPIC's SDT-438 and "SDT-439"

Denes Gacsal_s4uqob

I think I will hang my self. all today I was tring to solve this question, how to list all the issues (task, sub task, open item...) of an Epic and still nothing suceed. Nevertheless, what I really can't understad, a software, made for this kind of tracking, needs so many extensions to solve his job. Its like I would have a watch but I need to buy extensions to know the current time.
super.

maybe I will take another try tomorrow with cooled down head. Until that, I would ask some help. My project looks like this

My project

Open item 1
- Epic 1
  - sub tasks
  - Open item
    - sub tasks 1
    - sub task 2
  - Open item 2
    - sub task 1
    - subtask 2
  - sub tasks xxxx
  - subtask yyyy
- Epic 2
- epic 3...
Open item 2 (for example Serial production topics)
- Epic 1 (a really nice problem)
- Epic 2 ( another production show stopper)
- ...

I am looking for a query to list EPIC1 into a kan ban table.

my closest solution to Eden:= JQL: project = ASCSENG AND issueFunction in linkedIssuesOfAllRecursiveLimited("issue = ASCSENG-62 ", 2) ORDER BY Ranking ASC --> but this shows Epic 2 as well under Open item 1 and I could not find a good was to exclude it.

thanks for suggestions.

Steve Gonzales

1,000% correct @Denes Gacsal and nearly THREE YEARS later and this is still deficient. Atlassian is sure good at collecting a monthly fee...making their software usable...not so much.

GeeLong

This works for me when I want a filter for the following scenario.
Project A and
Project B, particular Epic and its child issues

project in (ProjectName) OR project ="ProjectName" AND linkedIssue = Epic ID

For illustration purposes:

project in (Alpha) or project ="Beta" AND linkedIssue = BETA-100