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  1. Jira Data Center
  2. JRASERVER-73724

The "Epic Link" field in JIRA stopped displaying the Epics list in alphabetical order

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      Issue Summary

      Some Customers are reporting that after the upgrade to Jira version 8.20.7 LTS and 8.22.0, users have noticed that the "Epic Link" field is no longer sorted alphabetically, but is now sorted by "id." In previous versions this seems to be sorted alphabetically. This has been reproduced internally. So far these were the versions detected, but it could be present in another recent Jira versions as well.

      Steps to Reproduce

      1. Install or upgrade to Jira 8.20.7 or 8.22.0 or 8.13.20.
      1. Create several issues as Epic issue type naming them with different names
      2. Create an issue as any other issue type to be able to select an option in the Epic Link drop-down field

      Expected Results

      The Epic Link drop-down list is sorted in alphabetical order.

      Actual Results

      The Epic Link drop-down list is now sorted by id.

      Workaround

      Revert the improvement using a feature flag: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/jswserver-21026-jql-based-epic-picker-1116286666.html (be mindful of performance consequences).

            [JRASERVER-73724] The "Epic Link" field in JIRA stopped displaying the Epics list in alphabetical order

            Kamil Cichy (Inactive) added a comment -

            JSWSERVER-21026 improved the performance of the epic picker, but unfortunately it came with annoying bugs.

            JSWSERVER-21280 fixes these bugs and is currently awaiting release. In the fixed version you'll be able to find "Technical Epic" by typing "T", "Techni", "nical", "Epi", "TECHNIC" and so on (i.e. case-insensitive substring search).

            Results will be sorted by Epic Name, case sensitive. While I think sorting case insensitive would make more sense, it would require a bigger change. We use JQL underneath and order by "Epic Name" in JQL returns results with case-sensitive ordering (same as in the issue search).

            I'll close this ticket now, but if this sorting is an issue, we can open a new one, specifically requesting case-insensitive sorting.

            Kamil Cichy (Inactive) added a comment - JSWSERVER-21026 improved the performance of the epic picker, but unfortunately it came with annoying bugs. JSWSERVER-21280 fixes these bugs and is currently awaiting release. In the fixed version you'll be able to find "Technical Epic" by typing "T", "Techni", "nical", "Epi", "TECHNIC" and so on (i.e. case-insensitive substring search). Results will be sorted by Epic Name, case sensitive. While I think sorting case insensitive would make more sense, it would require a bigger change. We use JQL underneath and order by "Epic Name" in JQL returns results with case-sensitive ordering (same as in the issue search). I'll close this ticket now, but if this sorting is an issue, we can open a new one, specifically requesting case-insensitive sorting.

            Sebastian Butterweck added a comment -

            Id like to add our impression of whats going wrong here, as our users are affected by this change too.

            Users want preferably to add Epics from their own projects, so its good they are presented at the top.
            However, something causes confusion.

            Lets say the user is looking for a specific epic and knows the word "technical" is in the title. The full title of the Epic is "Technical Epic".
            So he starts and types a "T".

            Now, in another project there are some Epics "T-Epic 1" and "T-Epic 2".

            What the epic picker show, is
            T-Epic 1
            T-Epic 2
            from the other project.

            The Epic "Technical Epic" from the user's project is not shown at all.
            Not until the user types "technical" in the picker input.

            Even typing "technica" does not lead to the Epic "Technical Epic" being shown. You need to type the full word.

            This is of course very confusing when you only have a vague idea of the epic title or know only parts of it, which is something that occurs relatively often from my experience.

            Would be happy if this is taken into consideration for the fix,
            Sebastian

            Sebastian Butterweck added a comment - Id like to add our impression of whats going wrong here, as our users are affected by this change too. Users want preferably to add Epics from their own projects, so its good they are presented at the top. However, something causes confusion. Lets say the user is looking for a specific epic and knows the word "technical" is in the title. The full title of the Epic is "Technical Epic". So he starts and types a "T". Now, in another project there are some Epics "T-Epic 1" and "T-Epic 2". What the epic picker show, is T-Epic 1 T-Epic 2 from the other project. The Epic "Technical Epic" from the user's project is not shown at all. Not until the user types "technical" in the picker input. Even typing "technica" does not lead to the Epic "Technical Epic" being shown. You need to type the full word. This is of course very confusing when you only have a vague idea of the epic title or know only parts of it, which is something that occurs relatively often from my experience. Would be happy if this is taken into consideration for the fix, Sebastian

            Szymon Korytnicki (Inactive) added a comment -

            Indeed the behaviour has slightly changed due to the performance improvement: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/jswserver-21026-jql-based-epic-picker-1116286666.html - related ticket: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-21026
            It can be updated again to sort by the epic summary or the epic name. However, new mechanism's ordering might still not reflect old one with total precision. I would like to understand if the discoverability of the epics has worsened significantly after this change and if you noticed performance improvement with over 100 000 epics on your instance. I could then address more issues in one go. I'm all ears!

            Szymon Korytnicki (Inactive) added a comment - Indeed the behaviour has slightly changed due to the performance improvement: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/jswserver-21026-jql-based-epic-picker-1116286666.html - related ticket: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-21026 It can be updated again to sort by the epic summary or the epic name. However, new mechanism's ordering might still not reflect old one with total precision. I would like to understand if the discoverability of the epics has worsened significantly after this change and if you noticed performance improvement with over 100 000 epics on your instance. I could then address more issues in one go. I'm all ears!

            Matt Doar added a comment -

            By alphabetical, do you mean sorted on the Epic Name or the Summary?

            Matt Doar added a comment - By alphabetical, do you mean sorted on the Epic Name or the Summary?

              kcichy Kamil Cichy (Inactive)
              c3678a055509 Leonardo Souto
              Affected customers:
              3 This affects my team
              Watchers:
              8 Start watching this issue

                Created:
                Updated:
                Resolved: