"JQL Filter is blocking your timeline" Error

[Kyle Wilz]

Didn't have this issue before, but logging on today I got the error that "A JQL Filter is blocking your timeline". Again, I haven't changed anything, never saw this error before, but now I do.

Any idea what I need to change in the filter? I am trying to show all epics except MWP-3756 so my query is:

project = MWP AND issuetype in standardIssueTypes() AND "Epic Link" not in (MWP-3756) ORDER BY Rank ASC

Any thoughts?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Kyle Wilz 

The filter you are showing indicates that only standard issues types (i.e. Story, Bug, Task) are to be displayed in your board, based on this criteria in it.

issuetype in standardIssueTypes() 

And only those standard Issue Type issues that are not children of Epic MWP-3756

For the basic Timeline feature to work, your board filter must also include Epics from the same project. The basic Timeline feature will show only the Epics and the child issues of those same Epics that are within the scope of the board filter. If your board filter does not include any Epics, then the Timeline feature won't work. It can't be used to display only the child issues without their parent Epics.

If you want to include all the Epics and child issues, except for Epic MWP-3756 and its child stories, then the JQL you need is

project=MWP and key != MWP-3756 and "Epic Link" != MWP-3756

You may get a warning that you need to replace "Epic Link" with "Parent", since the Parent field is replacing the Epic Link field.

Note that the above filter would not include any Sub-tasks under any of the child issues.

[Kyle Wilz]

Tried the above filter and it did not work... Everything I want to show up on the board is. However the timeline feature gives that error and I can't filter the backlog by Epic because it says there aren't any. However I can filter the sprint by Epic... so they are there and associated with the project I believe... but seems I am missing something.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello Kyle,

The Timeline feature requires that the Epics themselves be within the scope of the board filter. If there are Epics within the scope of the board filter, they can be displayed in the Epics panel in the Backlog screen. Your filter simply will not work for the Timeline because it does not actually pull any Epics into the scope of your board.

What exactly do you mean by "However I can filter the sprint by Epic"? Can you provide a screen image for that? If you are talking about the "quick" filter...

...that is created based on the actual values in the Epic Link/Parent field in the issues that are in the scope of your filter. It is not based on those Epics being within the scope of your filter. This list has no relationship to satisfying the requirement for the Timeline display.

If you want to include the Epics in the scope of the board so that you can leverage them for the Timeline, the filter I provided should have worked. If it did not work, can you please tell me in what way it did not work? Did you get an error message, or did you not get the results you wanted?

[Kyle Wilz]

Hi Trudy, thank you for your reply and help...

Regarding the points:
1) Being able to filter the sprint by Epic.
See the attached picture... I can be in "active sprints" and see all the relevant tickets and sort based on the appropriate Epic. So it is the quick filet you are talking about. But if I understand your answer correct, those are not related? I'm having a hard time understand why these issues are part of the scope of the project but the Epics aren't?

2) The filter you suggested
I made the filter you suggested the query for the board and still got the message there were no Epics for the project and the timeline wouldn't work because of the JQL filter.


Any thoughts? I also have other boards set up in this project... 1 board I am filtering for only 1 epic however I have the same issue there too (It's the same Epic I am trying to not show on the board I've been asking about)...

[Trudy Claspill]

1. Yes, the list of Epics in the quick filter on the Active Sprints board and the Epic requirement for the Timeline are unrelated features.

The reason Epics are not within the scope of your board is because of the filter you are using for your board.

project=MWP and issuetype in standardIssueTypes() and "Epic Link" not in (MWP-3756)

The first criteria tells Jira you only want issues from the MWP project.

The second criteria says you want to further constrain the results to only issues that are in the standard issue types. This specifically excludes Epic type issues and Sub-task type issues 

2. Reviewing the filter I suggested I realize I did not suggest the right filter. Try this

project =MWP and ((key != MWP-3756 and issuetype =Epic) or ("Epic Link" != MWP-3756 and issuetype in standardIssueTpes()) )

That should give you results that include all the Epics from the MWP project excluding MWP-3756 as well as all the child issues in the MWP project that are children of the same set of MWP Epics. The parentheses are important in this filter so make sure you use them as I've shown.

I can't address why your other board is having the same problem without seeing that board's filter.

[Kyle Wilz]

I believe the reason I am having this issue is because the field in the other issue types is "Epic Link" but the field in the Epics is "Epic Name"... so I'm not able to include both the Epics and the other issue types in the same filter. I'll have to use a different field to run the query it seems like.

[Kyle Wilz]

Didn't see your last suggestion until now... That seems to work!

Separating the Epic issue type from the other issue types was the key. I believe with that thought process I will be able to fix the other boards but will message here again if I need more help. Thanks again Trudy!

[Trudy Claspill]

I'm glad I could help.

If your questions have been addressed and your problem solved with the help of my response please consider clicking the Accept Answer button.

[Kyle Wilz]

@Trudy Claspill I have a follow up question for you... If I have another board within that same project where I want to see only certain Epics and the issues associated with them, How would I set up that query? I've tried a couple times but I keep getting errors.

So this was the first was you helped me with:

project = MWP AND (key != MWP-3756 AND issuetype = Epic OR "Epic Link" != MWP-3756 AND issuetype in standardIssueTypes()) ORDER BY Rank ASC

So in this question, I want the same function, but I only want it to include issues, and give the timeline and be able to sort Epics, for the following Epics:

MWP-4292

MWP-2975

MWP-3080

MWP-2633