Issues disappear from Epic in Greenhopper and in Structure

[Lars Polling]

We experience strange behaviour that issues disappear after about 10-15 seconds from both the Greenhopper Epic and the Structure plugin.

Scenario 1: In Greenhopper, drag an issue from the backlog into an Epic or create an issue from the Epic directly. The Epic field is correctly presented on the issue, but this disappears after 10-15 seconds. Epic field in the issue gets cleared.

Scenario 2: Add an issue to a structure page using Add to Structure on the issue main page. The issue is shown on the Structure page, but disappears from the page after about 10-15 seconds. The issue is not linked to the Structure page anymore.

Versions:

• JIRA 5.1.3
• Greenhopper plugin 6.1.4.2 (latest)
• Structure plugin 2.1.4 (latest)

Seems this is not related to the plugins, but to JIRA. Should we consider upgrading to a later version of JIRA as a first step? Still the issue is unexplained.

[Igor Sereda [ALM Works] · Accepted solution]

Hello Lars
(also replied by email)

It’s likely a synchronizer at work. For example, a Filter synchronizer in “remove” mode may remove non-matching issues from the structure. To check who removes the issue, open that structure in the Structure Board, and use History bar to see who did remove the issue. Details here: https://wiki.almworks.com/x/HIKF

To check which synchronizers are installed, use Manage Structure page, “Settings” link in the Sync With… column. The descriptions of synchronizers are here: https://wiki.almworks.com/x/kwBg

My best guess is that you have at least two synchronizers installed: a Filter synchronizer and GreenHopper synchronizer. So what happens is:

1. Filter synchronizer sees that there's an issue added, which does not satisfy its filter - therefore, it should be removed.
2. When the issue is removed, GreenHopper synchronizer sees that it is no longer under the Epic and removes the Epic Link.

If that seems to be the cause, the workaround is to recreate the Filter synchronizer but don't enable "Remove" mode.

Igor

[Andrea Carl]

It appears that regardless of the direction, if Remove mode for a Filter synchronizer is set, then it not only removes from the structure, but also removes the epic link. Remove should only remove from the structure, if the Direction is set JIRA Agile -> Structure.

I only want stories in my structure that are a certain status - so without the remove, I have to manually monitor these stories and manually remove them from the structure; otherwise, they will be unlinked from their Epics.

We have multiple structures to slice and dice the data because the Summation and the Progress columns do not update based on a filter. For example, I can't see the sum of the story points for issues "in Progress" if I filter those issues within the structure because the sum of the story points shows ALL issues and sub-issues and does not subtotal based on the filter. I wouldn't need a filter synchronizer if this functionality existed.

If the JIRA Agile synchronizer adds issues to the structure that are under the epics, then what functionality does the filter synchronizer provide to me? None, in this case because I want to filter on the status of my stories.

Not sure if this is a bug or a feature enhancement request.

[Sive Kavanaugh]

We are having the same experience as Andrea - we want the Issue removed from the Structure, but not all the EPIC links broken which is what I experience if I have the Remove enabled on the Filter synchronizer AND the Agile (GH) synchronizer enabled.

[Igor Sereda [ALM Works]]

Sive & all, please see my explanation of the behavior in the original question: https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/258100/structure-plugin-syncing-epics-stories-sub-tasks

Thanks, Igor

[Tom Griffin]

We are having the same issue and I have read the original response but I do not see a solution.

[Yilin]

I think there may be an auto transaction in your project workflow or an listener in the system that move / close the ticket. Maybe you can double check on that ?

I think structure plugin and toolkits plugin do provide this kind of functionality.

[Lars Polling]

Thanks for your feedback. You refer to a postfunction maybe? The state of the issue does not change on this action. It is strange that both Greenhopper and Structure are affected.

Any other thoughts?