Similar Issues

Owned by Deniz Oğuz
Last updated: Apr 11, 2023 by Gökçe Karaduman
4 min read



Server and Cloud Version Differences

Cloud version doesn't have all the features listed here. This is due to the insufficient APIs in Cloud version of Jira. Due to this, it is not possible to implement every functionality in Cloud version. Main differences are:

  • Cloud version has no real-time search when creating an issue

  • Cloud version has no service desk portal integration

  • Cloud version has no integration with global search box of Jira. It has it's own quick search box in "Similar Issues Tab"





The add-on attaches 4 main areas on JIRA UI, Issue Creation Dialog, Global Search on the top of JIRA UI, and View Issue Page. Each of these are explained below.

Issue Creation

Similar Issues Plugin performs a real-time background search on the JIRA to find out similar issues as soon as you start to write summary field of an issue. Found similar/duplicate issues are displayed below the summary field. Similarity search is also performed on description (only first line of description) of issues by default. From the plugin settings you can remove searching of description field or add new fields to be searched. Best matches are displayed on the top. Matching issue list updated in realtime as you continue to modify summary field. In addition to summary of the issue, issue type and issue key are also displayed. If issue is resolved it's key is displayed with strikethrough style.

Service Desk Portal

Same similar/duplicate real time search is also performed if a user tries to create a request on service desk portal. For this to work you need to explicitly configure issue types you want to enable on plugin settings. Otherwise search will not be performed on the portal page. 



Quick Search

You can perform a text search on all JIRA issues from the usual JIRA search bar on the top right corner. Just start writing an issues will be searched as yo type and results will be displayed below the search box. You can search with issue key too. If you press the enter after entering the search term, JIRA's own issue search page will be displayed. In other words you can continue to use this field with original functionality of JIRA. 

Similar Issues Panel

While working on an existing issue, we sometimes need quick access to similar issues and Similar Issues Plugin could also be a help here. Plugin adds a "Similar Issues" tab to issue's tab list and when you click on it, issues similar to currently viewed issues are displayed. Similar issues list is not loaded until you open the relevant tab, so plugin does not cause any delay in loading the page. From the plugin settings you can configure this panel to be displayed on the bottom of the issue or on the right of the issue. If you choose to display on the right, the panel is always displayed as long as an issue is displayed. Advantage of this mode is that similar issues are always shown to the user, so it is difficult to miss, but it means an extra search is performed every time an issue is displayed. Searching on JIRA is usually very fast and it should not be a problem normally. If you choose to display it on the bottom of the issue, a search is performed only if user selects the Similar Issues Panel. 



Issue Preview

On most search results you can also preview the issue by hovering on the small icon at the end of the issue summary. This will allow you to see fully formatted issue description without opening actual issue detail. This is  lot faster than opening the issue in a new tab. 

Since the aim of the add-on is preventing duplicates and finding similar issues the add-on also displays existing links between the current issue and found issues. On the similar issues tab, the current issue is the issue you are viewing. When searching by an issue key from the global search box, the current issue is the issue searched by the key. You can also create new links between the found issues and the current issue by selecting the link type from the context menu opened when you click on the link icon. 

On any search result you can use cursor keys to navigate between the search results. If you press 'Enter' on a line the issue will be opened in a new browser tab. This way you can search and navigate to an issue without moving your hands from the keyboard.