New to Jira and wanted to search for issues that are specific to you or your team?

This blog will help you to get started with the issue search in Jira with both BASIC and JQL.

Queries are referred as filters in Jira.

One must have “Browse Projects” permission to use issue filters.

You can just click on filters and then select View all filters; this will navigate you to all filters (org level).

You can also navigate to Filters, using search at the Jira home page (org level).

This will navigate to all the filters created over the org and you will have an option to create a New Filter

You can also navigate to issues from project home page by clicking on issues.

The only difference from Org level to Project level is that in project level we get the Project selected as current project.

As we are done with Navigation now let’s dig deep into Filter creation.

Firstly, we have two types of filters one is Basic and the other being JQL (Jira Query Language)

Basic Queries

For the Basic Filters you can select values available from the dropdowns

• Project will let you select one or multiple projects that you are part of.

• Type will let you select type of issues, one or more.

Note: Issue types are of two types, one is standard issue type other are sub task issue type.

• Standard issue types (Level 0) are generally Epic, Story, Task and Bug.
• Sub task issue types (Level -1) are usually Sub Tasks.
• If you have custom issue types, their type is added at the time of creation.

• Status will display all the statuses available from all the workflows.

• Assignee: under Assignee you will be able to select individual users or group users.
• Current User: will show issues assigned to current user. (this filter will let individual users see their own issues once they open the issue filter)
• Unassigned: will show issues that are not assigned to any users.

More option will let you add other filter options with respect to any field or a date criteria.

There are few options that I want to clarify on.

Apps: will let you open the filter result in Google Sheets or MS Excel.

Share will let you share the filter with users, It will share the filter link over mail.

Copy link will give you sharable link to filter.

Export issues will let you export the filter result in various formats.

List view will show the filter result in List format.

Detailed view will show the filter result in detailed format.

How to save a Filter?

You will see an option to save filter over the filters screen

Once you click on the save filter you will see below popup.

• Name will be the filter name with which you are going to save filter.
• Description is place where you can give some information of the filter.
• Viewers are the people to whom the filter is visible.
• Editors will be able to make modifications to the filter.

Under “Viewers and Editors” there are following options.

• Private: Only visible to creator.
• Project: Once you click on project then you will see list of projects and you will see roles.

• Group: will showcase groups inside the Org that you can choose from.
• User: will let you select individual users.
• My organization: Any logged in user into the Jira will be able to see the filter.

Once you select necessary the options then you can save the filter by clicking on Save.

Note: Please click on Add option once you select the values, if not the changes will not be saved.

This is how it shows once you add some option.

Once you save the filter, we can see filter details as shown below.

You can make changes to filter permissions from Edit permissions option.

How to edit Filters?

Once you make changes to any filter and click on search then you will see option to save filter. (Save filter option is not shown until you run the filter)

This is after making changes and not clicking on search, you will see option to copy filter only.

Once you click on the search you will see Save filter option.

Save changes will save the changes to the filter.

Save as a copy will let you create a new filter out of the changes that were made.

JQL Filter

Jira Query Language is flexible way to write filters in Jira.

For beginners you can write a filter in Basic and simply click on JQL to view the JQL filter.

And then you can start modifying the query.

Once you click on JQL the filter is converted to JQL as shown below.

The best part of JQL is predictive text, once you start typing something it will generate predictive options and help in writing the filter.

Using operators in JQL: Operators like =, !=, >, <, >=, <=, IN, NOT IN, IS, IS NOT, ~, !~ can be used in JQL filters.

Using functions in JQL: Functions provide additional capabilities to JQL queries. For example, project = “Sample Scrum Project” AND status changed AFTER startofDay(-1) will return all issues in ” Sample Scrum Project ” whose status changed since the start of yesterday.

Using ORDER BY clause in JQL: You can sort the results of your JQL query using the ORDER BY clause. For example, project = ” Sample Scrum Project ” ORDER BY priority DESC will return all issues in ” Sample Scrum Project “, sorted by priority in descending order.

Using the Advanced Search page: The Advanced Search page provides a user-friendly interface for creating complex JQL filters.

Below are the links for Advanced JQL Search

• JQL functions
• JQL developer status
• JQL fields
• JQL keywords
• JQL operators
• Search for Advanced Roadmaps custom fields in JQL

Note: you can convert any Basic Filter to JQL, just by clicking on the JQL tab.

But all JQL Filters cannot be converted into Basic Filters.

How to see saved filters?

Directly click on Filters it will show option to view Starred and All Filters.

To see filters at the Org level, click over search option and then click over Filters.

This will list all the filters.

Please note that if you do not have Browse Projects permission, you will not be able to see all the Filters.

At the project level, from the projects home page click over the issues.

Over the issues screen on the left panel, you will be able to see all the Starred Filters and you will also be able to see View all filters which will re-direct you to Org level filters page.

The below is how you star a filter.

How to delete a filter?

Click on View all filters.

On the righthand side corner for every query you see 3-elipses, if you click over that you see option to delete.

Subscribing to a filter

By subscribing to a filter, you can get the filter result over email on timely basis.

To subscribe to a filter, go to all filters and click on Manage subscriptions from the 3-elipses of the filter that you want to subscribe.

You will option to Add subscription.

Once you click on Add Subscription you will see the below popup.

I will walk through all the options.

Recipients: to whom the filter result show be shared, it is either personal subscription or to a Group.

Schedule: with what frequency the trigger should happen.

• Daily: interval for the trigger in a day.

We can also set time frame for the same, like 5AM to 5PM.

• Days per Week: on weekly basis.

Days per Month: we can set on what day of the month the trigger should happen.

Advanced: will give you an option for CRON expression.

Email this filter, even if there are no issues found: this will let the trigger happen even if no new issues are found.

Once you select all the necessary values you click on subscribe.

Conclusion:

To more about Jira software maintenance or administrating contact us. If you need assistance on Jira implementation or any guidance on Atlassian product suite, contact us at devopstools@ecanarys.com

Canarys is Atlassian Silver Solution Partner providing DevOps solutions using Atlassian, GitLab, GitHub, Azure DevOps, Kubernetes and other devops platforms for customers, covering over 30+ cities across India, APAC, and USA.