What does each of the symbols and icons mean?

[sohail malik]

I keep looking but I cannot find a basic definitions of the various symbols & icons. Is that documented anywhere? Seems really idiotic to have all these icons but not a readily available definition. Is this info easily available or hidden?

[Nic Brough [Adaptavist]]

Most are there to indicate a difference from another item, not indicate anything very specific.  Most of the others are intuitive (!) (?) (i) and arrows are pretty standard everywhere

Which ones are you struggling with in general?  Priority?  Issue type?  etc?

[sohail malik]

Thanks for responding, Nick. For example, what's the meaning and point fo the icons below? They are not intuitive or meaningful to me at all. Conversely, if you look at the drop-down of an issue type, you see things like 'story, 'task', 'bug' or 'epic', so at least that tells you what it is. But not so for others like the ones below. 

Thanks   - Sohail

[sohail malik]

Icons aside, all I'm trying to do in Jira is the following:

Create a project, say Project X

Create a set of Tasks and Sub-tasks under Project X

Create a new project, say Project Y

Choose the Tasks and Sub-tasks from for the new project from an existing set of Tasks and Sub-tasks or from clones of existing Tasks and Sub-tasks

The above sounds very simple to me, but Jira seems to  limit me to (a) only creating new sub-tasks for each new project rather than allowing me to use existing sub-tasks or clones of existing sub-tasks. I also don't see how I can create a Task under a project- I can only create sub-tasks under a project. I'm having a hard time with this because it seems to be pretty basic functionality. Thanks in advance -

[Nic Brough [Adaptavist]]

Makes sense.  The four icons you've got there fall into the "show a difference to other things".  They have no meaning in themselves, they're just different to each other.  I'm not 100% sure I know what context you are seeing them in, but I'd guess they are project avatars (a picture you choose to try to help users tell your project from others)

Your follow-on question is slightly confusing, so I am going to try to paraphrase it back to you to see if I have understood what you are saying:

I have a project with a pile of issues (some of which have sub-tasks).  I create a new project.  I want the new project to include some of the issues from the old project (including the sub-tasks), and then allow me to create new issues and sub-tasks which have nothing to do with the old project.

Is that an accurate description?

[sohail malik]

Hi Nic: Your paraphrasing of my question is correct, with once exception:

While I understand this: "I create a new project.  I want the new project to include some of the issues from the old project (including the sub-tasks), and then allow me to create new issues and sub-tasks which have nothing to do with the old project."

I'm at a loss for this: I want the new project to include some of the issues and TASKS from the old project. However, I'm not seeing a concept of re-usable "Tasks" with or without "Sub-Tasks". Thanks again - Sohail Malik

[Nic Brough [Adaptavist]]

Ok, I think this hinges on what you mean by "include".

What does an issue "included" in a project look like?

[Tom Proctor]

If I am reading this right...

As far as I know, you can't just "copy" an issue from one project to another.

You can Move an issue to another project - see here:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracoreserver073/moving-an-issue-861257345.html

You can make a clone of the issue (call that a copy) and then move the clone to another project, but it's not as easy as you might think it would be - i.e. 'give me a list of issues to choose from and make copies for another project'.

Hope that helps, let me know if I'm close to what you're asking for.

[sohail malik]

Thanks, Tom - that helps confirm what I was looking for. I plan to  (a) clone an issue or a task and move it to another project as as sub-task, so I can re-use repetitive issues or tasks.

The problem I have with Jira is that I wish to create hierarchies in such as Projects > sub-projects > issues > tasks > sub-tasks but I find Jira to be 'all over the place' and not very intuitive in this regard.

Thanks again - Sohail

[Nic Brough [Adaptavist]]

The hierarchy in Jira is Category -> Project -> Issue -> Sub-task. Software and Portfolio can add higher levels over projects (Epics from Software, Themes and Initiatives in Portfolio).

There is also the Structure add-on if you want to build something that looks like more levels, but I urge caution - it tends to mean people find systems to be "all over the place" and not very intuitive.