Structure: How to add new filter to default filter list

Matthias Kannenberg April 27, 2016

When in structure view and clicking on the 'quick transformation' button, there are two quick filter:

  • Unresolved
  • Assigned to Me

How can custom filters be added there? I would like to add some custom JQL / S-JQL filter there for easy access for my Project Manager.

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Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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April 27, 2016

Hello Matthias,

At the moment there is no way to save such filters, but it's coming in the future version. However, there is a workaround - you can use the Perspectives feature, to generate  a link, which will open the structure with all the transformations applied:

https://wiki.almworks.com/display/structure/Sharing+a+Perspective

The screenshot is not updated yet - in the new version you can find the share button on the right side of the main toolbar next to the Export.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Eugene

ALM Works 

Matthias Kannenberg April 27, 2016

Great to hear that this is planed. We are currently evaluating Structure for our project and while it is great feature wise, we have some issues usability wise, where it is hard for a non-power user (like someone not able to write JQL queries) to use structure effectivly.. having selectable quick filter buttons would be a great help here.

(another thing we are missing is being able to quickly place issue in our folder structure because using drag&drop on a large structure is pretty cumbersome.. Ideally, there would be some simple folder selection, like the subcompontens plugin uses for component selection (https://marketplace-cdn.atlassian.com/files/images/cc64e3fd-f7de-4a68-ab7a-8d2a215ffad0.png), or at least a possibility to display all available folders in pin mode (in the issue view) to place the issue without scrolling through all the existing other issues)

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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April 27, 2016

Matthias, thanks a lot for your feedback. This makes perfect sense. 

Regarding the first case - do they need to switch between the filters? If so, then the only solution would be to create several perspectives. If not - there is another option. You can add Structure gadget to the Dashboard and apply and additional filter there.

As for the second case - that is an interesting idea and there are a few different ways to approach it. Could you please provide some more details on the use of such a feature? Do you often need to do some sort of triaging and need to quickly put issues in different folders?

Also, have you checked the grouping functionality, which allows you to automatically group issues by different fields?

Matthias Kannenberg April 27, 2016

Maybe I should explain our case a bit more in detail to make things clearer:
We basically separate our backlog in 2 parts:
An active backlog: these are issues which people are currently actively working on. Like writing concepts, doing estimation/refinement or waiting for sprint assignment.. basically issues targeted for for the next 3-5 sprints..
A passive backlog: These are issues in their first stages.. basically only ideas, rough concepts, client communication etc which are not relevant in the near future, but still important to be worked on..

Since this passive backlog easily grows to a size where it is not manageable by a kanban board, I decided to test structure, to structure all of our epic-story-subtask things into a higher level structure, like frontend->Component A->Subcomponent B, to enable my project manager to drill down and look at issues (basically a "okay, our next big thing will be to improve Subcomponent B, so let me see all issues and ideas which are relevant for subcomponent B).

For this work, the Structure Plugin is perfect, because you can drill down and the perspectives give you a good overview of what is happening there (much better then using components and search)!

So we created our folder hierarchy and I added a synchronizer to add all epics and bugs and stories without an epic link. I also added automation expanders to expand the children of epics and stories.. And while this was hard to figure out at first, it works great now!

Now our use cases would be:

  • My Project Manager would like to hide all epics and stories which are not in the initial workflow stage any longer (are currently worked on, active backlog) to judge what issue next to move from passive to active backlog
  • My Project Manager would like to display only the epics, to export this list to excel to discuss in a client meeting (thanks for having the export to excel, huge plus!)

Now, these use cases are easy for someone who knows JQL and S-JQL, but for someone who doesn't, a simple button to click to do this filtering would be perfect. Your perspective workaround is okay for now, but I would need to provide my PM with an external link list, which kind of feels not as polished of an experience as I would like it to be, if you know what I mean (using structure was my proposal and I have to convince my team)..

 

For my second case, it's quite simple: If I create a new Epic, I want to place this immediately into our existing folder structure. The current workflow to do this would be

  1. Create the Epic
  2. Go into the Structure View and search for the created epic
  3. Use Drag&drop or cut&paste to move this into the folder I want

As our folder structure is very important to us for keeping an overview, this would be a mandatory step for every epic creation (or bug if it is not part of an epic). Also, the mini structure view in the issue details screen is not really helpful at this point, because scrolling through a larger list of folders and issues is hard enough in the structure view, but next to impossible with the limited screen size in the issue details... The mini structure view in the issue details is great for viewing of the placement of the issue, but not really feasible for any editing purposes.

So what we would need (best case) would a simple button in the issue create screen the user can click, look at the existing folder structure (without any other epics, stories etc.) and simply select one folder. Making this mandatory would be a bonus. This way I can assure that every newly created epic would be properly categorized.

A much easier to implement workaround be to have a check box in pin mode to display all folders anyway. This way, at least the sorting process would be a lot easier because a user could

  1. Pin the issue he wants to move
  2. check to display all folders anyway
  3. Easily navigate through the folder structure only which is a much smaller structure then having all other issues there

This would in my opinion greatly increase user experience (at least in the case how we are using structure).

 

I hope this clarifies our usecases a bit more. Thank you for your great support!

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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April 28, 2016

Matthias, thanks a lot for the details! I'll add them to our internal tracker and we'll discuss with the team. As I mentioned both your points are totally valid.

The first one is already at the top of our backlog of new features. We need to finish a few tasks related to the maintenance (backup, restore, etc) and fix a few know issues. Once it's done we can start with new functionality and saved transformations will be one of the first.

As for the second case - it's a bit less obvious what would be the best way to implement it, but your workaround, where everything but the folders is hidden, might work.

A quick question. As you add your epic to a folder - should it be added to the top or the bottom of the list?

Also, if you wish, we can schedule a quick call and discuss your use cases. Maybe we'll be able to come up with more ideas for the structure use and see if it can add more value for your company. Please feel free to email me at eugene@almworks.com.

Thanks again,

Eugene

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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April 29, 2016

Matthias,

A colleague of mine came up a workaround, which might work for you for the second request.

Click the Search button on the Structure Widget toolbar, switch to S-JQL search and add the following query:

!(issue of !empty)

It's not very intuitive to understand, but this will return all items, which are not issues. Then you can click the Filter icon in the search to hide all issues and drag-and-drop issues from the panel on the right to these folders.

By the way - if you open structure in the right panel, there will be a button next to the view selector, which allows you to hide all issues already present in the panel on the left. Could be useful if you need to make sure all issues of a certain kind have been added.

I hope this helps.

Eugene

Stephen Ching May 16, 2016

Hi Eugene - when will the new version be available?  I'm also interested to have the custom 'quick filters' in place as I use it to present different JIRA set to each functional team.  I'd set quick filter to each team, so I can go back and forth to different teams.  Thanks.

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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May 17, 2016

Hi Stephen,

Currently the plan is to start working on Quick Filters next month, but I cannot tell you right now when there will be a release for it. It's one of the most popular feature requests and is at the top of our backlog for the next iteration.

I'll try not to forget to update this request once it's complete.

Thanks,

Eugene

Eric Hansen December 1, 2016

Custom filters would solve my problem too. @Eugene Sokhransky how is the next version coming along with respect to this feature? Thanks! This was a very useful Q&A.

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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December 2, 2016

Hi Eric,

Structure 3.4 will include this functionality and now the development for this version is almost done - final QA round starts next week, so the release should be really soon.

 

Geetanjali Bhatia January 4, 2017

Hi Eugene

In which formal release of JIRA do we expect this to come?

Thanks

Geetanjali Bhatia

 

 

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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January 5, 2017

Hi Geetanjali and everyone!

We've just released 3.4.1, which has the Quick Transformations functionality, so please feel free to give it a try. Here is the page with more details: https://wiki.almworks.com/x/7orrAQ

This release also contains a number of performance improvements, which should be useful for larger structures.

Kind regards,

Eugene (ALM Works)

Geetanjali Bhatia August 22, 2017

Hi Eugene 

 

Thanks for this, This is really amazing, however the transformations does not seem to work under folders.

Any reasons why?

 

Thanks

Geetanjali Bhatia

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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August 22, 2017

Hi Geetanjali,

Which kinds of transformations are you referring to? 

If you use grouping, but default it'll work on the top level, so it'll try to group the folder, which will give you "not an issue" folder at the top level. If you wish to apply transformations to lower levels, you can specify that in their settings.

Please check our wiki page on how to do that:

https://wiki.almworks.com/x/YLDrAQ

Please let me know if this helps.

Eugene

Geetanjali Bhatia August 25, 2017

Hi Eugene

Thanks for the response. Appreciate it.

I looked thorugh the documentations, and under the folder I am able to add automation rules, but not transformations.

Will appreciate if you can point me to the specific section to understand this.

Also for these setting do we need to be the admin, as I am not the JIRA admin, but the admin for the project.

Thanks

Geetanjali Bhatia

Eugene Sokhransky _ALM Works_
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August 25, 2017

Hi Geetanjali,

You are very welcome! The trick is that you can define on which level transformation works. Imagine you have folders on the top level and want to create quick filters, which will group issues inside the folder. To do that, you can add your Group transformation - it will be applied to the top level with folders by default. So to apply it to the issues in the folder, open the transformation options (click the small arrow next to its name) and open Edit menu. There you can set Group on Level and set it to Manual - level 2. 

Then transformaiton will be applied to the contents of the folder instead of the folder itself.

I hope this helps. If I misunderstood something, can you please provide a couple of screenshots to illustrate this case? You can submit a request through support.almworks.com and my colleagues will be happy to help. Or you can just send an email to support@almworks.com.

Best regards,

Eugene 

Evgeny Erofeev November 26, 2017

Hello,

Can I add custom filter on the right Grid?

There is no save button there...

0 votes
Sathish Kumar January 8, 2019

How do you create a filter to pull data via external plugin ??. Any idea on this ??

Vlad L. January 8, 2019

.

Vlad Lessage
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January 8, 2019

Hi Sathish,

Thanks for posting.

Can you provide a bit more information on what you're trying to accomplish, please?

I look forward to assisting you.

Vlad

ALM Works

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