How not to create a reciprocal link

Mahendra Ladhe December 23, 2020

Hello,
In my single Jira installation, I am not finding a way to create one directional links between two issues. I do not want to create the reciprocal link. When creating link from issue X to issue Y via More->Link menu, even if I uncheck the "Create reciprocal link" checkbox, the reciprocal link does get created. I want a link in issue X to issue Y but issue Y should not have a link to issue X.
How to achieve this ?
Thank you.

2 answers

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Brant Schroeder
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December 24, 2020

You can just use a web link and then add the issue key as the link text.  This will be a one way link.

Mahendra Ladhe December 25, 2020

Thank you Brant. It's a nice suggestion and I will try it out. 
Since the "Create reciprocal link" checkbox is there, there must be a way to create one way link, and I'm wondering how to achieve it.

Brant Schroeder
Community Leader
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December 26, 2020

Here is the documentation about reciprocal links. https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver0711/configuring-issue-linking-955168791.html  The reciprocal link is used to create links between two issues in separate instances of Jira.  It does not do anything for issues in a single instance.

Mahendra Ladhe December 27, 2020

Thanks Brant. The link you provided to the documentation of reciprocal links is giving 404 not found error.
I've a single instance of Jira and still reciprocal links are getting created when adding link to Jira Y from Jira X. In single instance of Jira, I'm looking for creating only one-directional link from Jira X to Jira Y.

Brant Schroeder
Community Leader
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December 27, 2020

Link has been fixed, it had a space at the end that was preventing it from working.  Since it is a single instance when you create an link from issue x to issue y in the instance the reciprocal link checkbox will not work and you will need to do a web link as mentioned before.  My guess is that you instance had an application link and one time or an application link was setup improperly making it think there is another instance and that is why the option is showing up.

Mahendra Ladhe December 29, 2020

You are right, it seems I need to use web link only to get a one directional link.

0 votes
Daniel Ebers
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December 27, 2020

Hi Mahendra,

this is a very strange one because there is even a Suggestion open that the link should be reciprocal by default which I understood that it is not in your case:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-65283

Just for a better understanding: both issues (those which are linked reciprocal while only one direction is intended to show up) are on the same Jira server, is this correct?

I am asking because on a single instance (no application link to a different Jira server) I am not provided the "reciprocal" link to be disabled at all (what comes back to the reciprocal link is created, indeed).
So as you have the option to disable (even if it does not do what you want) my question is if there is some remote Jira in place?

linkissue.png

Is there any chance you also show a screenshot of what you are seeing?

Cheers,
Daniel

Mahendra Ladhe December 27, 2020

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your reply.
I've only one Jira server running. The two issues are on the same Jira server.
I'm providing below the screen shot of the create link pop-up box.
Jira.png
As can be seen, there is a 'Create reciprocal link' checkbox which I leave unchecked
since I don't want reciprocal link. But when I re-read the descriptive text below the checkbox, I would like to ask if this option (to create reciprocal link or not) available only for 2 different Jira instances ?
I also observed that if I click on the "Jira Issue" near the left top corner of the pop-up box, then I see below pop-up box where the option "Create reciprocal link" is grayed out and checked by default.
Jira1.png
Thanks
Mahendra

Daniel Ebers
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December 27, 2020

The user interface is quite confusing to me - also because if seems to differ from installation to installation.

As long as only one Server is involved (as per your tests - and as per my tests) only a reciprocal link is possible. So it comes back to what Brant said.
Overall there are strange issues with the reciprocal links from time to time - especially when involved in migrations. Looks they are not very well thought through.

Sorry I could not contribute anything meaningful here. Not the first disappointing experience with issue linking, though - so I am not especially surprised.

Mahendra Ladhe December 29, 2020

No problem Daniel. I got more insight into the issue. Thanks for replying.

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