Advanced Roadmaps plans display blank with Cannot read property categoryId of undefined error in the browser console
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
When loading some Plans, the screen begins to render and then finishes completely blank.
In the browser console, either of the following variations of the error is presented:
"Cannot read property 'categoryId' of undefined"
"TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'categoryId')"
"
Error: Unexpected issue status: x" (where x is a numeric ID)
Environment
Jira Data Center on version 8+.
Causes
There are multiple causes that can lead to these particular errors occurring in Advanced Roadmaps, such as duplicated issue keys, issues in invalid statuses, or a bug in the Color by feature.
To identify which cause you might be facing, use the "Diagnosis" section below.
Diagnosis
Cause 1 - Duplicated issue keys
The message "
Cannot read property 'categoryId' of undefined" is shown in the browser's console.When executing the following query on the Jira database you get results:
ℹ️ It should be empty under normal circumstances.
1 2 3 4 5SELECT p.pkey AS "Project Key", a.issuenum AS "Issue Num", a.id AS "Issue A ID", b.id AS "Issue B ID" FORM jiraissue a JOIN jiraissue b ON a.issuenum = b.issuenum AND a.project = b.project AND a.id < b.id JOIN project p ON a.project = p.id WHERE a.id IS NOT null;
Cause 2 - Issue in an invalid status
Either the message "
TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'categoryId')" or "Error: Unexpected issue status: x" (where x is a numeric ID), is shown in the browser's console.If your Plan has multiple sources, create a new temporary Plan, adding each source one at a time, to identify which one triggers the blank page.
After identifying the faulty source, review the workflows associated with the project of the faulty source.
Make a list of all statuses available for a given project (for example: 'To Do', 'In Progress', 'Done').
Using that list, now run a JQL to search for any issues in that particular project that are not within a valid status (for example "project = 'PROJ' AND status NOT IN ('To Do', 'In Progress', 'Done')").
1project = "<Affected project key>" AND status NOT IN ('<list of valid statuses>', ...)If any issues are found, proceed with the fix for cause 2.
Cause 3 - Color by: Status
If the message "Cannot read property 'categoryId' of undefined" is shown in the browser's console, and you have recently applied the "Color by: Status" customization in the Plan View Settings, you might be running into the known bug JSWSERVER-25036 - Color by Status breaks the plan, throws javascript error "Cannot read property 'categoryId' of undefined".
Solutions
Solution for cause 1
The solution is to fix the duplicates as advised in How to fix duplicate issue keys in Jira or to exclude the duplicate issues from the Plan's filter.
Solution for cause 2
Using the same search from the Diagnosis section, use the Bulk Change tool to transition all identified issues to a valid status.
Solution for cause 3
In this case, the Workaround is to Set the Color by option to None (which is the default value).
ℹ️ In some cases, setting a smaller browser window would allow the plan to load so that user can change the Color by option.
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