Customizing JIRA Issue Links

When uploading to JIRA, CaseComplete creates Issue Links between related items. By default, all links are identified generically as "relates to". In order to show the kind of relationship, you need to create custom link types in JIRA.

Here is an example with custom links in place. Without the customization, they would all be labeled as “relates to”, giving no indication of how each item is related to the issue being viewed.

To create custom link types in JIRA: click the administration Cog icon, select Issues, then select Issue Linking on the left side menu (depending on your version of JIRA, it may be Cog / System instead of Cog / Issues). Add the following Link Types:

Name	Outward Description	Inward Description
Children	children	parent
References	references	is referenced by
Issues	issues	is issue for
TestScenarios	test scenarios	is test scenario for
RefByID*	references by ID	is referenced by ID
RefByName*	references by name	is referenced by name

* Supported in CaseComplete version 2016 and later

When CaseComplete creates a JIRA link, it first looks for a link type in JIRA that matches the kind of relationship it's creating (it looks for the name from the table above, which must match exactly, including case). If found, it will use that entry, otherwise it uses the generic "relates to".

The outward and inward text is used to describe the relationship in each direction. Suggestions are shown above, but you may use any wording you like. The item that "owns" the relationship will show the outward description; the item that is being linked to will show the inward description. For example, a requirement will list its child requirements in a section named "children". The child requirement will list its parent in a section named "parent".

Three different reference types are supported:

• References: used for explicit references, for example from a use case to its referenced requirements and its primary and supporting actors.
• RefByID: used for ID links within an item’s description.
• RefByName: used for actors and definitions referenced by name in an item’s description.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• A link won’t be created unless both of the related items have been uploaded.
• You'll need administrator privileges to create custom link types.
• Custom link types apply to the system as a whole, not just the current project. End users will notice the new link types if they manually create a link.