How do I add Structure fields 'startdate' and 'enddate' to the Issues screen

[Ryan Cravey]

In the process of implementing Structure for Jira Server.  I would like to display the Start Date and End Date from the Structure Gantt on the Issue.  I cannot find it listed anywhere as an available Custom Field.

[Camille]

We require this feature as well. We want to make a simple board showing tasks "due today" but there's no way to utilise the use the Gantt start/ends.

[Camille]

@Vlad[ALM Works] @Mario O.G
Is there any ETA on this feature being available? It is still vital to our workflow.

I am having to manually match the Gantt chart end dates to a fake field so I can use the fake field in our Dashboard gadgets. This requires me going through almost a thousand tasks in the Gantt chart and every time one dependency changes I need to go through all of these again. It is a very slow process which would be resolved if the Dashboard gadgets could filter JQL variables off the Gantt chart end/start dates.

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Camille, 

This feature is scheduled for Structure.Gantt 1.4, which is our next release. Once we have a date or any new information, I will be sure to update you.

Thanks for your continued patience.

Best Regards,

Vlad

ALM Works

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi again Camille,

After discussing the feature again with our Structure.Gantt Product Team, I'm realizing that my response does not fully resolve your use case.

While the feature I mentioned being released with Structure.Gantt 1.4 will make it possible to see Start/End Dates in Structure, the data will only be available on the Structure Board.

We have another feature that will be implemented down the road in Structure, which will make it possible to store these values in the Custom Fields, etc...

This feature requires considerable effort and we are carefully evaluating all of its implications. We do not have a set timeline yet for it but I will relay the urgency for you to have this feature to our Structure Product Team.

I apologize for not clarifying this in my initial response and for any inconvenience caused.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Best Regards,

Vlad

ALM Works

[Luc Leblanc]

Hi Vladimir,

I'm very interested by this feature. In structure, I use auto-scheduling. When we clikc on a task, we can see the start and end dates. I want to be able to filter which issues are displayed by using start date.

I would like to know if the feature you plan to release in gantt 1.4 will allow us to use start date in the "automation query".

Thanks.
Luc

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Luc,

The feature that will be released with Structure.Gantt 1.4 will only make it possible to see Gantt Start/End Dates in Structure, the data will only be available on the Structure Board but will not be persisted anywhere else.

Therefore, you will not be able to use Gantt Start/End Dates with Automation, unfortunately. Down the road, we plan on releasing a different feature with Structure that should allow for this but it's a massive effort and we do not have a timeline to share right now.

I will post an update here once we have more details.

Please let me know if you have any follow up questions.

Best Regards,

Vlad

[Al]

Hi, I would also like to see these available.

Ideally the columns needed should be same as something like MS Project, for example. For sharing with clients, it's important to show start, finish, duration, etc.... everything you currently have as calculated fields in structure.gantt.

I would definitely like to know when this feature will be available.

Thanks

Al

[Milson_Lopes]

Hello Vladimir,

I'm also evaluating structure.gantt and have the same need to have both fields.

Even if I define the two fields and their manual programming, the end date field is not calculated automatically (start date + estimated time), forcing the end date field to be filled in.

As a suggestion, why do not you make the two fields (start and finish) available as calculated fields. I say this because you already have them in your "Issue" form in the gantt chart.

Thank you

[Igor Sereda [ALM Works]]

Hi Milson,

Thanks for the suggestion! 

We're definitely going to add in a future version Start / Finish date as available columns for the Structure board and show them on the issue page. 

One can kinda replicate the calculations using Structure's Formulas, but Structure.Gantt's calculations are much more complicated -- taking into account calendars, resources, dependencies, etc.

Kind regards,
Igor

[Milson_Lopes]

Hello Igor

Thanks for your return.

Do you have a forecast for this implementation?

Thank you

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for posting!

Currently, when the Start Date and Finish Date values are calculated automatically in Structure.Gantt , they are not represented by any Fields in Jira.  I’m sorry I don’t have better news.

However, if Manual Scheduling is selected, you can have Custom Fields as your Start and End dates, which will show their values on the Jira Issue Page, when calculated.

I do believe that there’s an opportunity here for us to improve Structure.Gantt. I will log a Feature Request on our end. If you’d like to be notified when the feature becomes available, please email me at vlad@almworks so I can have your contact information to notify you at a later date.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions or if you need further assistance.

Best Regards,

Vlad

ALM Works, Inc.

[Milson_Lopes]

Hello Vladimir,

I'm also evaluating structure.gantt and have the same need to have both fields.

Even if I define the two fields and their manual programming, the end date field is not calculated automatically (start date + estimated time), forcing the end date field to be filled in.

As a suggestion, why do not you make the two fields (start and finish) available as calculated fields. I say this because you already have them in your "Issue" form in the gantt chart

Thank you

[Milson_Lopes]

Hello Vladimir,

I'm also evaluating structure.gantt and have the same need to have both fields.

Even if I define the two fields and their manual programming, the end date field is not calculated automatically (start date + estimated time), forcing the end date field to be filled in.

As a suggestion, why do not you make the two fields (start and finish) available as calculated fields. I say this because you already have them in your "Issue" form in the gantt chart.

Thank you

[Aliaksei Shorkin]

Hi Vlad , thanks for answer, we will wait for 6.0 update with true passion )

Is it currently possible to get all structure ID's with Gannt enabled?

[Vlad Lessage]

Sorry I missed your latest comment, Aliaksei. It is not possible to do so since technically Structure.Gantt is enabled for all structures. 

Please let me know if I misunderstood the question or if you have any follow up questions.

Best Regards,

Vlad

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to drop you a quick message to let you know that you can now show Gantt attributes in Structure with Structure.Gantt 1.4.

If you have not already done so, please update to that version.

Please note that we're still working on the Structure feature that will allow this data to be used elsewhere, stored to Custom Fields etc...

Best Regards,
Vlad

ALM Works

[David Matthews]

Hi Vladimir.  Do you know if it might be possible to access these dates via scriptrunner akin to a solution for another plugin posted here:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Scriptrunner-How-to-get-attribute-values-from-insight-custom/qaq-p/1006440

and if so, what the appropriate class, etc. might be? or is there a pulic link to your java api documentation?

Thanks!

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi David,

Thanks for your inquiry.

You can try something like the following:

1. Request a forest for the spec
2. Then request {{key}}, {{gantt.start}} and {{gantt.finish}} attributes _for all rows from the forest_

The Forest can be requested with Forest resource: https://wiki.almworks.com/display/structure/Forest+Resource

The Attributes can be requested with Value resource: https://wiki.almworks.com/display/structure/Value+Resource:

{
"requests": [
{
"forestSpec": {
"structureId": 123
},
"rows": [
1820,
1842,
2122
],
"attributes": [
{
"id": "key",
"format": "text"
},
{
"id": "gantt.start",
"format": "text"
},
{
"id": "gantt.finish",
"format": "text"
    }
   ]
  }
 ]
}

As a result, you will have all issue keys and values for Gantt Start and Finish Dates, so it should be easy to map one onto another and update the corresponding fields.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

Vlad

[Al]

Hi David

How have you been getting on with this?

Is the intention to apply this as a Scriptrunner scripted field?

I would definitely like to see that approach as a workaround to get gantt start, gantt finish, %progress, etc while waiting for ALM to provide their own custom fields to enable this. 

The code Vlad has provided requires the structure ID; would this be input using another custom field?

Thanks

Al

[Waldemar Axt]

Hello Vladimir,

thank you for keeping this thread up to date. This feature sounds like it could solve some issues - realy great.

As far as I can see it is not possible to use the Gantt attributes in automations, is it?

Regards,

Waldemar

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Waldemar!

You are very welcome. 

It's a massive effort but based on the feedback we've been getting, it should be a great feature!

It is not possible to use the Gantt attributes with Automation (mainly because of the order in which Generator operations are executed in the back-end, to make a long story short). You can use them with Transformations, however. 

I also strongly advise against trying them with Automation. because not only it's not meant to work that way but we have recently discovered a bug that will cause your structure to go into an infinite loading loop, if you try to use Gantt Attributes with Generators instead of Transformations. You'd then have to delete the structure altogether and rebuild it.

Therefore, we urge users to only use Gantt attributes as intended: in Structure Columns, as variables in Formulas or used in Transformations.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

Best Regards,

Vlad

[Waldemar Axt]

Hi Vlad,

thank you for the hint. Unfortunetly I tried to use the Gantt attributes in an automation (using "Manual Specification") which indeed seemed to end in an infinite loop :-) . After some tries it made Jira not responding anymore, so that we had to restart the Jira service.

Instead of deleting the whole structure I found and deleted the corresponding entry in the Database (Table AO_8BAD1B_GENERATOR). After reloading (maybe after reindexing, I am not sure here) the structure was available again and showed the deleted generator item as "Unavailable Item" which could easily be deleted in the frontend.

So far I am not aware of any side effects. But of course I know that deleting Data in the database might be dangerous.

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Waldemar,

I'm sorry to hear you did in fact have some trouble with this. However, I'm glad you were able to get everything under control. It is indeed not recommended to delete data in the database, hopefully this one-time occurrence won't have any lasting effects.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Best Regards,

Vlad

[Aliaksei Shorkin]

+1 , this feature is strongly needed

Vlad, if use Scriptrunner, can you suggest the best way for getting needed data for all structures with Gannt enabled ? Maybe you can suggest some code example.

How to get all structure_id-s with Gannt enabled (for single setup and further zero-administration). And how to check if issue is included in dedicated structure_id?

I do understand the answer will be a 2-dimensional array (structure_id and value for startdate/finishdate) so what type of custom field is more suitable to store this data?

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Aliaksei,

Thanks for your post.

This is a bit complex... Some points to keep in mind are that the source of truth in this case is Jira and Gantt charts are simply a visualization of your issues for the most part, making it nearly impossible to figure out which issues belong to which structure with a Gantt chart (Structure.Gantt is enabled for all structures). Also, doing something like this would most likely come with a significant performance hit on your instance.

In conclusion. we don't any code examples we can share on this unfortunately. However, we are actively working on the feature that will allow users to store the value of an attribute in a Custom Field. This is not a guarantee, as there are always unknowns, but we are hoping to have this functionality with the release of Structure 6.0.

I will be sure to communicate here when the feature has been released.

Best Regards,

Vlad

[Simon Williams]

Related question - the changes I make I make within the Gants view, I can see the change being applied in the issue view (for tasks). I have parent issues represented as a group.

How can I get the associated stories and epic to update as well based on the linked underlying tasks? Is there a particular type of issue link to use so the changes I make in gantt view are represented in the issue view?

thanks

simon

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Simon, 

Thanks for posting. 

This is not possible yet, but we are working on it!

There are some implementations needed on the Structure side first. We are actively working on such features but it's a rather considerable effort. Once we have the ability to store Structure attributes in Jira Custom Fields, what you're looking for should become achievable. 

Please feel free to email me at vlad@almworks.com so I can have your email address to notify you when the required feature(s) become available.

Best Regards,

Vlad

[Simon Williams]

Thanks, what kind of timescale are talking in terms of your roadmap? This year, next year?

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Simon,

We are focusing our efforts on releasing it before next year but there is always uncertainty and risks.

I'll post any available updates here as we are getting closer to a delivery date.

Thank you for your continued patience.

Best Regards,

Vlad

[hast40]

Hi,

I'm also evaluating Structure.Gantt and I really need the calculted dates. Do you know when this feature will be available ? is there a way to calculate the dates with the "formula column" in Structure ?

Thanks,