How to search for Epics with an empty Name or which Name is not matching the Issue Summary
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
The JQL search that comes with Jira out-of-the-box has some limitation when it comes to performing search using the Epic Name field. This article provides some suggestions on how to search for Epics for the 2 use cases listed below, which cannot be performed with the native JQL search:
Use Case 1: Searching for Epics for which the Epic Name field is empty
Use Case 1: Searching for Epics for which the Epic Name field does not match the Summary field
Solution
Environment
Jira Software Server/Data Center 8.0.0 and any higher version.
Use Case 1: Searching for Epics for which the Epic Name field is empty
Due to the bug https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-21533, it is currently not possible to search for issues of type Epic, for which the Epic Name field is empty. When using the following JQL query, it will not return any result even though there are issues which match this condition:
1
"Epic Name" is emptyFor this reason, to search for Epics which Epic Name field is empty, it will be necessary to use a different method. The workaround below provides a way to search for such Epics directly in the Jira Database.
Workaround
The following SQL query will search for issues of type Epic for which the Epic Name field is empty:
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select concat(concat(P.pkey,'-'),I.issuenum)
from jiraissue I
join project P on P.id = I.project
where issuetype = (select id from issuetype where pname = 'Epic')
AND I.id not in (
select issue from customfieldvalue
where customfield =
(
SELECT id from customfield
where customfieldtypekey = 'com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira:gh-epic-label'
)
);
Use Case 2: Searching for Epics for which the Epic Name field does not match the Summary field
The JQL functions that ship with Jira out-of-the-box do not include a way to perform field comparison. For this reason, our recommendation is to use a paid 3rd party add-on, which provides more advanced JQL query functions.
Workaround
Install the paid 3rd party add-on JQL Search Extensions for Jira - the JQL extensions in your Jira application, which comes with the JQL function fieldsHaveSameValue that can perform field comparison.
Once the add-on is installed, you can follow the steps below:
Open the Issue Search page in Jira
Run the following JQL query:
1issue not in fieldsHaveSameValue("summary", "Epic Name") and issuetype = Epic
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