Unlocking Jira’s family tree: JQL for searching children and parents.

[#1]

Remember the first time you watched Game of Thrones? The utter chaos of trying to keep track of who was whose family member? It felt like you needed a family tree nearby to make sure that you were following properly, especially in scenarios where parentage was oh so crucial to understand what was happening.

 Jira can be a bit like that sometimes.

 Or, at least, it could, until now. There are two new additions to ScriptRunner's Enhanced Search for Jira Cloud that are guaranteed to make your life easier and let you enjoy the show (so to speak) without the frustration of trying to follow the familial connections: the childrenOf and parentsOf functions. 

childrenOf

childrenOf lets you dig into the details. Need to compile a report on all tasks under a specific Epic? childrenOf does the heavy lifting. Enter a subquery for the Epic, and watch as it retrieves every child issue - from immediate stories to the most granular sub-tasks. It's an essential tool for meticulous project reporting and tracking. 

For example: issueFunction in childrenOf("project = House Lannister") and issueType != "Subtask"

Watch the demo here: How to find child issues in Jira: The childrenOf JQL Function | Enhanced Search for Jira Cloud

parentsOf

parentsOf will fetch all related parent issues, be they direct parents or distant ancestors (we're looking at you, House of the Dragon). This function is a life-saver for quickly gaining a comprehensive view of your projects and how far-reaching they are, ensuring no stone is left unturned.

For example: issueFunction in parentsOf("project = House of the Dragon", "all")

Watch the demo here: How to find parent issues in Jira: The parentsOf JQL Function | Enhanced Search for Jira Cloud

Unfortunately, we don't have a function for determining whether these children are legitimate, and there are a few monarchs of George R R Martin's creation that would be very happy about that…

Give the new functions a whirl today!

[Tuncay Senturk]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-  I couldn't agree more with your Game of Thrones analogy! Just like you, I found myself downloading a family tree to navigate through the relationships and backstories of GoT in order to understand what was going on.

Your comparison to Jira hits the nail on the head. In both scenarios, it is crucial to grasp the full picture. In Jira, it can truly be a "pain in the neck".

I liked the article and the demo videos, thanks for the insightful read about the Game of Jira! :)