Order of Subtasks within a Parent Task

Jeff White
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April 4, 2013

Is there a way to change to the order sub-tasks when on the Main Screen viewing the Parent Issue? Sometimes I have to insert sub-tasks and it would be helpful to be able to control the order.

short of that , can anyone tell me how the sort is currently ordered?

14 answers

1 accepted

3 votes
Answer accepted
Miranda Rawson
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Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
April 4, 2013

Hi Jeff,

Right now there is no way to reorganize the subtasks. We do have a couple open improvement requests, here and here, but they have been open for a quite a while.

It looks like currently the subtasks are first sorted by what the subtask does (relates to, blocks, etc), in alphabetical order. Next they are sorted by what type of issue they are (bug, task, etc), and finally once more by whether they are open or closed. I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Miranda

Sandro Noel June 10, 2019

You have to be a ticket management software selling company to ironically not be bothered with open tickets..."for a quite a while."

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24 votes
Tanner Wortham
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April 4, 2013

You can create a bookmarklet with the code below. Once created, you can reorder tasks by drag and drop. This re-order sticks across all users.

  • Create a bookmark with this code:
javascript:(function(){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#issuetable>tbody").sortable({start:function() {old_order=getorder();} ,stop:function(event,ui){new_order=getorder();for(i=0;i<=new_order.length;i++) {id=ui.item[0].id;if(id==old_order[i])oldpos=i;if(id==new_order[i])newpos=i;} jQuery.ajax( {url:'/jira/secure/MoveIssueLink.jspa?id='+jQuery('#key-val').attr('rel')+'&currentSubTaskSequence='+oldpos+'&subTaskSequence='+newpos,} );}});function getorder(){order=[];jQuery('#issuetable>tbody').children('tr').each(function(idx,elm) {if(elm.id)order.push(elm.id)} );return order;}});})()
  • Go to an issue whose sub-tasks you wish to reorder.
  • Click on the new bookmark you created.
  • Reorder the tasks just as you'd reorder your Netflix queue.
  • Profit.

Zachary Kent April 11, 2013

This totally works, Tanner! Thanks!

Hector Galura September 18, 2014

I am able to re-order, but the change doesn't stick. Thoughts ?

Bill Gray October 23, 2014

Best Jira tip in months! Even if it is almost a couple of years old <blush>

Christian Balzer November 19, 2014

Jira Ninja of the Month! You should be awarded a medal!

Dan_Nelson May 22, 2015

Wow. Brilliant. Thanks @Tanner Wortham.

Paulius Liekis September 30, 2015

Works like a charm!

Neal Miller December 3, 2015

Wow... Major timesaver! Thanks!

Tommi Hovi December 14, 2015

Hi! I'm new to javascript, so I need a dumb-down version of step: "Create a bookmark with this code". How do I run the code and with what program?

Like Lois Leonhardi likes this
enriquein December 14, 2015

For example, in Chrome you would go to the menu, select Bookmarks, then Bookmark Manager. Then select the folder you would like to create the bookmark in and right click it and choose Add Page. Give it a name and use the javascript code as the web page URL. Afterwards, log in to Jira, click on a task that has subtasks, and then just click the bookmark so that it can work its magic. In order to make it remember the ordering, however, I had to click on one of the "Move" arrows. See my comment below.

Like Henry Chen likes this
Bo Axelsen (Ankiro) June 14, 2016

Thank you, @Tanner Wortham. Saved my day.

Logi Helgu June 24, 2016

Thank you @Tanner Wortham...a lot =)

Rob Woodgate
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October 24, 2017

Sadly this doesn't appear to work in Firefox, or at least it doesn't in the latest version of FireFox. When I click the bookmark there is no change in functionality, at all.  :-(

@Tanner Worthamthis is a great idea and I really, really want to use it.  Do you know of any reason it won't work in Firefox, or - hoping desperately - do you have a version that'll work in Firefox?

Randall Kasper May 14, 2019

Chrome here & it never worked for me. I guess it's version-dependent. 

Steve Bliss July 30, 2019

To get this to work, I had to unescape several characters in the bookmarklet code. Basically, copy the code Tanner provided into a text editor, then find & replace the following:

  • &gt; change to >
  • &lt; change to <
  • &amp; change to &

Use the updated code to create your bookmark, and you should be in good shape.

Mayur September 27, 2019

Here is the updated code as per Steve Bliss above but I still couldn't get it to work. 

Is it supposed to work when the task in question (which has subtasks) is in the lightbox, or when you open a direct URL to it? ie: https://xxx.atlassian.net/browse/xxx-168

javascript&colon;(function(){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#issuetable>tbody").sortable({start:function() {old_order=getorder();} ,stop:function(event,ui){new_order=getorder();for(i=0;i<=new_order.length;i++) {id=ui.item[0].id;if(id==old_order[i])oldpos=i;if(id==new_order[i])newpos=i;} jQuery.ajax( {url:'/jira/secure/MoveIssueLink.jspa?id='+jQuery('#key-val').attr('rel')+'&currentSubTaskSequence='+oldpos+'&subTaskSequence='+newpos,} );}});function getorder(){order=[];jQuery('#issuetable>tbody').children('tr').each(function(idx,elm) {if(elm.id)order.push(elm.id)} );return order;}});})()

 

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4 votes
gaerae July 25, 2016
Hector Catre August 23, 2017

Installed. Works Great! Recommended to my team.

Sridhar Sarnobat October 2, 2017

Wow, lifesaver!

Randall Kasper May 14, 2019

The script above doesn't work for me (version dependent?). THIS, however, worked like a champ! Thanks!

2 votes
Rob Woodgate
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July 31, 2019

As of the latest version of Jira Cloud, you can now reorder sub-tasks using drag and drop.

Herve Leung-Tack October 28, 2019

I tried to find the drag and drop capability ... couldn't find it. Do you have some documentation showing how and where you can do it ?

Rob Woodgate
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October 29, 2019

Hi Herve,

I don't have any documentation, I'm just a customer like you :-)

To use it, open a story that has multiple sub-tasks and drag them around to re-order them. This is in Jira Cloud, not the server version. If it doesn't work you should probably put a ticket in to Atlassian.

S_ Francoeur November 11, 2019

According to https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-24547, the fix seems to be available only in the new issue view.

In the old issue view, I've had success with the workaround mentioned here:
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-8053?focusedCommentId=1328196&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-1328196

2 votes
Deleted user June 23, 2015

I adapted @Tanner Wortham's bookmarklet into a working chrome extension, we use this in the office now. here smile you need to enable dev mode on chrome extensions to install this. thanks

1 vote
Nigel Peck November 19, 2019

Finally solved this for a next-gen project. Perhaps it's mentioned somewhere but I couldn't find it. Here's how I managed to do it...

I could not find any way to do this when viewing an issue, in detail view or otherwise.

What I had to do was go to the board and select "Group By" and then "Subtask" at the top right. This then enables you to change the order of the subtasks. Some info on accessing this here, although not specifically relating to reordering, just to accessing that subtask view.

1 vote
Jerzy Kaminski September 1, 2017

I have used the solution posted by Rob Calcroft did not need to enable Dev mode in Chrome extensions just downloaded the jave file from the link he posted and then dragged it over the extensions page and it was added fine. Thanks.

 
1 vote
Andreas Schwarze April 19, 2016

For me, the Java Script and the Extension did not work (drag&drop yes, but saving the new positions did not work) so I just changed the URL behind an arrow button manually by copying the link of the arrow button into the browser URL field and changed the "subTaskSequence=" part of the URL to the new position (it´s actually the new position - 1). Not so nice but still time saving...

I tried the JavaScript Bookmark solution in IE 11 and Chrome 49.0 (on Chrome the Extension as well) on a Company Notebook which might has some restrictions...The Company uses JIRA v7.0.10

 

 

0 votes
Corentin Méhat
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August 2, 2019

Hello,

I implemented a subtask re-ordering a bit like what I think you mean here with the 'data panels' feature of the plugin "Elements Copy&Sync" (formerly exocet) :

https://doc.elements-apps.com/elements-copy-and-sync/latest/data-panels

0 votes
Roberta May 22, 2019

Hi all,

Sorry for my transparency. The fact that we had to fix this simple functionality in the browser and not in Jira itself, is it considered resolved? I am shocked to be honest.

When is Atlassian addressing this issue in their application?

Thanks,

Roberta

Serhii Riabovil May 22, 2019

Hi Roberta, possibility to order sub-tasks was added in JIRA Server 7.6.0: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-24547

Roberta May 22, 2019

Thank you! :)

0 votes
Serhii Riabovil November 19, 2018

You can use ScriptRunner to change a sub-task sequence. In the example below a sub-task will be moved to the end of the list:


import
com.atlassian.jira.component.ComponentAccessor
import com.atlassian.jira.issue.link.IssueLink
import com.atlassian.jira.issue.Issue

def subTaskManager = ComponentAccessor.getSubTaskManager()
def issueManager = ComponentAccessor.getIssueManager()

Issue parentIssue = issueManager.getIssueObject('TEST-100')
Issue subTaskIssue = issueManager.getIssueObject('TEST-200')

List<IssueLink> subTaskIssueLinks = subTaskManager.getSubTaskIssueLinks(parentIssue.id)
Long currentSeq = subTaskIssueLinks.findIndexOf {IssueLink link -> link.destinationId == subTaskIssue.id}
Long newSeq = subTaskIssueLinks.size() - 1 // the end of the sub-taks list
subTaskManager.moveSubTask(parentIssue, currentSeq, newSeq)


0 votes
Logi Helgu June 24, 2016

Thanks Tanner...a lot =)

0 votes
Corentin Méhat
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April 12, 2016

I found a solution that I initially posted on https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-8053

 

 

I managed to use the EXOCET plugin to create a new "data-panel" in order to do so :
https://valiantys.atlassian.net/wiki/display/EXO/Display+Advanced+data+panels

the JQL used to show the subtasks of the current task beeing :

issuetype in subTaskIssueTypes() ORDER BY "myCF"
0 votes
enriquein September 24, 2015

I can't believe this still works! In order to make the changes stick I had to click on any of the subtask's "Move" arrows (pretty much clicked down on the last one or up on the first one). Much faster than going one by one clicking on those move arrows.

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