Display Sub-Tasks linked to an epic

Benoit MARIE May 10, 2016

This question is in reference to Atlassian Documentation: Why do subtasks disappear when I filter my board using Epic Links

Is there any JQL workaround to allow the display of all the sub-tasks of an epic, and not only the issues? I don't have any add-on. 

4 answers

3 votes
Junio Fernandes November 29, 2017

In my case I use AM Utils (free add-on) to search all issues and subtasks on it:

A simple example:

issuekey in (issuesSubtasks("'Epic Link' = XXX-99")) ORDER BY Rank ASC

With this I can make boards that swinlanes with stories or projects besides the Epic Link. 

bajajn2 May 15, 2018

Works great. Also just adding the AM Utils add on, you can use the basic JQL (epic link in (CC) AND project = Myproject ORDER BY RANK ASC) 

Both solutions work but only after adding AM Utils.

henri guillot July 2, 2019

Now AM utils are not free . This addon needs to be purchased . (just a 1 month free trial)

Junio Fernandes August 9, 2019

You can download and install version 1.3.21. I freezed it at that latest free version. There's no need to upgrade to a new paid version.

Patrick van der Rijst
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
April 14, 2020

No need to upgrade to a paid version? There's always a dedicated support and development team behind an app that have to maintain docs, version compatibilities and do bug-fixes. Of course you need to update to a paid version if you want to keep using this. 

Junio Fernandes June 24, 2020

Atlassian has a costful update program for a worse support system that makes you wait years for a pratical solution. Same to apps that after a year you have to buy a new expesive license if you need updates. Even jira source owner can't compile it to make customizations, because atlassian wants you to pay for that. Then, no complain, pay for that. I prefer use the free version that works and atends.

3 votes
Andrea Carl
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
May 10, 2016

The issues that display on a board are determined by 1) the saved filter and 2) the mapped statuses.  If you are querying by epic-link, only parent issues will be displayed since sub-tasks are not linked to epics.

You will need to tweak your filter to include sub-tasks.  Easiest way is to have the filter query all issues in a project.  If that is not the case, you will need to get creative - use the built-in JQL functions with Scriptrunner (if you have JIRA Server) to query sub-tasks linked to parents.

 

Benoit MARIE May 10, 2016

Hi Andrea, 

Thanks a lot for your answer. 

We indeed have an item workflow that works as follow : Epic --> Issues (Tasks) --> Sub-Tasks 

There is unfortunately no way for us to use only the Issues items and to reflect the relationship between our items in a satisfying way. 

Would you know free add-on that would open the same functionality than Scriptrunner? I would like to test out if JQL functions would fit what we are trying to achieve before starting to add costs. 

 

Thanks a lot for your help. 

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
August 11, 2016

the only way i have found to do this (cloud version) is using labels. so my filter looks something like this....

"Epic Link" = proj-111 OR labels = proj111

where:

proj-111 is the JIRA issue # for the epic and proj111 is a label i place on all sub tasks. obviously this is flawed if and sub-tasks are missing the label. 

it continues to frustrate me that i can't have something like...

"Epic Link" in (proj-111) OR parent in (Epic Link = proj-111)

or maybe adding a new operator to JIRA like...

"Epic Link" in (proj-111) INCLUDE Sub-Tasks

 

Like # people like this
Philipp Gresek June 20, 2018

Yep, I still have the same Problem. Is there no solution yet?

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
June 20, 2018

not natively. you can use an addon like Scriptrunner or maybe EazyBI or others.

Ting _Chiou Ting Teh_
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
August 15, 2018

You can use parentEpic() function to show the sub-tasks that link to an epic.

See Advanced searching - functions reference - parentEpic().

Like # people like this
Denys Myrgorodskyi September 21, 2018

@Ting _Chiou Ting Teh_, thanks for the tip, I'be been looking for a while for this solution!

Ricky Lin February 25, 2019

Hi @Ting _Chiou Ting Teh_.

Is the parentEpic() function only available for Cloud?  We're on 7.12.3 and I do not see that function available anywhere.  Any reason why that is? 

Joseph Keller June 23, 2020

I wish parentEpic was usable on the gadgets. Any grids that have sub-tasks can only show their direct parent, but not their epic.

Like Chris Burgess likes this
0 votes
Gabriel Carlos December 17, 2020

Hey @Benoit MARIE - PLease try the following macro. Please note that for this to work you have to LABEL with the EPIC LINK ID and assign a COMPONENT to the SUB TASK. 

project = CC AND labels = CC-1 AND component = ComponentName OR issueFunction in subtasksOf("component = ComponentName ")

This will pull only Subtasks assigned to the specific Component and Label.

(NO ADD-ON REQUIRED)

Thanks

Gab

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
December 17, 2020

FWIW, i caution against such an approach as it invariably will be unreliable in time as individuals forget to add the label or misspell the label, etc. If someone does wish to go this approach I highly recommend using Automation to control the environment a bit. e.g. Trigger - issue created, Conditions: issue type, has epic link, etc., Action - add label using smartvalue to borrow from epic name or such. 

p.s. to be clear the suggested solution is a JQL query not a macro.

Like Gabriel Carlos likes this
0 votes
Maria Oat May 28, 2019

Hi Guys, 

You can vote on this issue A subtask cannot be assigned to an epic https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-15705

 

Tks, 

Fabio

Suggest an answer

Log in or Sign up to answer