Jira Next-Gen custom filter doesn't work when there are sub-tasks

[Dan Churchill]

This is definitely a bug within NextGen.

Create any custom filter for the sprint board.

If a task meets the criteria AND it has sub-tasks, it won't show up on the sprint board.

This is a bug because tickets that DON'T have sub-tasks will show up and surprisingly, the ticket with sub-tasks will show up when you're looking at the "backlog" in the "current sprint".

is there a workaround for this?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Dan Churchill 

I suspect this is an overlap in the way team-managed boards and custom filters work...

• To show subtasks on a team-managed board, you selected Group by Subtask, correct?
• And...your subtasks do not match the criteria of your custom filter...
• So the board has no results.

That is, the child subtasks do not automagically inherit all field values of their parent.

Using your example of a custom filter on a specific key, if you change filter to the following you would see what you expected:

key=PROJECT-123 OR parent=PROJECT-123

Kind regards,
Bill

[Dan Churchill]

@Bill Sheboy you are correct. Using that filter to explicitly refer to the parent works and it shows up.

It seems that this is the case.

But it begs the question, why, when a ticket as sub-tasks, does custom-filters suddenly not apply to the parent ticket?

I want to filter on parent tickets as well as sub-tasks, generally even moreso. So it seems odd that the logic is "if a ticket has sub-tasks, ignore the parent ticket for all filtering"

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi, Dan!

Short answer: when you want to see issues for a filter, set fields/criteria on all the issues as needed, or adjust the filter accordingly

Longer explanation:

I understand how that behavior could cause confusion, but it is consistent: The filter criteria applies to all of the issues, regardless of their placement in the parent/child/grandchild...hierarchy.

For example, if you filtered on issues with component IN (ABCD, EFGH) it would only show issues that have those components.  So if a subtask has the component and the parent does not, the subtask would show...the complication comes when using that with another feature like swim lanes, leading to what you observed.  The fix in this case would be to assign the component to all relevant issues.

Thanks,
Bill

[Dan Churchill]

Thanks Bill,

I see your point, however in this instance I've added things to a parent issue that I don't _want_ to add to a child issue, nor should I. and It should filter them.

Think of it like this, Jira totally ignores the parent issue even if it matches the filter - if the parent issue has sub-tasks.

That's just wonky and doesn't match basic logic.

If I add something to a task, I want to filter based on it. I don't care that *it* has sub-tasks. Show me the parent task!

It's stupid logic and doesn't match what you expect as a basic user of the system.

In the end, I've had to add complex automation to provide what should be a given piece of functionality from Atlassian. Given how bad Next Gen projects are, this isn't overly surprising though.

Thanks for your help :)

[Bill Sheboy]

Yup, I get what you are describing: the parent/child relationship overrides the quick filter.

• When using swim lane criteria, 
• which lead to an issue being the "parent" for a lane, and also...
• when using quick filters,
• where the "parent" matches the filter
• where none of the "child" issues match the filter
• prevents the display of the "parent"

There are several open suggestions/defects similar to (and not exactly the same) as your description.  Please consider submitting a defect or suggestion if you want to bring this design issue to Atlassian's attention: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Hi @Dan Churchill ,

I just tried with a team-managed project and I can see stories in the sprint with a story with a sub-task on it. Does your board have any custom filter?

[Dan Churchill]

I think you've mis-understood my issue.

My issue isn't with stories being displayed when they have sub-tasks.

My issue is that when I define a custom filter in next-gen project, then use it on the board as shown in this picture, the ticket that should show up will not show up unless:

1) It has no sub-tasks
2) the sub-tasks match the filter

These stories WILL show up in the BACKLOG view, however.

I've even created a simple custom filter that is literally "ID = PROJECT-123" and that ticket will not display if it has sub-tasks