Links Hierarchy Reports

Name Links-hierarchy-reports
Version 0.7.2
Product Versions Tested on 3.7 / 3.12.2
Author(s) JC Huet / Pyxis technologies inc.
Homepage Links-hierarchy-reports
Price Free
License BSD
JavaDocs  
IssueTracking  
Download JAR links-hierarchy-reports-0.7.2.jar
Download Source links-hierarchy-reports src
Tested on Firefox 2.0 and IE 7.0
Best viewed with Firefox
Plug and play!
No configuration needed!
Other Plugin:
GreenHopper - Innovative and Intuitive Management tool for Atlassian's JIRA Bug Tracking, Issue Tracking, & Project Management.
GreenHopper 3.0.1 is now available for download!.
See the complete release notes!

Description/Features

Interactive (AJAX) Hierarchical view of linked issues.
This plugin is an interactive hierarchical view of linked Issues based on a selected link type.

Two views are packaged:

  • The Organogram (box and arrows)
  • The Tree view (a classic)

A progress bar by hierarchy is also displayed.
The bar is based on Open versus Resolved (closed) Issues.

Two types of reports are packaged:

You will be able to:

  1. Link issues
  2. Break links between Issues
  3. Bulk edit the Issues hierarchy
  4. Change the status of the issue
  5. Toggle from versions hierarchy to issues hierarchy.


Check out the screen shots for a good overview or see it in action.

Prerequisits:

1. Link Hierarchy Report For Versions

This report provides a hierarchical view of issues of a project for a specific version based on a specific link type.

Mandatory inputs

  • Version name
    Name of the targeted version.
  • Link Type
    The link type to build the hierarchy on.

Optional inputs

  • Include subtasks
    Will consider the subtasks as Inward linked issues. Default --> true
  • Show orphans
    Display or not the orphans (Unlinked issues). Default --> true
  • Theme
    Theme of the Issue cells. Default --> Default
  • Display as a
    Selects a hierarchy view (Tree or Organogram). Default --> Organgram

2. Link Hierarchy Report For Issues

This report provides a hierarchical view of an issue based on a specific link type.
Note that, Issues displayed in this Hierarchy are not limited to a single version.

Mandatory inputs

  • Issue Key
    Key of the targeted issue.
  • Link Type
    The link type to build the hierarchy on.

Optional inputs

  • Include subtasks
    Will consider the subtasks as Inward linked issues. Default --> true
  • Theme
    Theme of the Issue cells. Default --> Default

To prevent death loops, this report detects Recursions.

3. Themes

The issue cells in the hierarchy view are decorated by a theme.
The default theme packaged with this plugin provides the ability to:

  •   Link issues Smart issue linker (Detects simple recursion and self-linkage).
    This operation will be offered if the user has Permission to link issues.
  •   Change the status of an issue (Based on the available workflow actions of the issue)
    The list of actions will be set base on the actual status, the workflow scheme and user Permissions.
  •   Refocus the hierarchy on a specific issue.
    The issue becomes the targeted Issue (in yellow).
  •   Bulk Edit the hierarchy.
    From the targeted Issue you may trigger a bulk edit for its whole hierarchy.

In all themes

  • Clicking on the branches () will permit you to break the links if you have Permission to do so.
  • You can retrieve the Version Hierarchy of all the fixed versions of an issue by clicking the icon () next to the version name in the issue cell.

4. Pluggable Themes

This plugins comes with a service where you can register your own custom theme.
You will need to implement a class that extends IssueCellTheme and register it to the theme service.
Methods to implement:

  • getHeaderView(): Will provide the header view (Velocity view).
  • getLinksView(): Will provide the links view on top of the hierarchy view (Velocity view).

Here is an example of a good way to register your theme preventing clashes if this plugin is'nt installed.

try
{
  Class reportServiceClass = Class.forName("com.pyxis.jira.report.services.HierarchyReportService");
  Object reportServiceObject = ComponentManager.getComponentInstanceOfType(reportServiceClass);
  Method registerTheme = reportServiceClass.getMethod("registerTheme", String.class, String.class);
  registerTheme.invoke(reportServiceObject, "My Theme Name", "package.MyTheme");
}
catch (Exception e) 
{
  //handle if needed
}

You can see an example of a custom theme here in the GreenPepper plugin for JIRA.

Usage

Install the plugin by downloading the plugin JAR. Place the downloaded JAR file to <JIRA>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/lib folder and restart JIRA.
You should now see two additional reports in the project Reports section. Enjoy!

Todo

  • This plugin supports internalization but only comes with the English resource bundle. Other languages should be provided.
  • When breaking links the right hand part is not redrawn in some cases in the version hierarchy. Need to support it.
  • The hierarchy view shows all links regardless the viewable restrictions. Might want to filter them.
  • Added links will be viewable by all user groups. Might want to add the viewable by option.
  • Simple workflow actions like "Start" and "Stop" are AJAXED might want the same for the other actions.
  • Support multiple link types selection (Hierarchy based on a single link type but for all selected link types)

Version History

Version Release date state Comments
0.7.1 Feb 1st 2008 Stable none
0.6 May 12th 2007 Stable Release Candidate

Screenshots

Lots of screen shots ...
Maybe to much, but I found them pretty neat

You can now also see the plugin at work:

N.B: The Permissions are restricted. You will only be able to toggle from Views.

Labels

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  1. May 08, 2007

    Marcel Henning says:

    Hi folks, &nbsp;on which JVM did you test on? i get the following error message,...

    Hi folks,

     on which JVM did you test on? i get the following error message, when jira was trying to load the plugin.
    We are using: 1.4.2_05


    Links Hierarchy Reports

    Beschreibung: Provides Links Hierarchy Reports for a specific Issue or a Project Version.
    *Vendor:*Pyxis technologies inc.
    Plugin Version: 0.2
    Jira Version: 0.0

    Version Link Hierarchy Report (pyxis.hierarchy.report.version)

    *Error:*There was a problem loading the descriptor for module 'report' in plugin 'Links Hierarchy Reports'. Class version is incompatible with current JVM: com.pyxis.jira.report.links.VersionHierarchyReport

    1. May 08, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Yes sorry, i forgot to specify that you will need a JVM 1.5 and above. If that ...

      Yes sorry, i forgot to specify that you will need a JVM 1.5 and above.
      If that causes too much trouble I might port the plugin to 1.4 compatibility.
      Thanks.

      1. May 08, 2007

        Jonathan Nolen says:

        We still allow people to run JIRA on 1.4, so it would be a good idea to allow th...

        We still allow people to run JIRA on 1.4, so it would be a good idea to allow the plugin to run at that level as well. A backport would be terrific if it is not difficult.

        1. May 10, 2007

          Jean-Christophe Huet says:

          (/)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Back ported to JVM 1.4

             Back ported to JVM 1.4

          1. Sep 06, 2007

            tina zhang says:

            When I use JDK1.5.010 or JDK1.4.207, the plugin still cannot be loaded, I also g...

            When I use JDK1.5.0_10 or JDK1.4.2_07, the plugin still cannot be loaded, I also get the following error message:

             Btw, my JIRA version is Enterprise Edition 3.10.1

            JIRA Issue Links Report Plugin

            Description: Issue Links Report
            *Vendor:*Wojciech Seliga
            Plugin Version: 1.0
            Jira Versions: 3.6 - 4.0

            Issue Links Matrix (issue-links-matrix-report)
            i18n description
            *Error:*There was a problem loading the descriptor for module 'report' in plugin 'JIRA Issue Links Report Plugin'. Class version is incompatible with current JVM: org.issuelinksreport.IssueLinksMatrixReport

  2. May 09, 2007

    Bettina Zucker says:

    Hello, maybe it is interesting to you to hear that the performance dropped signi...

    Hello,

    maybe it is interesting to you to hear that the performance dropped significantly from version 0.2 to 0.3.

    The status bar needs so much time to be computed, that I fear my users will not accept the plugin. It's too slow!

    I tested it on a 3 Level hierarchy, with just 7 issues in the tree.

    Cheers

    Bettina 

    1. May 09, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Hi Bettina, Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it. It surprises me ...

      Hi Bettina,

      Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it.
      It surprises me though. I didn't add any logic (server side) for the progress bar. It is a simple bar that is notified every time that an issue cell is displayed. It shouldn't affect the performance.
      My test environment is based on a Project with 3 versions and about 20 issues in each. The Level hierarchy can go up to 10 and JIRA displays the Version and the Issue Hierarchy reports within a blink of the eye.
      What I think your experience was, is that you freshly started your JIRA and directly went to display your Hierarchy. That may take some time indeed; JIRA needs to cache views and other stuff, but once accessed it should be a charm.

      Although I will push the performance test further.
      I'll keep you informed.

      Cheers and thanks again.

  3. May 09, 2007

    Matt Doar says:

    Nice plugin, but I agree with Bettina, it's really slow the first time the repor...

    Nice plugin, but I agree with Bettina, it's really slow the first time the report is run, but it seemed ok after that.

    Sometimes people don't know which links they want, so an All option might be useful, or at least display the inbound and outbound text that goes with each link type as a reminder?

    "organigram" is a bit odd (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-org1.htm), perhaps "View tree horizonatlly"?

    ~Matt

    1. May 10, 2007

      Bettina Zucker says:

      You are right, Matt, it's only the first time the plugin ist started in my brows...

      You are right, Matt,

      it's only the first time the plugin ist started in my browser (Firefox). The second time it works fast.

      On Internet explorer it does not work at all though!

       Cheers

      Bettina 

      1. May 10, 2007

        Jean-Christophe Huet says:

        (/)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Fixed in version 0.5 cheers.

           Fixed in version 0.5

        cheers.

    2. May 16, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Yeah, I might have changed Organigram to Organogram a bit to fast (lol), after r...

      Yeah, I might have changed Organigram to Organogram a bit to fast (lol), after reading the article. I will ask a good old English teacher for a good hint on this one before I make another mistake ...

  4. May 10, 2007

    Jean-Christophe Huet says:

    Hey Matt, Ok I followed your advise. First I change Organigram (Stolen from Fre...

    Hey Matt,

    Ok I followed your advise.
    First I change Organigram (Stolen from French) to Organogram.
    Then I added a legend for each Hierarchy as a reminder of witch LinkType was used.
    I also included in the LinkType selection (in the Input page) the inward and outward descriptions.

    As for the Performance I double checked and its only when you access the Page for the first time after a JIRA restart, exactly like the first dashboard access after a restart. So the waiting will be experienced only once by the first user on a JIRA startup. Then I think that the response is more then reasonable.

    Cheers,

  5. May 11, 2007

    Marcel Henning says:

    Is it possible to have this plugin evaluate every type of link? So i can select ...

    Is it possible to have this plugin evaluate every type of link? So i can select some or all available link types for the organogram?

     Gerd

    1. May 11, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Hi Gerd, I am not to sure if you are asking for: 1) A single hierarchy based on...

      Hi Gerd,

      I am not to sure if you are asking for:
      1) A single hierarchy based on multiple link types or
      2) All Hierarchies based on a single link type for multiple link types.

      Yaks I hope I didn't loose you, I almost did myself.

      In the first case:
      When I first started the plugin, this was exactly my goal, to support multiple links but I quickly realized that to draw the Hierarchies graphically was a brain teaser that so far I didn't resolve in a comprehensive and simple way. If you have any suggestion feel free to pass it over.

      In the second case:
      Yes it is more then feasible but the Codegeist deadline being Sunday I don't think I will have the time to implement it. I did add it in the TODO's section though.

      JC

  6. May 15, 2007

    Marcel Henning says:

    Hi JC, &nbsp;i think #1 is what i meant. :) Suppose Issue A123 hat 3 links to ot...

    Hi JC,

     i think #1 is what i meant.

    Suppose Issue A-123 hat 3 links to other issues. But each link with a different link-type. It would be great to see all of the other 3 issues in one hirachie with issue A-123 in the middle. That would be fantastic!!! Even if it does not make the codegeist-deadline, your plugin is one of my favourites.

    Cheers,

    Gerd

    1. May 15, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Thanks Gerd !!! I totally agree with you, multiple links in a single hierarchy ...

      Thanks Gerd !!!

      I totally agree with you, multiple links in a single hierarchy would be fantastic but graphically it could be a nightmare.

      Taking your example for instance:
      Issue A-123 has 3 different inward links to issue-1, issue-2 and issue-3.
      The nightmare starts when Issue A-123 has an outward link from one of these issues.
      It starts very quickly to be confusing.

      I'm pretty sure a solution is out there though.

      Cheers,

  7. May 23, 2007

    Henri Yandell says:

    Very nice JeanChristophe. At first I wasn't sure what the value of the plugin wo...

    Very nice Jean-Christophe. At first I wasn't sure what the value of the plugin would be, despite looking very nice, but visualizing all the duplicates, or getting a feel for subtasks in a project definitely feels good.

    I'd be tempted to change the defaults so it doesn't show orphans by default and does the Tree View by default.

    1. May 23, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Thanks Henri, Really appreciated your feedback. Yeah I also think that the plu...

      Thanks Henri,

      Really appreciated your feedback.
      Yeah I also think that the plugin adds a value. Actually in JIRA it find it very difficult to have a global picture or even manage the issue linkage.
      I do agree with you on the default for orphans as for the tree view well it wasn't a business requirement, I just wanted to show off the Organization graph

      Thanks again,

  8. May 23, 2007

    Martin Veillette says:

    Hi JC, Just really GREAT ... &nbsp;You're the best \!\! &nbsp;Mat

    Hi JC,

    Just really GREAT ...

     You're the best !!

     Mat

    1. May 23, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Hey mat, Plugin being great, I follow you on that. Me being the best ... I wish...

      Hey mat,

      Plugin being great, I follow you on that.
      Me being the best ... I wish ... but I will take it as a compliment.

      Cheers,

  9. May 25, 2007

    Simon Taylor says:

    First of all let me say that is by far and away the BEST plugin that there is fo...

    First of all let me say that is by far and away the BEST plugin that there is for JIRA for our usage of it.

    We recently implemented a structure in JIRA which allows us to capture Requirements in one project (with a focus on quality and process) which is then linked out to N number of other technology domain projects in which the work gets done to implement/satisfy the requirement. So for any one requirement we can have links into 10+ projects satisfy it. Immediately we were looking at developing some functionality which aggregated status up through the "linkage" hierarchy, imagine our delight when we discovered this plugin - it does this and so much more.

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

    Can you let me have your thoughts on the possibility of extending this plugin to do the following:-

    1. Export a link hierarchy out to Excel/XML. What we find ourselves doing is providing an update out to management and they oft like to see the detail of the blockers down through the chain. One way we were considering doing this was via a field on all issues that relate it back to the requirement - but it would be so much neater to leverage the link hierarchy to do so.
    2. Summarised Organogram - It would be useful to just have a minimised view that showed status, id and desc in a smaller box to fit more on the screen
    3. Organogram/Tree Add Comment - I find myself viewing the hierarchy and then having to drill into the issue to add a comment
    4. Organogram PDF Generation - it would be useful to package it up and sent it out
    5. Tree/Organogram - Display Aggregated Time Remaining

    Thanks once again

    Simon 

    1. May 27, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Thanks Simon, Once again really appreciated. All your above needs would be real...

      Thanks Simon,

      Once again really appreciated.
      All your above needs would be really easy to integrate in this plugin.
      I will surely take some time in a bit, to upgrade the plugin to meet a maximum of
      requested features.

      Cheers,

    2. Aug 20, 2007

      Kevin James says:

      Hi Simon, We've actually been considering just such a setup for capturing Requir...

      Hi Simon,

      We've actually been considering just such a setup for capturing Requirements in our development environment.  How's that working out for you?  Is your team associating test cases with these Requirements somehow?

  10. Jun 05, 2007

    Vincent Eggen says:

    I've just started evaluating it, and let me join my feedback to the previous con...

    I've just started evaluating it, and let me join my feedback to the previous congratulations: it's a great plugin. It's a good job covering by far one of the most expected improvement.

    One quick improvement: having a Link Hierarchy Report For Filter

    Why ? One example: we are using Jira to track code merge operations between fixes and dev releases, making clones of Jira issues merged on other branch.

    None of the current reports can answer to the following question : taking a given release content, what are the clones assigned to other releases ?

    Just my cents

    Thanks for your work

    Vincent

    1. Jul 31, 2007

      JP Patrikainen says:

      Hi JeanChristophe, I also would like to have this Link Hierarchy Report For Filt...

      Hi Jean-Christophe,

      I also would like to have this Link Hierarchy Report For Filter improvement.

      Basically we need this kind of functionality for following purpose.
      - We have New Features in JIRA
      - We have manually run Test Cases for those also in JIRA

      We have links between those, but we do not have possibility to get tree view where is features and test cases which tests those features.

      Thank you for this plugin
      -JP

      1. Aug 27, 2007

        Wojciech Seliga says:

        Hello, You may also take a look on another plugin JIRA Issue Links Report Plugi...

        Hello,

        You may also take a look on another plugin JIRA Issue Links Report Plugin, which I finally had time to release. Maybe it will address your requirements.

        Regards,

        Wojtek

  11. Jun 06, 2007

    Tibor Hegyi says:

    Hi JeanChristophe, First of all I join others to thank you for the plugin. It i...

    Hi Jean-Christophe,

    First of all I join others to thank you for the plugin. It is really cool.

    Second, I would like to mention that with a slight modification to the Issue Link panel of the Issue Details page, everyone can enable a one-click access to the Link Hierarchy Report For Issues graph for each link types used in the current issue. I amended the "view_linking.jsp" and transformed the link type name to be hyperlinks to open the graph.

    This is very handy as you can explore the issue link hierarchy right from the issue details screen without having to open the report configuration page and enter the issue key first.

    Alternatively, it is also possible to modify the link panel to directly open the report configuration page with the issue key pre-filled.

    Cheers,
    Tibor

    1. Jun 11, 2007

      Jean-Christophe Huet says:

      Hey guys, Thank you all for the positive and generous feedbacks. I have to say,...

      Hey guys,

      Thank you all for the positive and generous feedbacks. I have to say, I was really honored and a bit overwhelmed to be awarded.

      I am currently rushed at work, but as soon as I have a few moments for me I will enhanced the plugin. I have pretty neat ideas and improvements to implement. Stay tuned !

      JC

  12. Jun 15, 2007

    Marcel Henning says:

    Hi Christoph, your current Version 0.6 works (again) only with JVM 1.5 could you...

    Hi Christoph,

    your current Version 0.6 works (again) only with JVM 1.5 could you make it also work with 1.4?

    Thanks a lot!

    1. Jun 27, 2007