Unable to distinguish between Epics and Tasks using ID

[Krishna Kumar]

With the current ID scheme of <project key>-<sequence in project> for all issues, it becomes difficult to identify issue types and hierarchies outside of Jira.

Is there an alternate naming scheme that we could use (for eg., <project key>-<epic key>-<story sequence in epic>) to help with the above?

[Aron Gombas _Midori_ · Accepted solution]

The built-in Issue Key field will not solve this for you, as it has a hardwired format.

But, it is actually fairly easy to solve your use case! Consider this:

1. Create a new custom field called something like "Smart Key" (text type)
2. Then, create an automation rule
   1. Trigger: use the triggers "Issue Created", "Issue Updated" and any other that is triggered when your source fields change their values
   2. Set the value of "Smart Key" from your formula "project key>-<epic key>-<story sequence in epic>"
3. Now, you have an alternative field you can use!

[Clark Everson]

Hi Krishna,

The ID numbers themselves do not provide this kind of information. This is because at anytime an Epic can be changed to a task or vice versa.

It is up to the external sources to have this ability.

Take Smartsheets for example, if you have the Smartsheet plug in it does this and is able to identify the issue type. If you use the API you can pull this information from the API which is how it is identified.

So if the tool you are using outside of Jira isn't identifying it you most likely want to talk to that tool on how they can pull the information as Atlassian does allow for it, but the tool would need to be making a call for issue type

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/api-group-issue-types/#api-group-issue-types

Best,

Clark 

[John Funk]

Hi Krishna,

No, you cannot alter the key in anyway. You can either use the Summary and include the word Epic in it, or you can use the issue type in conjunction with the issue key.