How to display Epic Link/Label inline in backlog?

[Mark Shimala]

Hi,

How can I display a stories Epic Link or label inline with the story (not on the next line)?

When going to Board>Configure>Card Layout>Epic Link it shows it below the story and takes up too much space.

I should not that I have one board that already has this functionality, but can't figure it out on my other board.

Thanks!

[Andy Heinzer · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

In an effort to try better help other users that search on this topic, here is an updated answer.

In order to see the epic labels in a board backlog, not only does the "show epic labels" board option need to be on (Board -> Show Epic Labels)
BUT more importantly, you need to make sure that the JQL filter this board is using also includes the specific epics that you want to appear here as epic labels on those cards/issues.

In many setups the epic issue types might not be included in the board filter, or the epics might be in a different project altogether. In order for the epic labels to appear on a board, those epic issue types have to appear in the search results of the JQL filter in use on that board.

For example:
If your filter looks like this
project = abc and customfield=xyz order by rank asc

but your epics exist in different projects, you can change the filter to look like this

(project = abc AND customfield=xyz) OR (issuetype=epic) order by rank asc

This would gather all issues in that project AND all the epics that exist in any project that this user has access to.

I hope this helps.
Andy

[Jan Zítka]

Thank you, i forgot on Epic in board filter. (y)

[Morgan Tiley]

Hello @Andy Heinzer  - this was driving me crazy, but I just realized it's broken in Firefox. Works in Chrome.

I followed your directions, cleared cache, re-logged in, ctrl-F5... nothing makes the epic labels show.

[Morgan Tiley]

@Andy Heinzer  following up on this - I tried private browser window in FF and it worked, so I then deleted all cookies, session, local, index storage through devtools and that resolved the problem. Maybe it's some old setting that didn't get cleared out after some changes.

[Andy Heinzer]

That sounds very strange @Morgan Tiley but thanks for posting with your solution here.

[Sam Hall · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark - you toggle them on and off using the 'Show/Hide epic labels' option:

Looks like this in JIRA Cloud:

Or like this in JIRA Server:

[Mark Shimala]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I have that option selected, but do not see the epic label for some reason (I assume this is the same as the Epic Link).

Each story in my backlog is associated to an Epic via an Epic Link.

Any idea?

Edit: When opening the Epic Panel, I do not see any epics either. Not sure if this has anything to do with it.

Edit2: I found this fix https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/epic-tag-or-label-is-missing-on-sprint-board-779158640.html however adding the epics to my board filter, then turning off and on the option does not fix it for me.

[Sam Hall]

What is the filter query for your board? (Check it via Board > Configure > General)

Does it include your Epics?

[Mark Shimala]

Here's my filter query:

project = DSD AND labels = AutomationPhase3 AND "Epic Link" = DSD-40884 OR "Epic Link" = DSD-40885 OR "Epic Link" = DSD-40886 OR "Epic Link" = DSD-40887 OR "Epic Link" = DSD-40888 ORDER BY Rank ASC

I'm sure there's a better way to write that, but wasn't sure how

Edit: I've also just recreated a board with the same filter and it does not work; however, the Show/Hide Epic Labels does work when using a Kanban board instead of Scrum board

[Sam Hall]

Try changing it to:

project = DSD AND labels = AutomationPhase3 AND ("Epic Link" IN (DSD-40884, DSD-40885, DSD-40886, DSD-40887, DSD-40888) OR key in (DSD-40884, DSD-40885, DSD-40886, DSD-40887, DSD-40888)) ORDER BY Rank ASC

This should make sure the board includes your Epics as well as the stories linked to them.

[Mark Shimala]

Thanks for the updated query, but still no luck :( 

Could this be a bug? Or something wrong with the way my epic is set up (just a normal epic). Or even an administrator issue?

It seems strange that this functionality works on a Kanban board with the same filter, but not on a Scrum board (albeit the label is showing on the card and not the backlog in this case)

[Sam Hall]

I don't think it is a bug.

I did a test on my own JIRA instance and I can see that there is a subtle difference between the way Kanban and Scrum board work.

A Kanban board will show Epic labels even if the underlying filter query for the board does not include your Epics.

Whereas a Scrum board needs the Epics to be included in the underlying filter query for 'Show epic labels' to work.

I'm guessing there is still a problem with the filter query I gave above which means it is excluding the Epics. This would be confirmed if you are not seeing the list of Epics on the epics panel on the left of your Scrum backlog.

Possibly the epics don't have 'AutomationPhase3' label, which is why they are not showing in the filter results.

I'd suggest trying a simple(ish) filter query for just one epic and the underlying stories to see if that works. For example, assuming DSD-40884 is an Epic you could do:

project = DSD AND ("Epic Link" in (DSD-40884) OR Key IN (DSD-40884 )) ORDER BY Rank ASC

If that works, then gradually add more Epic numbers to the query.

[Mark Shimala]

Thank you!!! Adding the label used in my filter query on each Epic fixed the issue I was having.

Thank you again for all the help!

[Sam Hall]

No problem. If the question is answered for you, please consider marking this answer as accepted.

[tcroots78]

I had this issue as well, making it check for both the

...("Epic link" in (a, b, c...)OR "Key" in (a, b, c))...

fixed it, but was curious, why? can someone explain this.

[Deleted user]

I'm having the same issue and I cannot figure out why the epics are being excluded. You can see my query below. The issues tied to these epics are pulling into the board, but the epic labels themselves, as well as the epics panel in the active view are not displaying.

If I change it to a common label the issues share, it works appropriately. I would go this route, but there's risk to doing so (not really related to this thread, so i'll withhold).

Removing the Team field from the query also does not resolve it. 

project = Encompass AND "Epic Link"  in (ENC-33773, ENC-33358, ENC-33361, ENC-33372, ENC-31983) ORDER BY Rank2 ASC

[Greg G]

See my response below. Epics don't have "Epic Link" set, so they're not included in your query.

[Deleted user]

That worked. Thanks and sorry I missed that. 

[Greg G]

Great...upvote my comment so others see it sooner!

[luc]

@Mark Shimala Is the label displayed on the same line or the next?

[Greg G]

I think the issue is that your filter says "things with "Epic Link" defined as XYZ".

Epics don't have an epic link, therefore the epics themselves are being filtered out. To add them back in, try the following (built on top of @Sam Hall's cleaned up query):

(key IN (DSD-40884, DSD-40885, DSD-40886, DSD-40887, DSD-40888)) OR (labels = AutomationPhase3 AND "Epic Link" IN (DSD-40884, DSD-40885, DSD-40886, DSD-40887, DSD-40888)) ORDER BY Rank ASC

[Adam McMillan]

We had this issue just now. It's because our query was filtering out Epic types of JIRA

Make sure you base query doesn't filter out the epics!!

[SynCarsten]

This was the solution for us as well! Thnx!

Our query contained: "type in (x, y, z)", where "Epic" was not included. 

[Святослав Крыжановский]

Hi guys, I have the same issues. I am trying to change the filters, but it is doesn't work.

I have 2 Epic called MYP-1 and MYP-2 and their labels are not shown in the backlog. Could anybody assist with the filter query, please?

[Ankit Seth]

Thanks @Greg G  for the working query. I was correctly using Epic link but still issue was there as in I was not able to see the Epic labels and epics in backlog and as a result nothing was displayed in reports tab of JIRA. But when I used "key in (epic-id)" the issue was resolved.

[Greg G]

Excellent! Glad I could help ;-)