How to search free text value in a custom field

Question

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 P Claspill · Answer

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.

Eric Guichaoua · Answer

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 P Claspill · Answer

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.