How to use jql to filter on epics with the new parent field?

[Karl Wijk]

Before I used to filter in issue navigator using the epic link field. Now the epic link is replaced by parent. When using parent, I cannot anymore write the name of the epic in text, instead I need to enter the key of the epic which I normally don't know by heart... 

E.g parent = [name-of-epic] does not bring up any suggestions, and if I use:

parent = "name-of-epic"

the response is: "The issue key 'name-of-epic' for field 'parent' is invalid"

This is really inconvenient. Is this the intention?

[Jason Baumgart]

If you want to query using the name of the Parent use the EPIC Name field instead.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Epic Link and Parent field are both ID/key-based.  The Epic Name field is text-based.  When you update the Parent field with an ID/Key, the EPIC Name field will take on the name attribute while the parent field will show the name, it is displayed as a key-value pair, showing the KEY and Name together while the Epic Name is only the name.

[Karl Wijk]

Hi, thanks, but using the epic name returns the epics itself, not the children of the epic.

The problem I have is that when I query using the parent field, I get a suggestion list which does not contain any epics, only standard issues (task level).

[Marc - Devoteam]

Hi @Karl Wijk 

This is as intended and mentioned on the following communication

Upcoming changes epic link replaced with parent 

[Karl Wijk]

Thanks! However I didn't see anything on that page pointing out that you must use issue key rather than the textual name of the epic in jql queries.

[Marc - Devoteam]

Hi @Karl Wijk 

See the part: "Updates to JQL, issue searches and saved searches"

The following use of the parent JQL function may return more issues, as results previously included only subtasks, but will now include all issues with an epic-link value:

• parent is not empty
• parent = xyz (where xyz is an epic issue)
• parent != xyz
• parent in (xyz, abc) (where xyz or abc is an epic issue)
• parent not in (xyz, abc)

[Karl Wijk]

Ok, but when I use a jql query like: "parent = [text]", I get a suggestion list with issues where the text is included in the title, so I can select the correct issue. The issue key is then inserted in the query.

However, the suggestion list only contains task level issues and no epics... and we don't even use sub-tasks.

[Marc - Devoteam]

HI @Karl Wijk 

So the issue you select is a parent of a certain Epic

What field is set between the Epic issue and the Parent, is this the parent, parent link or epic link?

Also the changes will be gradually implemented from October 2023 onwards on Jira Software instances and only Company Managed projects.

As mentioned in article upcoming changes epic link replaced with parent 

P.S. Both my personal and company one still have not been updated and both still use parent link and epic link in company managed projects

[Karl Wijk]

Thanks for reaching out! No, what I try to do is just to get the list of all the issues belonging to a certain epic in the issue navigator. The problem is that when I use the parent field in the jql query, the epics don't come up in the suggestion list when I start typing the name of the epic. 

However, I now tried to create a new epic and then it actually worked. So my conclusion is that this could be due to Jira search indexing being outdated. Since you can't anymore trigger re-indexing in cloud I will just have to wait for it to happen automatically I think.