How to know what links is Inward or OutWard for Issue Linking config

[Calderara Serge]

Dear all,

As you can see from below picture, the Relates issue linking config as same value for the Inward and outward description. This is default Jira value

The problem with that is we have already issue which used this type of Link but how to identify from any issue if the selected link is the outward or Inward because in link selection we have only a selected text of Relates to as seen in below picture

Parent issue Links :

Sample TRFQ-301 issue link to parent :

Which one of the links is Inward and Outward ?

Regards

[Garrett McCreery · Accepted solution]

Hi @Calderara Serge 

Let me try to explain. If you are on issue A and you create a "relates to" link to issue B, Issue B becomes an inward link to issue A. If you switch over to viewing issue B, issue A is an outward link to issue B.

I think this is why the "relates to" is the same, as it only describe which issue started the linking relationship.

I hope this helps.

[Calderara Serge]

thanks

[Calderara Serge]

Hello @Garrett McCreery , I am still facing an issue.

As you mention the relates to system link entry in jira by default have same value for Inward or Outward link. But the name "Relates to" appears only once time in the list as it is same value for In and Out. So how to be sure we select the inward link and not the outward link ?

The reason for this is the follwoing context. I have an issue with related issue to it using Relates to as seen below. This is the Parent issue

As you can see, I have 2 references Issue Links using relates to.

But when I am scanning the number of related to issue by using script runner as below

def links = ComponentAccessor.getIssueLinkManager().getInwardLinks(issue.getId())

return links.size()

The return value display 1  instead of 2 ?

The related issue, are automatically created based on an automation rule as below :

You can see from the Automation rule that the Linked Issue field is set to relates to BUT no idea if it is the Inward or Outward entry

What is wrong ?

Thanks for help

[Garrett McCreery]

In your example above, the issue that has changed the assignee will have an outward link to the Service Request Agency that you creating. 

If using "Relates to" is becoming difficult, I would suggest using asking your JIRA Admin to create different linking types. Most Jira instances have things like "Depends On" and "Is Dependent Of" which will allow you to distinguish.

[Calderara Serge]

ok I will test that.

So to summarize in other words we can say that :

If we look from Parent Side, linked issue are InWard links becasue we imagine we look down the tree.

Then if we look from a linked issue TO the parent, we have an Outward link becasue we look Up the tree

Sounds correct ?

[Garrett McCreery]

I don't know which of the tickets in this case is the parent ticket, but if the parent ticket is the one that has the assignee changing (that starts your automation), then the parent ticket will have an outward link to the child ticket.