How can I remove the Epic Link field from a custom issue type?

[Alex Hadden-Boyd]

I have Jira and Portfolio.  I created an issue-type of Feature, and by using Parent Link, am able to have Epics as children of Features.  All good.  But one of my users managed to make a feature a child of an Epic.  So I want to disable the "Epic Link" field in the "Feature" issue-type.  Help!.

[Veera · Accepted solution]

@Alex Hadden-Boyd 

You need to remove "Epic Link" field from the screens being used by "Feature" issue type.

You can find the screens from Project Settings > Screens page.

If the same screen(s) are used by other issue types in your Project and you want to have "Epic Link" field in those issue types, you may need to create new copy of the screen(s), remove 'Epic Link' field and then associate them with 'Feature' issue type.

[Alex Hadden-Boyd]

Thank you @Veera   I created a new screen.  How do I associate that screen with only the "Feature" issue type in a project?

[Veera]

@Alex Hadden-Boyd 

Please refer to below document which explain how to associate a screen with an issue type.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiracloud/associating-screen-and-issue-operation-mappings-with-an-issue-type-776636504.html

[Jordan_Janis]

Hi @Alex Hadden-Boyd

I'm assuming your Portfolio hierarchy looks like Feature --> Epic --> Story.

Your issue did not happen because you had Parent Link and Epic Link on the Feature screen (though it is probably a good idea not to have Parent Link or Epic Link on the Feature screen since it can cause confusion).

Jira knows enough to enforce the issue type hierarchy you established in Portfolio.  So it will not allow you to pick an Epic in the Parent Link of a Feature.  For instance, you'll notice that in the Parent Link field of an Epic you will be able to select from Features.

Your problem was caused by someone changing the type of an issue AFTER the Parent Link field was set.  So either someone created an Epic, parented it to a Feature, and then changed the Epic to a Feature, or changed the parent Feature to an Epic.  In fact, they may have changed the original Epic to a Feature and the original Feature to an Epic.  Then it would appear that the Feature has an Epic parent.  You can check the issue history for both issues and see the change happen.  NOTE: it's possible they moved an issue from one project to another and during the move changed the issue type.

The root cause is that Jira retains the value in Parent Link even if you manipulate the issue types in ways that violate the Portfolio Hierarchy.  The frustrating part is that it's not so obvious.  That is, Jira is aware that the Parent Link is invalid if a Feature has a parent link to an Epic, or even another Feature.  So when you do an issue search and add the Parent Link column, any of these "invalid" parent links will be blank.  BUT, if you search for EMPTY parent links these same issues are not returned!  In other words, Jira treats them as non-EMPTY fields when search for EMPTY/not EMPTY but treats them as EMPTY when displaying them in the results.

You probably want to try to limit the ability of users to change the issue type of an issue by removing issue type from the edit screens of all issues.  Unfortunately there's not way to prevent it entirely as users can still use the move function, or bulk change tool to change the issue type.

There's a related suggestion submitted.  Maybe you can vote for it! https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JPOSERVER-2059

-jj