Feature Request: Inter-item threads or references

Charles Monk · Post by **Charles Monk** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:43 am

It sometimes happens that we have two issues which we later realise are related. Then we need to merge them somehow. I usually do this by closing one and writing "see issue 999", and then in issue 999 writing "see also issue 123", or something.

The opposite situation also arises: we might have one issue which we want to split into two. For example, a documentation feature request which we decide to handle as two tasks assigned to different people or milestones.

More frequently still, we have an old bug which we have marked as completed, but then a new issue is reported which we recognise as a new twist on the old problem. In this case, we could re-open the old bug, but that might have several pages of old material not relevant to the new case. What we usually do is to open an new bug and refer to the old one.

I'd like to suggest that this kind of inter-item referencing is explicitly supported by Dragnet. It would be good enough just to have a set of related items (hyperlinked), and it might be nicer still to have some way of optionally marking them as inbound or outbound references to indicate the pattern of provenance.

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:54 am

Dragnet supports link notation:

To provide a link to a specific item in Dragnet, type “item:” or “item ” and then the item ID number . . . you can also type “bug:” or “bug ” and the item ID number.

For example:

item:2325

item 2325

bug:2325

bug 2325

The item ID can be any bug in the Dragnet system and is not limited to a bug in the current project. The Item ID is found on the Item Details page title or in the Item ID column of item lists.

If you see a Link Notation, click on the link to access the specific item.

Does that help?

I can log a feature request for any additional functionality you'd like to see. Could you clarify what inbound/outbound reference might look like?

Charles Monk · Post by **Charles Monk** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 2:31 am

Yes, I've noticed the smart behaviour where item references become hyperlinks. That's useful, but if you want to create a reciprocal link between two items, you would need to go to the other item and add it there too.

The extended functionality I'm suggesting would require a link entity separate from the items themselves, so it would not appear in the details or comments of either item.

There could be a 'related items' list, with hyperlinked item numbers. See the attached mock-up.

I'm not really sure about whether it would be useful to distinguish inbound vs outbound references, or how to do it. The idea was just to be able to indicate that an issue arose from another, or that an issue was continued in another one.

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:22 am

Nice design!

I'll log this as a feature request for consideration in a future release.

Thanks for the suggestions.