"Parent-Child Link" vs "Parent-Child" links

[Al Genzlinger]

We have "A Test Project" where we are attempting to understand the different types of links in Jira.  

We believe there are 5 link types in Jira:

1) sub-task

2) epic link

3) general (configurable) links (eg, blocks, relates, etc...)

4) external links (eg to another Jira instance)

5) parent link (from Advanced Roadmaps)

I used SIL to output the link details.  It seems that link id 10601 "Parent-Child Link" is the AR Parent Link.  Link id 10300 "is parent of" is a general jira link.  We are not sure when link id 10700 "Parent-Child" is added to our system.  

"Parent-Child Link" can only be set by using the "Parent Link" field.  The sub-task link can only be set when you create a sub-task.  The epic link is set by filling in the "Epic Link" field.  All other links are settable using the Link Issues fields.

Both 10700 and 10300 show in the Issues Links as "is parent of".

Obviously, we have Advanced Roadmaps installed.  Last year we installed BigPicture, though we are moving away from this app and will just use Advanced Roadmaps.  We will be installing WBS Gantt app to provide the Gantt function (eg critical path) that is missing from Advanced Roadmaps.

Can someone explain where "10700|Parent-Child" comes from?  Will the 10300 and 10700 "is parent of" links both work with WBS Gantt?

------- sil logic --------

string ikey="ATP-383";
JIssueLink[] jIssueLinks = getIssueLinksDetail(ikey);

------ output --------

ATP-383

10601|Parent-Child Link|1|is parent of|ATP-384 - This is AR Parent link added from ATP-384

10300|Parent|-1|is parent of|ATP-385 - "parent" to ATP-383 from ATP-385 

10700|Parent-Child|1|is parent of|ATP-386 - "is child of" to ATP-383 from ATP-386

[Fabian Lim · Accepted solution]

Hi @Al Genzlinger

Parent child link (parent of, is a child of) are used for issue linking. Parent-Child was introduced with advanced roadmaps I believe in cloud and the functionality may have propagated to data center/server. For example in advanced roadmaps you have an initiative with an epic as the next hierarchical level. When you create and initiative and put a epic it's using the new parent child relationship which has nothing to do with issue links.

[Al Genzlinger]

Thanks for your answer.  My colleague has actually installed a fresh instance to help us determine where the "Parent-Child" general link was added.  It shows up when BigPicture is installed.

[Markus Glaser]

Dear @Al Genzlinger

(reopening an old thread..)

it is correct what Fabian posted, but the devil is in the detail ;). In your case for the link type with the exact name "Parent-Child", this has been introduced by BigPicture I think with v8.13: BigPicture will always create a link type with this name if and only if it is not existing on your Jira instance already. Also, if you delete this type, it will be recreated by BigPicture again.

This also caused some problems for us because it introduced the out/incoming descriptions "is parent of -> is child of" which we've already had utilized for another link type.

[Luke Towers]

Hey @Markus Glaser What did you do to resolve the duplcate out/in link descriptions. rename or delete?

[Markus Glaser]

Hi @Luke Towers

we've just renamed our existing link type to "Parent-Child" and thus BigPicture will neither create a new one nor alter the existing link type ;)