Assignee name is converted to Id in JQL

[Eugene Ga]

I want to search by assignee. So i enter for JQL  assignee = then suggestion is shown listing all users. When I choose a user the JQL as converted to assignee = 5d6fa8e16e3e1f0d9623e479

Why does it show user id instead of user name?

[Dave Lewis]

This is really disappointing.   If  create a query on day one and then come back to it later to change it, I can't tell who is included in the query and who isn't, because as a human being, this makes no sense to me at all:  assignee in (553058:07f5aeff-a766-4305-8216-08138ad46f1d; 557058:07f9aeff-a766-4305-8218-08138ed46f1d).     

Would you recommend Jira to a friend... Before this, you get a 10.  now. you get a 6.   

[Eugene Ga]

Same thing now in e-mails. You receive a notification on a comment that some one named a766-4305-8216-08138ad46f1d left a comment. It is disappointing.

[rhonda mcdonough]

agreed! it has really impacted the usability of jira filters. so discouraging to have something that has been working pretty flawlessly suddenly changed and made border line useless. i just recreate my queries when i have to change a team member.

[Mikey]

Is there any plan when they will fix this or is this what they consider fixed?

[Eugene Ga]

this is considered fixed and is very annoying. JQLs are no longer readable and thus editable.

[Dmitry Shats]

This is extremely frustrating, making all save filters unusable for us. Anyone may recommend a Jira alternative?  

[Eugene Ga]

If you find any alternatives, please share.

[Eugene Ga]

Is this anything to do with this?

Changes to how users are identified: Personal data that is used to identify users, such as the username and userKey, will be removed from the REST APIs. Users will be identified by their Atlassian account ID (accountId) instead.

[Richard Stimson]

What an absolutely appalling 'feature'. Its extremely difficult to use now and it doesn't make any difference to GDPR as the user names are still stored and shown in the assignee drop down. What planet are the on? Don't Atlassian employ product owners and UX experts? Truly shocking. 

[Eugene Ga]

It looks like they just do not use their product. It has a lot of flows and bugs.

[Mike Shkolnik]

I have a workaround for this problem. Turns out it only converts the name to the ID if you click on it in the dropdown match suggestions as you type. You can use the dropdown match suggestion to get the correct spelling without clicking on it and thus without replacing it. The query still works and all names are maintained.

[Eugene Ga]

Jira claims that such JQLs will stop working at some point.

[Dave Lewis]

I tried it and works, but, the name must be in quotes and users can do things to their names like not include a second name,  and we have very diverse workplaces where some people have very long, hard to spell names, etc., so it's not a very fun workaround to use.  

also, in the link above, if you scroll down to the bottom it says, "However, you can no longer identify the users in the JQL string. Entering a query like this can also be difficult.

To address this, the following controls can help when entering and reading JQL queries." 

and the instructions that follow are not clear.  There's no "insert" when you are trying to create a jql in the advance search view. 

[Mike Shkolnik]

Is there really no solution to this? Putting the ID in JQL is totally useless.

Who is in this query? I have no idea. 

assignee in (557058:64dc2e2c-f281-4e51-bc05-3f4dd4e09418,557058:12bd0eca-68e4-4880-a21b-74a283b42a37,557058:36af81fd-0275-44ca-a383-720a7aa53fc8,557058:3648dbea-5061-4830-897c-c63080bee420,5bd00167ca472f15b61ec9eb)

Has this been reported as a bug?

[Eugene Ga]

it is not a bug, but planned feature: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/convert-usernames-to-user-account-i-ds/

[Renwick Oden]

This format works for both queries and quick filters:

reporter = "benwick toden"

[Renwick Oden]

@Eugene Ga @Thomas Deiler 

Do you have any insight on why they thought this experience is an improvement to the user?  It really looks like a hack to accommodate developers.

Additionally the link above (https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/convert-usernames-to-user-account-i-ds/) shows that there should be a way to "resolve users", but I am not seeing in on the Cloud version.

Thanks!

[Eugene Ga]

@Renwick Oden This is not an improvement. This is to comply with GDPR and hide personal data. Execution is very bad though. 

[Thomas Deiler]

Dear @Eugene Ga ,

this is how it is designed. What is shown while typing is the "DisplayName". The same behavior is for server version but there the username and not the id is shown.

I believe it has historic reasons. id (cloud) and username (server) are stored in DB with all user actions and not the DisplayName.

So long

Thomas

[Eugene Ga]

The problem is that until a week a go it used to work differently.

It used to show "firstname.lastname" insted of "5d6fa8e16e3e1f0d9623e479".

And more over, if i correct JQL to "firsname.lastname" everythign works just fine.

So what could have changed?

[Thomas Deiler]

Dear @Eugene Ga ,

when you didn't change anything then it's obvious that cloud changed. This happens quite often. But changes in the REST API are normally downward compatible.

Best you ask at https://community.developer.atlassian.com/ again for the details of cloud API.

So long

Thomas

[rhonda mcdonough]

using firstname.lastname didnt work in my queries, said user didnt exist. only thing i've been able to get working is the id which makes changing queries very difficult.

[Eugene Ga]

@rhonda mcdonough there is now a rule in Jira forbidding to use first last name. All queries will stop working that have first last name. They even have api endpoint that converts JQL with first name last name to ids. No more support for first last name.

[Eugene Ga]

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/convert-usernames-to-user-account-i-ds/

[Artem Anin]

This does not help though with a board quick filters (no button to resolve users)

[rhonda mcdonough]

i got around the id issue by making queries for all individual users in a project, and using their name for the query name. then added those filters to the jira board. for the actual board query, i started using jira groups in the filter instead of lists of individuals. it is simpler to have the admin remove/add a name to a group rather than figure out which id in a query belongs to a specific user and try to delete that from the query. for me, this query:

project in (PROJ-APP, PROJ-UI, PROJ-API) AND status not in (Closed, Canceled) AND (assignee in (membersOf(eng-teamname)) OR "Code Reviewer[People]" in (membersOf(eng-teamname)) OR "Tester[User Picker (single user)]" in (membersOf(eng-teamname)))

is way easier to read/edit/understand compared to this query:

project in (PROJ-APP, PROJ-UI, PROJ-API) AND status not in (Closed, Canceled) AND (assignee in (123765:82222d7c0-3333-4aea-55b-00a2345123, 555jjj555jjj555jjj555jjj555, 555jjj5444lll444lll555jjj555jjj,) OR "Code Reviewer" in (123765:82222d7c0-3333-4aea-55b-00a2345123, 555jjj555jjj555jjj555jjj555, 555jjj5444lll444lll555jjj555jjj,) OR tester in (123765:82222d7c0-3333-4aea-55b-00a2345123, 555jjj555jjj555jjj555jjj555, 555jjj5444lll444lll555jjj555jjj,)

[Derek Crawford]

When writing some automation for assignee, I was using {{Issue.Assignee}} but just realized the user work ID is being sent.  What should I use so I get the users actual name?  Would {{Issue.Assignee.displayname}} work?

[Rabbit Stoddard]

Yes, {{issue.assignee.displayName}} should work.