Inserter/Extender Duplicates Filter doesn't work in Structure

[Maria_McNamara]

Hi - I have what (to me) appears like a textbook case (as described here: https://wiki.almworks.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=32223424) for the use of the Inserter/Extender Duplicates filter, but it doesn't work. 

My Structure is set up as follows: 

[filter] Remove Inserter/Extender Duplicates

🔗Add issues linked by Blocks: parent is blocked by children
🔗Add sub-tasks
🔗Add issues belonging to epics
+ Insert issues: project = ProjectName and bucket = BucketName and issuetype = Epic and status != closed

But I'm still seeing the following: 

Epic
   Task 1 (is blocked by Task 2)
      Task 2 (is blocked by Task 3)
   Task 2
      Task 3

What am I doing wrong?

[Egor Tasa [ALM Works]]

Hi Maria,

Sorry for the delayed response. Inserter/Extender duplicates filter works only when extender adds any issue already added by inserter, so if you had task 2 added at the top level, it would disappear from top level after the filter is added. Task 2, however, both times is added by extenders. We do not yet have the single mechanism to remove duplicates caused by extenders, in some cases S-JQL can be used but only if duplicates have some feature that makes them different from their parents (or children), here we have tasks only, so I am not sure S-JQL can help.

Can you describe the reason for such hierarchy in context of your use case and which of the tasks would you like to remove Task 2 from under Task 1, or Task 2 together with Task 3? Maybe there is a solution that we can suggest, but no guarantees.

Regards,
Egor

[Maria_McNamara]

Hi Egor - thanks for getting back to me. My use case is as follows: I view the issues inside an epic as children of that epic (whether or not that the explicit relationship here, I don't know). But then within that epic, the completion of some tasks are blocked by others. So, I would like to visualize, in my structure, what the order in which tasks within it should be completed, based on blockers. I.e. so, blockers would be worked on first, as they unblock other tasks within that epic. Does that make sense? 

[Egor Tasa [ALM Works]]

Thanks for the clarification, Maria. One solution I think of is the following:

1. Insert Tasks, rather than Epics
2. Extend by parent blocked by children
3. Filter Inserter/Extender duplicates
4. Group by Epic

I believe this setup would work as you require, except for it will show some orphaned tasks, but these can be ignored, or maybe it will even be useful to see them.

Please, try the solution and let me know if it works for you.

Regards,
Egor

[Maria_McNamara]

So I've tried this and the main issues I ran into is: my original query only shows epics which are not closed. I know what the JQL to use to insert tasks of non-closed epics (I did some searching and it doesn't appear that such query is possible without a plug-in). This leads to a much noisier view. Also, the section that has "no epic" is very messy: it includes epics and tasks. Not sure this is going to work as suggested. :( 

[Egor Tasa [ALM Works]]

Hi Maria,

No Epic folder could be collapsed and ignored, but since there is also a question of closed Epics, there may be another step (well, maybe a couple) that may help. The solution is complicated by the fact that filter generators run before grouper generators, so you cannot filter groups without doing another step:

Create a new structure, insert first structure there (Automation+>Insert>Structure). Filters run after insertes, so then add S-JQL filter descendants_or_self of [status != "Closed"]

In your case non-closed may mean something else, so modify the expression accordingly. Please, let me know if it helps.

Regards,
Egor