Query that orders by sub-task rank

[Mike D_]

I have a set of sub-tasks on a story that I've prioritized via drag and drop, top down priority.

How do I write a query that outputs these tasks in that order?

`parent = blah-123 order by rank` isn't working

Story w/ ordered tasks:

Query results:

[Jack Brickey]

@Mike D_, I successfully used parent = ag-11 order by rank to drive the results below. You will note the issuekey numbering is different that the JQL results which aligns w/ the parent detail view.

Parent detail view (ordered)...

JQL results...

[Mike D_]

Hi Jack 👋 - I was able to get to work in a next-gen project too 👍

BUT, it doesn't work on classic projects.

Happy to invite you to my sample project 😊

Sidenote: your screenshots are super grainy and hard to read (maybe that was your intention though? 🤔)

[Jack Brickey]

Mike, sorry for the delay. It's Virtual Summit week.

So for me it does work for Classic but a bit different. Here is what I observed.

Create sub-tasks under a task that look like this...

here is the list of issues after i ranked (note the issuekey # vs. the summary #

Now if I use this JQL - parent = test-52 ORDER BY rank DESC, i get this...

NOTE: if you omit the Order BY rank altogether you also get the ranked list.

[Leonard Chew]

Hi Mike

I think rank is what you are looking for, but if you want to change the rank, you need to create a jira board (to be able to change the position of the issues by drag&drop).

If you change the position with drag&drop on your query result without a board, it will change it on the screen, but not change the rank (e.g. after page refresh you will see the old order again), thats why you need to do it on a board.

So what you need to do:

1. Save your query as a filter
2. create a board with your saved filter
3. change the position of your items on the board

[Mike D_]

Hi Leonard,

>I think rank is what you are looking for

`parent = blah-123 order by rank` isn't working

>but if you want to change the rank

nope, not trying to that

My real goal is to get the story to show up in VS code like it does in the webapp but I can simulate that by querying in the webapp.

[Mike D_]

I've updated my title btw.  I'm trying to order my sub-tasks.

(Just onboarded to Jira so I'm learning the correct language...)

[Leonard Chew]

how did you prioritize your items?

[Mike D_]

I dragged them around in the story.

I should setup a test jira should so I show everything...

[Mike D_]

oops, posted to the wrong thread

[Mike D_]

my test project is a "next-gen" project:

[Mike D_]

So it's a appears to be a bug with the classic projects:

[Mike D_]

Happy to invite you to my sample project to troubleshoot, let me know!  Thanks!

[kriegaex]

FWIW, I am also missing the subtask sort order to be exposed to JQL in Jira Server, but my current use case is to clone subtasks in the original order via Java REST API. There, it is possible to obtain the subtasks in the expected order via

myJiraTool
  .getRestClient()
  .getIssueClient()
  .getIssue('ABC-123').claim()
  .getSubtasks()

and then iterate over the result.

The workaround to create a kanban board for each issue and to manually adjust the rank is way too tedious. It also will not be updated when the task order is changed in Jira, because that order does not correspond to the issue rank. Hence, that workaround is simply useless to me.

[Dominic Lagger]

Hi @Mike D_ 

The rank is an internal ordering system from jira. If you want to order by the issue number just do it like this:

parent = blah-123 order by key

Hope this helped.

Regards, Dominic

[Mike D_]

Thanks Dominic but that didn't work.  That orders them by the "ID":

blah-124

blah-125

etc.

Again, I've prioritized the sub-tasks in the story.  The story is sorting them.  How can I do the same thing?

Example story:

Story: blah-100

Subtasks: blah-105, blah-102, blah-110

The subtasks show up in that order when I open the story as I've prioritized them like that.

[Mike D_]

I just created my own jira account and it is working w/ `order by rank` 😕

But I see one difference, in my work project, the label is "create subtask" not "add a child issue".

Maybe it's just a label difference or a difference in functionality? 🤔

I created some child issues and re-ordered them:

Query:

[Mike D_]

Hi Dominic - did you get an alert about this reply?  Different thread so I wasn't sure... still learning this tool...

[Dominic Lagger]

Hi Mike, 

I get the alerts. But I'm not familiar with the next gen projects in jira. 

So I can't give any further help. I'm sorry about that. I asked other leader, if they can help. 

Regards, Dominic 

[Mike D_]

Hi Dominic 👋,

>But I'm not familiar with the next gen projects in jira. 

It works properly w/ next gen projects.  It doesn't work with current gen projects, FYI.

>I asked other leader, if they can help. 

ok, thanks!