Advanced Links is a powerful enhancement to the standard Jira linking functionality, designed to significantly improve issue management. This feature enables users to link Jira issues with advanced capabilities that go beyond the default linking options.

With Advanced Links, users can view any field of a linked issue directly from the parent issue view. It allows inline editing of custom fields and provides permission controls to manage access to linked issues. This feature also extends its advanced linking capabilities to the Customer Portal, ensuring a seamless and consistent experience across all platforms.

The integration of Advanced Links is seamless, as the link field operates as a custom field following the same logic and format as standard Jira fields. This ensures that users can quickly adopt and utilize the feature without a steep learning curve.

By leveraging Advanced Links, users can enhance their issue tracking and management processes, making it an invaluable tool for those managing assets and IT services in Jira.

Key functionalities of Advanced Links include:

• Multiple display styles for linked issues, offering flexibility in how information is presented.

• Control of what custom fields form a linked issue should be displayed.

• Inline editing of custom fields in linked issues.

• Permission management for linked issues

• Compatibility with the Customer Portal

Discover the enhanced linking capabilities of Advanced Links in Jira:

How to create an Advanced Link

Go to the app administration and choose “Advanced Links”. Click “Add Advanced Link” to open a create dialogue.

Open

Open

Advanced Link Name: a name to identify your Advanced Link.

From Type: field type of an outward issue link.

Outward Issue Link: imagine 2 issues A and B. The outward link in the direction from A → B.

To Type: field type of an inward issue link.

Inward Issue Link: the inward link in the opposite direction from B → A.

Link Color: the colour of your Advanced Link when they are displayed in Issue Graphs.

Set Screens

To make sure your Advanced Links are displayed you have to associate them with the screens for the related fields.

Advanced Link Configuration

Until now your Advanced Link is just an empty structure. We will fill it with data in the next step. Click on the inward/outward link names to proceed with the configuration:

Now choose “Edit STAGIL Assets Advanced Link”:

Data Logic

Fill in the Maximum Selection field with the number of issues you should allow to select in this field. You can type 1 for a single selection or any positive integer for multiple selections. Type 0 if you want a multi-select field with an unlimited selection.

Use JQL for the Selectable Issues field to set the scope of issues available for selection or check the box below to restrict results to issues of the current project.

Defining the Searching User will allow selected users to browse issues they do not have permission for.
With Out-of-Scope Strategy you can define the behaviour if some field values do not fit the JQL anymore. You can choose between “Keep until it is actively removed” by the user or “Remove on next update” automatically.

Display Style

By defining the display style you can configure the look of your Advanced Links in the issue view.

Panel: The position where your lookup panel should appear.

Display Style: table, list, table + pop-up, label + pop-up

Search Bar: Provides a search above your panel. Available options are JQL search or text search.

Display Fields: Fields that should be displayed in your panel.

Fields on Navigator: Fields that should be displayed in the issue navigator.

Fields on Pop-up: Fields that appear on the pop-up in case this option is selected above.

Add new: When you choose the display style "Table", you can allow users to create new assets directly at the table in the issue view. To enable this feature, please choose the project and the issue type that should be pre-selected in the create new issue screen that will appear after the user clicks on the small plus icon above the table.

Show key in edit/create screen: If you mark this checkbox you can see the summary and additionally the key of the related issue you have selected in the edit and the create a screen of your issue.

Example with key + summary (unchecking the option would only show “Start Enterprise”):

Show changes in issue history: If you select this checkbox the changes in an issue, like add or remove issue in relation to a custom field, will be shown in issue history.

Manage Advanced Links

To edit/create/delete Advanced Links you can use the overview page under app administration → STAGIL Assets → Advanced Links: