Easy Extract Link Items

Question

Hello Community,

I am working on getting an export of a Hirarchy 2 work type that contains linked work items. 
When I export those Linked Work item but I am getting in a problem when I am trying to do 2 things linked to this: 
1- Working on sorting the Linked issues by time based on a date time picker field that is a starting time for tasks, it works on search but not in the export: 
 {{{jql "issue in linkedIssues(\"{{key}}\") ORDER BY cf[10427] ASC"
"customfield_11447,key,summary,customfield_11448"
"15,15,55,15"}}}
2- I want to try to extract the children of every linked issue if possible, anyone has tried to do this and if yes can you direct me on how to do it?

Regards, 
James

Himanshu Tiwary_go407r · Answer

Hi @James Rizk,

Thanks for the extra detail.

If you’re using Easy Exporter and the JQL part is not working properly inside the export, the easiest workaround is usually to run the JQL in Jira first, save it as a filter if needed, and then export from the Issue Navigator results. In many cases, that works more reliably than trying to handle all the filtering logic directly in the exporter.

On the recursion point, I’d be a bit careful. Exporting related information such as linked issues, parent/child issues, subtasks, comments, and similar data is generally possible, but true recursive export is not something I would expect to be available as a standard feature out of the box.

So in practice, the usual options are: build the correct issue set first with Jira filters or JQL

export that result set

use a custom template if you need more advanced logic

and if you really need recursion across linked issues, that will probably require a more customized approach rather than standard export settings

So overall, I’d say: for the JQL issue, try doing the filtering in Jira first, and for recursion, it is more likely to be a custom workaround than a native feature.

James Rizk · Answer

Hey Himanshu,

Thank you for the answer.

To start I am using easy exporter.

It seems the JQL situation is not working on exporter, any other option you can provide?

Thanks for the developpement in the explenation of the recursion, can you tell me if a recursion on the export if possible, if not what work arounds do I have?

Regards,

Himanshu Tiwary_go407r · Answer

Hi James,

What you are seeing is actually due to the difference between the JQL search can do and what the exports supports

For your first point, the JQL itself looks reasonable:

issue in linkedIssues("{{key}}") ORDER BY cf[10427] ASC

If it sorts correctly in search but not in the export, then the likely issue is that the export macro is not preserving the JQL sort order when rendering the linked issues table. In other words, the query can return the right set, but the export output may not honor the ORDER BY the same way the issue navigator does.

A few things to check:

Confirm that cf[10427] is the correct field ID for the date-time field in that Jira instance.

Try using the field name instead of the custom field ID, if supported in your setup.

Test the same JQL directly in the issue navigator and compare the result with the export.

If search sorts correctly but export does not, this is likely a macro/export limitation rather than a JQL problem.

For your second question, extracting the children of every linked issue is a bit harder. In most cases, that requires a second-level query, because:

first you get the linked issues of the current item

then you would need to query the child issues for each of those linked issues

That kind of nested or recursive expansion is usually not supported directly in a single export macro. It often depends on whether your hierarchy is based on:

Jira parent/child relationships

Advanced Roadmaps hierarchy

issue links

app-specific hierarchy logic

If your linked work items are standard Jira issues, you may need to do this in multiple steps rather than one export:

export the linked issues first

then run a second query for their children

combine the results outside Jira/Confluence if needed

So the practical answer is:

sorting by the date-time field may work in JQL search but not in the export renderer

getting children of each linked issue is usually not possible in one nested export unless the app explicitly supports recursive hierarchy expansion

If you can share which app or macro provides the {{{jql ... }}} export block, it would help narrow down whether this is a product limitation or whether there is a supported nested syntax for child items.

If this helped, a kudos would be appreciated.